英国文学笔记总结
英国文学笔记
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After success of A Tale of Two Cites, his reputation was great. His concern for the oppressed poor, his sentiment (which sometime slipped into sentimentality), his flair for narrative, often melodramatic, and above all, his invention of comic character, combined to make him more popular than any other English novelist has ever been.
Master Humphrey’s Clock
In 1840 Dickens began a weekly paper, Master Humphrey’s Clock, patterned on Spectator and Tatler. The reader’s interests were less in the familiar essays than in the stories which Dickens was providing; gradually the paper became only the framework for the publication of two novels: the Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge. Barnaby Rudge is his first historical novel.
英国文学选读笔记重点
英国文学选读笔记重点一、引言英国文学是世界文学的重要组成部分，其丰富的历史背景、独特的文化传统和卓越的文学成就使其在世界文学史上占有重要地位。
在英国文学选读中，我们不仅可以欣赏到众多杰出的文学作品，还可以深入了解英国的历史、文化和社会背景。
二、重点作家及其作品莎士比亚莎士比亚是英国文学史上最伟大的作家之一，他的作品包括《哈姆雷特》、《奥赛罗》、《罗密欧与朱丽叶》等。
莎士比亚的作品具有深刻的思想内涵和卓越的艺术表现力，是英国文学的经典之作。
简·奥斯汀简·奥斯汀是英国19世纪著名的女性作家，她的作品如《傲慢与偏见》、《理智与情感》等，以细腻的人物描写和精湛的心理分析而著称。
她的作品反映了当时英国社会的风俗习惯和道德观念，具有很高的社会价值。
狄更斯狄更斯是19世纪英国最著名的现实主义作家之一，他的作品如《双城记》、《雾都孤儿》等，以对社会问题的深刻揭示和对人性的深刻剖析而著称。
他的作品反映了当时英国社会的贫困、不公和阶级斗争，具有很高的社会意义。
三、重点主题爱情与婚姻爱情与婚姻是英国文学中的重要主题之一。
在许多作品中，作者通过描写爱情与婚姻的关系，探讨了人性的复杂性和生活的真谛。
例如，在简·奥斯汀的作品中，她通过对婚姻的思考，揭示了当时英国社会对婚姻的看法和期望。
社会问题社会问题是英国文学中的另一个重要主题。
许多作家通过描写社会问题，揭示了当时社会的矛盾和冲突。
例如，在狄更斯的作品中，他通过对贫困、不公和阶级斗争的描写，揭示了当时英国社会的种种问题。
人性与命运人性与命运是英国文学中的永恒主题。
许多作家通过描写人性的复杂性和命运的无常，探讨了人生的意义和价值。
例如，在莎士比亚的作品中，他通过对人性的深刻剖析和对命运的无奈揭示了人生的无常和无奈。
四、结语英国文学选读是了解英国文化和历史的重要途径之一。
通过对英国文学的学习和研究，我们可以更好地理解英国的历史、文化和社会背景，同时也可以提高我们的审美能力和文化素养。
英国文学史期末复习笔记
英美文学史期末复习笔记英国美国1.伊丽莎白时期的文学 1.殖民地时期文学2.17世纪和18世纪的文学 2.浪漫主义文学3.浪漫主义时期 3.现实主义文学4.维多利亚时期 4.自然主义文学5.20世纪的小说与诗歌 5.20世纪20年代的诗歌与小说6.二战后的诗歌 6.二战后的诗歌与小说7.二战后的小说7.美国戏剧梳理8.少数族裔文学1.Definition of epicAn epic is a long narrative poem.2.Geoffrey Chaucer(1340-1400)杰弗里。
乔叟the father of English poetry(literature) 英国文学之父the heroic couplet 英雄双韵体：a verse unit consisting of two rhymed(押韵)lines in iambic pentameter(五步抑扬格)AA BB CC DD EE代表作:The Canterbury Tales 坎特伯雷的故事（英国文学史的开端）文艺复兴时期The Renaissance(1500-1660)1.the definition of RenaissanceRenaissance first rose in Italy in the 14th century and came to a flowering in the 15th and then in the 16th century it spread to other countries, notably France and thence to Germany and England and Spain and the other countries.核心：humanism ：admire human beauty and human achievement.文艺复兴三杰：达芬奇，米开朗琪罗，拉斐尔2.William Shakespeare(1564-1616)He is actor, playwright;totally 37 playsFour great tragedies:Hamlet (哈姆雷特)Othello(奥赛罗)King Lear(李尔王)Macbeth(麦克白)Four great comedies:The Merchant of Venice 《威尼斯商人》A Midsummer Night’s Dream 《仲夏夜之梦》As You Like It 《皆大欢喜》Twelfth night 《第十二夜》Ben Johson dedicated a poem in praise of him:“…Soul of the age.He was not of an age, but for all time”.3.Sonnet(十四行诗）Sonnet is a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length: iambic(抑扬格的) pentameters（五步格诗）in English. The English sonnet (also called the Shakespearen sonnet after its foremost practitinoner) comprises three quatrains (四行诗)and a final couplet（对句），rhyming ababcdcdefef. An important variant of this is the Spenserian sonnet (introduced by Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser ), which links the three quatrains by rhyme, in the sequence ababbabccdcdee. In either form, the turn comes with the final couplet, which may sometimes achieve the neatness of an epigram.4.metaphysical poetry(玄学派诗歌）The term “metaphysical poetry”is commonly used to name the work of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne.Metaphysical poets tried to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry. The name given to a diverse group of 17th-century English poets whose work is notable for its ingenious (精致的)use of intellectual and theological concepts in surprising conceits(幻想), strange paradoxes, and far-reaching imagery, argumentative abruptness of rhythm and tone distinguishes his style from the conventions of Elizabethan love lyrics. T.S Eliot and others revived their reputation, stressing their quality of wit, in the sense of intellectual strenuousness and flexibility rather than smart humor.Its main features:①the diction is simple②The imagery is drawn from the actual life③The form is frequently that of an argument with the poet’s beloved, with God, or with himself.5.John Donne(1572-1631)View of poetry: A blend of emotion and intellectual ingenuity, characterized by conceit or "wit".The most striking feature of Donne’s poetry is its tang of reality, in the sense that it seems to reflect life in a real rather than a poetical world.Special features: Conceits;wit;imagery;dramatic and conversational style.代表作：the flea《跳蚤》6.Francis Bacon(1561-1626)He is the precursor of materialism英国唯物主义的始祖（马克思和恩格斯语）；also the founder of modern science；the first British essayist.作品：Essays《随笔》(of studies is the most famous one of them)7.John MiltonDefense for the English People为英国人辩护;blank verse 素体诗作品：Paradise Lost失乐园Paradise Regained复乐园18世纪的启蒙主义文学1.the definition of enlightenmentA general term applied to the movement of intellectual liberation that develop in Western Europe from the late 17th Century to the late 18th century.(the period is often called the Age of Reason), especially in France and Switzerland.The enlightenment culminated(使达到顶峰) with the writings of Jeans-Jacques Rousseau and the Encyclopedia（百科全书）, the philosophy of Immanuel(以马内利，基督的别称) Kant, and the political ideas of the American and French Revolutions while the forerunners in science and philosophy included Bacon, Descartes, Newton, and Locke. Its central idea was the need and the capacity of human reason to clearaway ancient superstition, prejudice, dogma and injustice.Literary features:①Classicism: As a critical term, classicism is a body of doctrine thought to be derived from or to reflect the qualities of ancient Greek and Roman culture, particularly in literature, philosophy, art, or criticism. Classicism stands for certain definite ideas and attitudes, mainly drawn from the critical utterances of the Greek and Romans or developed through an imitation of ancient art and literature. ②Neoclassicism:it emphasized the classical artistic ideals of order, logic, proportion, restrained emotion, accuracy, good taste and decorum.③Sentimentalism came into being as the result of a bitter discontent among the enlightened people with social reality.4 Pre-romanticism: In the latter half of the 18th century, a new literary movement arose in Europe, called the Romantic Revival. It was marked by a strong protest against the bondage of Classicism, by a recognition of the claims of passion and emotion, and by a renewed interest in medieval literature. In England this movement showed itself in the trend of Pre-romanticism.Gothic novel is its most manifest expression.2.John Locke(1632-1704)one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers ;considered one of the first of the British empiricists经验主义者, following the tradition of Francis Bacon; best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer《荷马史诗》;He is the third most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations,after Shakespeare and Tennyson.3.Daniel Defoe(1661-1731)代表作：The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (英国文学史第一部小说)Moll Flanders《摩尔. 佛兰德斯》Robinson Crusoe celebrates the 18th-century Western civilization’s material triumphs and the strength of human rational will to conquer the natural environment. Robinson, apparently, is cast as a typical 18th-century middle-class tradesman, the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist.The hero is practical, diligent, shrewd, courageous and intelligent to overcome all kinds of obstacles. In another sense, Robinson is Everyman struggling to master nature.This novel is the representative of the English bourgeoisie at the earlier stages of its development.4.Jonathan Swift(1667-1745)乔纳森.斯威夫特作品：Gulliver’s Travels《格列佛游记》A Tale of a Tub 《木桶的故事》The Battle of Books 《书战》A Modest Proposal 《一个小小的建议》His writing features : Swift defines a good style as “proper words in proper places”. His language is always precise, simple, clear, vigorous as well as economical and concise.He is also a master satirist.5.Henry Fielding(1707-1754)The father of modern fiction(现代小说之父)代表作：《约瑟夫·安德鲁》Joseph Andrews《汤姆·琼斯》Tom Jones6.Oliver Goldsmith’s(1730-1774)代表作：The Vicar of Wakefield威克菲尔德的牧师The Deserted Village 荒村浪漫主义时期English Romanticism(1798-1830)1.the definition of RomanticismIt is generally said to have began in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth & Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads《抒情歌谣集》and to have ended in 1832 with Sir Walter Scott’s death and the passage of the first Reform Bill《改革法案》in the Parliament. English Romanticism is a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason. The French Revolution of 1789-1794 and the English Industrial Revolution exert great influence on English Romanticism.Romanticists show in their works their profound dissatisfaction with the social reality and their deep hatred for any political tyranny, economic exploitation and any form of oppression, feudal or bourgeois. In the realm of literature, they revol t against reason, rules, regulation, objectivity, common senses, etc. and emphasize the value of feelings, intuition, freedom, nature, subjectivism, individuality, originality, imagination, etc.2.two schools of Romanticism①The lake poets湖畔派诗人（escapist romanticists）：William Wordsworth华兹华斯, Samuel Taylor Coleridge柯勒律治and Robert Southey骚塞.They three were known as Lake Poets because they lived and knew one another in the last few years of the 18th century in the district of the great lakes in Northwestern England.②The Satanic school撒旦派（active romanticists):Byron, Shelly, and Keats.3.William Blake(1757-1827)十九世纪英国浪漫派诗人、画家、雕刻家作品：Songs of Experience《经验之歌》Songs of Innocence《天真之歌》The Marriage of Heaven and Hell《天堂与地狱的婚姻》The Chimney Sweeper《扫烟囱的孩子》The Lamb《羊羔》4.Robert Burns（1759-1796）（苏格兰著名农民诗人）作品：“A Red, Red Rose”《红红的玫瑰》5.William Wordsworth(1770-1850)He focused on the nature, children, the poor, common people, in his poem, he aimed at simplicity and purity of the language, so he used ordinary words to express his personal feelings.1843年获得桂冠诗人(Laureate)称号代表作：The Daffodils《水仙花》The Solitary Reaper《孤独的收割者》6.George Gordon Byron（1788-1824）Influence:(to world)Byron has enriched European poetry with an abundance of ideas, images, artistic forms & innovations. He stands with Shakespeare & Scott among the British writers who exert the greatest influence over the mainland of Europe.(to china)His revolutionary zeal and democratic ideals, as shown in his stirring lyricThe Isles of Greece and Childe Harold, strongly impressed the Chinese youth who were then waging struggles to overthrow the old feudal system.代表作Don Juan《唐璜》, 1818-1823When we two parted《当我们分手》She walks in beauty《她走在美的光彩中》Byronic hero：a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers,unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies.(fiery passions unbending will, ideal of freedom, against tyranny(专制统治)and injustice, lonely fighters individualistic ends)7.Percy Bysshe Shelley（1792-1822）代表作：Ode To The West Wind《西风颂》Queen Mab 《麦布女王》8.John Keats（1795—1821）代表作：Ode to An Nightingale《夜莺颂》(“美即是真，真即是美”Beauty is truth, truth is beauty.是他的著名诗句。
英国文学简史 笔记整理
长篇小说：The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews,and of His Friend Mr Abraham Adams约瑟·安德鲁传;The Life of Mr Jonathan Wild the Great大伟人江奈生·魏尔德传;The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling汤姆·琼斯;Amelia阿美利亚
Christopher Marlowe克里斯托夫。马洛
Tamburlaine铁木耳大帝Dr.Faustus浮士德的悲剧The Jew of Malta马耳他的犹太人The Passionate Shepherd多情的牧羊人致情人
William Shakespeare莎士比亚1564-1616
The Tempest暴风风雨;The Two Gentlemen of Veronaz维罗纳二绅士;The Mercy Wives of Windsor温莎的风流妇人;Measure for Measure恶有恶报;The Comedy of Errors错中错;Much Ado about Nothing无事自扰;Love’s Labour’s Lost空爱一场;A Midsummer Night’s Dream仲夏夜之梦;The Merchant of Venice威尼斯商人;As You Like It如愿;The Taming of the Shrew驯悍记;All’s Well That Ends Well皆大欢喜;Twelfth Night第十二夜;The Winter’s Tale冬天的故事;The Lifeand Death of King John/Richard the Second/Henry the Fifth/Richard the Third约翰王/理查二世/亨利五世/理查三世;The First/Second Part of King Henry the Fourth亨利四世（上、下）;The First/Second/Third Part of King Henry the Sixth亨利六世（上、中、下）;The Life of King Henry the Eighth亨利八世；Troilus and Cressida脱爱勒斯与克莱西达;The Tragedy of Coriolanus考利欧雷诺斯;Titus Andronicus泰特斯·安庄尼克斯;Romeo and Julet罗密欧与朱丽叶；Timon of Athens雅典的泰门;The Life and Death of Julius Caesar;朱利阿斯·凯撒；The Tragedy of Macbeth麦克白;The Tragedy of Hamlet哈姆雷特/王子复仇记;King Lear李尔王;Othello奥塞罗;Antony and Cleopatra安东尼与克利欧佩特拉;Cymbeline辛白林;Pericles波里克利斯;Venus and Adonis维诺斯·阿都尼斯;Lucrece露克利斯;The Sonnets十四行诗
英国文学笔记
Chapter1 The Renaissance period（14世纪至十七世纪中叶）文艺复兴1. Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.人文主义是文艺复兴的核心。
2. The Greek and Roman civilization was based on such a conception that man is the measure of all things.人文主义作为文艺复兴的起源是因为古希腊罗马文明的基础是以“人”为中心，人是万物之灵。
3. Renaissance humanists found in then classics a justification to exalt human nature and came to see that human beings were glorious creatures capable of individual development in the direction of perfection, and that the world they inhabited was theirs not to despise but to question, explore, and enjoy.人文主义者们却从古代文化遗产中找到充足的论据，来赞美人性，并开始注意到人类是崇高的生命，人可以不断发展完善自己，而且世界是属于他们的，供他们怀疑，探索以及享受。
4. Thomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best representatives of the English humanists.托马斯.摩尔，克利斯朵夫.马洛和威廉.莎士比亚是英国人文主义的代表。
5. Wyatt introduced the Petrarchan sonnet into England.怀亚特将彼特拉克的十四行诗引进英国。
英国文学史笔记总结部分
English Literature 英国文学史笔记The Development of English LiteratureFrom the academic angle, English literature can be divided into seven periods:1. Early and Medieval English literature;2. The English Renaissance;3. The 17th C. – The Period of Revolution and Restoration;4. The 18th Century –The Age of Enlightenment5. Romanticism in England in the 1st half of the 19th century;6. The Victorian Age;7. The 20th Century Literature –Modernism and Post-ModernismChapter1 Literature of Old and Medieval Period(449—1485)1) Anglo-Saxon Period /Old English Period (449-1066)The main literary contribution of this period is the Epic, and its masterpiece is the national epic The Song of Beowulf, which is a long poem of 3182 lines about the deeds of the Teutonic (条顿)hero Beowulf in the 6th century. It is the oldest poem in the English language and the oldest surviving epic in Anglo-Saxon literature.2）The Anglo-Norman Period /Middle English Period (1066-1485)The literature of this period is greatly influenced by the Norman Conquest (1066). After the conquest, the customs and ideals known as chivalry was introduced by the Normans into England and can be reflected in literature, such as the knightly code, the romantic interest in women , tenderness and reverence paid to Virgin Mary etc.. The prevailing form of literature in the Feudal England was Romance (传奇，骑士文学).The most famous Romance was Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.㈠Definitions of Literary Terms1. Couplet(对句): a couplet is two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.2. Iambic pentameter: each line has five feet of iambs; in each foot, there is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.3.Heroic Couplet(英雄偶句／双韵体): two consecutive lines of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter. (an iambic pentameter couplet). The form was introduced into English by Geoffrey Chaucer and was widely used subsequently, reaching a height of popularity in the works of Alexander Pope.4. Blank Verse(无韵体，素体诗): unrhymed iambic pentameter.5. Epic(史诗): A long narrative poem on the adventures and great deeds of heroes.6. Frame story: a narrative that provides the framework within which a number of different stories, which may or may not be connected, can be told. (The Canterbury Tales isa collection of stories in a frame story)7. Romance: A tale in verse, embodying the life and adventures of knights. The content of Romance was usually about love, chivalry and religion.㈡Geoffrey Chaucer (about1340—1400) 杰弗里•乔叟“The Founder (Father) of English poetry‖A Londoner of bourgeois origin, the most important and influential poet in medieval England, established English as a courtly language. Geoffrey’s Chaucer’s works are often categorized in three chronological periods (the French period, the Italian period and the English period).Ⅰ.Chaucer’s Contributions①. He introduced from French the ―heroic couplet‖ to English poetry.②. He is the first important poet to write in the current English language.③. Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the foundation for modern English language.Ⅱ.Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous work :The Canterbury Tales (1387—1400)《坎特伯雷集》an unfinished series of stories told by a group of pilgrims(about 29), who came from all layers of society(a knight, a prioress, a plowman, a merchant, a clerk, the wife from Bath, etc.), journeying from London to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury. ―The General Prologue‖ told us Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. But Chaucer had actually completed only 23 stories.Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales, and The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts.Ⅲ. Other works:1)The French period (to 1372): Book of Duchess (1369) 《公爵夫人之书》2)The Italian period (1372—1385): House of Fame (1379—1384) 《声誉之宫》The Parliament of Fowls (1377—1382) 《百鸟会议》The Legend of Good Women 《贤妇传说》Troilus and Criseyde (1382—1385) 《特洛伊罗斯与克丽西达》3)The English period (1387—1400): The Canterbury Tales (1387—1400) Chapter 2 Literature of English Renaissance（1485—1616）The Renaissance as a cultural movement embraced all Western Europe roughly from the 14th century to the 17th century. It first sprang in Florence of Italy and then spread to the rest of Europe (to Germany and Spain and England). ―Renaissance‖, French for ―rebirth‖, refers to the revival of interest in ancient Roman and Greek culture.During this period, the classical arts and learning were discovered again and widely studied , so the term Renaissance originally indicated a revival of classical (Roman and Greek) arts and learning after the dark ages of medieval obscurantism , it also marked the beginning of bourgeois revolution .In the Renaissance period, scholars and educators called themselves humanists and 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. So humanism became the keynote of the English Renaissance. And the greatest humanist is Thomas More, the author of Utopia. The representatives in literature are Shakespeare and Bacon. The former has the greatest contribution in drama an d sonnets while the latter’s essays are condensed and witty.代表人物：1) Thomas More（1478—1535）托马斯•莫尔Utopia 乌托邦2) Thomas Wyatt 托马斯•怀亚特He introduced sonnet into English literature引入十四行诗的第一人sonnet(十四行诗)：form of poetry intricately rhymed(间隔押韵) in 14 lines iambic pentameter3) Edmund Spenser（1522—1599）埃德蒙•斯宾塞“the poet’s poet”(诗人中的诗人) English poet whose long allegorical poem(寓言性浪漫史诗) The Faerie Queene 《仙后》is one of the greatest in the English language. It was written in what cameto be called the Spenserian stanza.Spenserian stanza：A nine-line stanza with the following rhyme scheme: ababbcbcc. The first eight lines are written in iambic pentameter. The last line is written in iambic hexameter4) Christopher Marlowe （1564—1593）克里斯托弗•马洛“the most gifted writer of the University Wits”“the forerunner of English drama”“The Father of English Tragedy” (one-man tragedy) The greatest pioneer of English drama who made blank verse the principal vehicle of expression in drama.blank verse(无韵体：不押韵的五步抑扬格) 是十六世纪英国戏剧的主要表现形式。
英国文学知识点整理
英国文学知识点整理不同的分类，会有交叉。
有交叉，才能理解，才能清晰，才能快速记忆，这才是真正的笔记。
(一)各个时期的文学创作术语中世纪文学时期Medieval Literature英雄双韵体the heroic couplet【特点】两行两行押韵，也被称作五步抑扬格iambic pentameter【创始人】杰弗里·乔叟Geoffrey Chaucer文艺复兴时期Renaissance十四行诗sonnet【特点】1韵律：一行隔一行押韵一节中的最后一行又与下一节的第一行押韵第四节只有两行独自押韵，一共十四行。
例一：abab bcbc cdcd ee例二：abab bcbc efef gg 2行数：十四行【创始人】威廉·莎士比亚William Shakespeare斯宾塞诗体Spenserian【特点】1韵律：韵律复杂，具有音乐性2行数：每节九行【创始人】埃德蒙·斯宾塞Edmund Spenser 素体诗blank verse没有押韵道德剧Morality Play神秘剧Mystery Play奇迹剧Miracle Play抑扬格四音步iambic tetrameter书信体意识流stream of consciousness(二)各种荣誉称谓"之父"称号Title作家主要作品时代流派英国诗歌之父Father of English Poetry杰弗里·乔叟Geoffrey Chaucer坎特伯雷故事集The Canterbury TalesMedieval Literature 十四世纪英国小说之父Father of English Novels丹尼尔·笛福Daniel Defoe鲁宾逊漂流记The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson CrusoeEnlightenment 18世纪Realistic西欧历史小说之父The Father of Western European Historical Novel沃尔特·司各特Walter Scott密得洛西恩监狱The Heart of MidlothianRealistic Literature十九世纪Romanticism桂冠诗人Poet Laureate约翰·德莱顿John Dryden阿尔弗雷德·丁尼生Alfred Tennyson【作品】记忆方式伊诺克·阿登。
英国文学复习笔记整理
英国文学复习笔记整理1 Although Geoffrey Chaucer was essentially a medieval writer, he bore marks of humanism and anticipated a new era of literature to come.2 Romance, which uses narrative verse or prose to tell stories of Knightly adventures or other heroic deeds, is a popular literary form in the medieval period.The Renaissance PeriodEdmund Spencer / Christopher Marlowe / William ShakespeareFrancis Bacon / John Donne / John Milton1. Renaissance: between 14th and mid-17th century.2. Renaissance means rebirth or revival is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, such as:The rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture,The new discoveries in geography and astrology,The religious reformation and the economic expansion.3. The Renaissance, therefore in essence is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and Scholars made attempt to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in Medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas that expressed the purity of the rising bourgeoisie, and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church.The religious reformation in the early 16th-century England was a reflection of the class struggles waged by the rising bourgeoisie against the feudal class and its ideology4. Humanism is the essence of the RenaissanceThe essence of humanism is to emphasize human qualities(1) Capable of individual development in the direction of perfection.(2) They inhabited was theirs not to despise by to question, explore and enjoy.(3) Tomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best representative of the English humanist.5 Metaphysical poetry:Metaphysical is characterized by passionate thought succession of concentrated image, exercise of elaborate ingenuity and “wit”, John Donne was the famous of the Metaphysical poet. The Metaphysical Poets were men of learning and to show their learning was their endeavor.Edmund SpenserMasterpiece: The Faerie Queene (allegory)Christopher Marlowe （University wits）1 Important plays: Tambulaine, Dr.Faustus, The Jew of Malta2 Marlowe voiced the supreme desire of the man of the Renaissance of infinite powers and authority(1) Perfected the blank verse.(2)Creation of the Renaissance hero to English drama, it embodies Marlowe’s ideal of human dignity and capacity.3Dr.Faustus: aspiring for knowledge, the play’s dominant moral is human rather than religious,it celebrates the human passion for knowledge, power and happiness, it also reveals man’s frustration in r ealizing the high aspiration in a hostile moral order and the confinement to time is the cruelest fact of man’s condition.4 The statement that a man gained the whole world but lost his own soul makes a good summary of the main plot of The Tragic History of Doctor FaustusWilliam Shakespeare1.Works: 154 sonnets, 38 plays, 2 long poemsComedy: Merchant of Venice.2 4 great tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, MacbethEach portrays some noble hero, who face the injustice of human fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation; each hero has his weakness of nature.Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind:Othello’s inner weakness is made use of by the outside evil force;old King Lear who is unwilling to totally give up his power makes himself suffer from treachery(背叛) and infidelity(失真)Macbeth’s lust for power stirs up his ambition and leads him to incessant crime.3 statements best illustrates the theme of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 :The)2 Novum Organum: most impressive display of Beacon’s intellect. The argument is for the use of inductiveness of reason in scientific study.3 Beacon suggests the inductive reasoning,i.e. proceeding from the particular to the general, in place of the Aristotelian method, the deductive reasoning, i.e. proceeding from the general to the particular.4 Beacon’s essays are famous for their brevity, compactness and powerfulness.John DonneMetaphysical poetryThe most striking feature of Donn e’s poetry is precisely its tang of reality, in the sense that it seems to reflect life in a real rather than a poetical world.Donne frequently applies conceits.John MiltonThree major poetical works:Paradise lost, Paradise Regained, Samson AgonistsThe freedom of the will is the key tone of Milton’s creed.Paradise LostThe epic is the masterpiece of John MiltonThe story is drawn from the Old Testament of the Bible, which tells how Satan, after being defeated in his rebel against God, tempts Adam and Eve to eat the apples for the Forbidden Tree, and causes the Fall of Man. The Neoclassic PeriodJohn Bunyan / Alexander Pope / Daniel Defoe / Jonathan SwiftHenry Fielding / Samuel Johnson / Richard Brinsley SheridanTomas Gray1 Between the return of the Stuarts to the English throne in 1660 and the full assertion of Romanticism which came with the publication of lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 17982 Enlightenment or the Age of reasonThe Enlightenment movement was a progressive intellectual movement, which flourished in France and swept the whole Western Europe at the timeIts propose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas. The enlightenment celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science. They called for a reference to order, reason and rule, yield place to “eternal truth” “eternal justice” and “natural equality”They believed that human beings were limited, dualistic and imperfect literature at the time, heavily didactic and moralizing.They believed in self-restraint, self-reliance and hard work. To work, to economize and to accumulate wealth constitutes the whole meaning of their life. This aspect of social life is best-formed in the realistic novels of the 18th century.3 In the field of literature, they believed that the artistic should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy. Seek proportion, unity, harmony and grace in literary expression, in an effort to delight, instruct and correct human beings.4 Neoclassicism. In English literature and, the stylistic trend between the Restoration and the advent of romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century is referred to as Neoclassicism.5 Heroic: It is a pair of rhymed lines of iambic pentameter. The form was introduced into English by Chaucer and widely used subsequently.John Bunyan1. Masterpiece: The pilgrim’s progress2.The “vanity fair” symbolizes human wor ld; for all that comth is vanityeverything and anything in this world is vanity, having no value and no meaning.3.In The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Banyan describes The Vanity Fair in asatirical tone.The phrase "to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and to seek salvation through constant struggles with their own weaknesses and all kinds of social evils" may well sum up the implied meaning ofThe Pilgrim’s ProgressAlexander Pope1 Pope, a very sensitive man, would strike back hard, and in the constant verbal battles he developed a style of biting satire.2 He was one of the first to introduce rationalism to England, but was not entirely blind to the rapid moral, political and cultural deterioration.3 For him the supreme values were order-cosmic order, political order, social order, aesthetic order, and this emphasis an order expression in all of his works. Pope made his name as a great poet with the publication of an Essay on Criticism in 1711.4 Pope strongly advocated Neoclassicism, emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rule of order, reason, logic, restrained emotion, good taste and decorum.Daniel DefoeMasterpiece: Robinson CrusoeHis language is smooth, easy, colloquial (口语的)and most vernacular. Defoe glorifies human labor and the puritan fortitude. It refers the enterprising sprit of the middle class.Jonathan Swift1. Chief works:A Tale of a Tub, The battle of the books, The Drapier’s letters, Gulliver’s Travel and a modest proposal.2. Swift is almost unsurpassed in the writing of simple, direct, precise prose. He defined a good style as “proper words in proper places” clear, simple, concrete, diction, uncomplicated sentence structure and economy and concise use of language mark all his writing-essay, poems and novels.3. As a whole, the book is one have the most effective and devastating criticism and satires of all aspects in the then English and European lifesocially, politically, religiously, philosophically, scientifically and morally.Henry Fielding1. Masterpiece: A History of Tom Jones, a Foundling2. Fielding has been regarded by some as “Father of the English Novel” for his contribution to the establishment of the form of the modern novel.3. Fielding’s lang uage is easy, unlabored and familiar but extremely vivid and vigorous.4. Of all the 18th century novelist, he was the first to set out both in theory and practice. To write specially a “comic epic in poem” the first to give the modern novels its structure and story; he use epistolary form and “the third-person narration”.5. In planning his stories, he tries to retain the grand, epical of the classical works but at the same time keeps faithful to his realistic presentation of common life as it is.Samuel Johnson1. Lexicographer: the author of the first English dictionary by an English man---A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)2. To the Right Honorable the Earl of----Chesterfield3. He was particularly fond of moralizing, and didacticism. His language in characteristically general, often Latinate and frequently polysyllabic. Richard Brinsley Sheridan1 Masterpiece: The school for scandal.2 Sheridan has the only important English dramatist of the 18th century; important link between Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw.3 In his play, morality is the constant theme.He is much concerned with the current moral issue and harshly at the social life of the day.Tomas Gray1. His masterpiece, “Elegy in a Country Churchyard” was published in 1751; the poem once and for all established his fame as the leader of the sentimental poetry of the day especially”the Graveyard School”2. In his poem, Gray reflects on death, the sorrow of life and the mysteries of hum a touch of his Personal Melancholy.3. His poems, as a whole are mostly devoted to a sentimental lamentation or mediation on life, past and present. His poems are characterized by an exquisite sense of form. His style is sophisticated and allusive. His poems are often marked with the trait of a highly artificial diction and a distorted word order.Romantic PeriodWilliam Blake / William Wordsworth / Samuel Taylor Coleridge George Gordon/ ByronPercy/ Bysshe Shelley /John Keats / Jane Austen1. Major Romantic Points(1) A rebellion against neo-classicism(2) Express on imagination(3) Priorities been given to passion, emotion and feeling(4) Being close to nature for its purity while the society is corrupting5) Tremendous interest in something remote in term of space and time(6) Favor of modernism(7) Supremacy of freedom2 Romantic Period began in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s lyrical Ballads and have ended in 1852 with Sir Walter Scott’s death and the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament. 3. It was in effect a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason, which prevailed from the days of Pope to those of Johnson1. Jean-Roseau: exploration new idea about Nature, society, Education.4The Romantic Movement expressed a more or less negative attitude the existing social and political conditions that came with industrial lization and the growing importance of the bourgeoisie.5 Thus, we can say that Romanticism actually constitutes a change of direction attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit6 Nature to Wordsworth is a source of mental cleanliness and spiritual understanding.7 Poetry has been traditionally regarded as an art governed by rules; but for Romantics, Poetry should be free from all rules.8 Gothic novels: its principal elements are violence, horror and supernatural, which strongly appeal to the reader’s emotion.9 How is Romanticism different from Neoclassicism? Provide brief evidence from the literary works you know best.a. Neoclassicists upheld that artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity, and thus, literary expressions should be of proportion, unity, harmony and grace. Pope’s An Ess ay on Criticism advocates grace, wit ( usually though satire/ humor ), and simplicity in language (and the poem itself is a demonstration of those ideals, too); Fielding’s Tom Jones helped established the form of novel; Gray’s Elegry Written in a country C hurchyard” displays elegance in style, unified structure, serious tone and moral instructions.b. Romanticism tended to see the individual as the very center of all experience, including art, and thus, literary work should be “spontaneous overflow of stron g of feeling”and no matter how fragmentary those experience were ( Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” or “The Solitary Reaper,) 0r Coleridge’s “ Keble Khan”), the value of the work link lied in the accuracy of presenting those unique feelings and particular altitude.c. In a word, Neoclassicism emphasized rationality and form but Romanticism attached great importance to the individual’s mind ( emotion, imagination, temporary experience.)William Blake1 (1)The songs of Innocence is a lovely volume poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evil and sufferings. (2) The songs of Experience paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repress with melancholy tone(3) The two books hold the similar subject-matter, but the tone, emphasis and conclusion differs.2 Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790) marks his entry into maturity.Blake explains the relationship of the contraries.“without contraries, there is no progression.The marriage to Blake means the reconciliation of the contraries, not the subordination of the one to the other.3 Blake writes his poem in plain and direct language, his poem often carries the lyric beauty with immense compressing of meaning. He distrusts the abstractness and tends to embody his views with visual images; symbolism in wide range is also a distinctive feature of his poetry.William WordsworthThe poetic view of William Wordsworth can be best understood from his remark about poetry, that is, "all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."William Wordsworth, a romantic poet, advocated all the followingA.the use of everyday language spoken by the common peopleB. the expression of the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelingC. the use of humble and rustic life as subject matter1 William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, the three man known as the “Lake Poets”2 Wordsworth is regarded as a “worshiper of nature”3 Wordsworth thinks that common life is the only subject of literary interest.4 Wordsworth see the word freshly, sympathetically and naturally.5 The most important contribution Wordsworth has made is that he has not only started the modern poetry of the growing inner self,but also changed the course of English poetry by using ordinary speech of the language and by advocating a reform to nature.Samuel Taylor Coleridge1 Coleridge’s portion (work) was to deal with super nature thing for he was more interested in something remote strange on foreign.2 Two divers group: the demonic and the conversational(1) The demonic group: beyond the control of reason. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner “Christabel” “Kubl a Khan”(2) The conversational group: “Frost at Midnight”3 Coleridge is one of the first critics to give close critical affection to language, maintaining that the true end of poetry is to give pleasure “through the medium of beauty”4 He was recognized as a lyrical poet and literary critic of the first rank. His poetic themes range from the super nature to the domestic.His treatises, lectures, and compelling conversational powers made him one of the most influential English literary critics and philosophers of the 19th century.George Gordon Byron1 Masterpiece: Don Juan, Childe Ha rold’s Pilgrima ge“I awake on e morning and found myself famous.”2 Byron invests in Juan the moral positives like courage, generosity and franknessThe unifying principal in Don Juan is the basic ironic theme of appearance and reality.3 Byron has enriched European poetry with an abundance of ideas, images, artistic forms and innovation.4 Byronic heroThe creation of the Byronic hero is Byron’s chief contribution to English Poetry, such a hero is a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. Passionate and powerful, he is to right all the wrongs in a corrupt society and he would fight single-handedly against all the misdoings, political, religious moral. Thus this figure is a rebellious individual social systems and customs. Because Byron’s poetry is one of t he experiences on the whole, such a hero is more or less a surrogate of himself; He appears first in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and then further develops in later works such as the “Oriented Tale” “Manfred” and “Don Juan”.Percy Bysshe Shelley1 In 1813 he published his first long serious work. Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem.2 Masterpiece “The Cenci” “Prometheus unbounded”Lyrics: “The Cloud” “To a Skylark” “Adonais”3 He held a life-long aversion to cruelty, injustice, authority, institutional religion and the formal shames of respectable society, condemning war, tyranny and exploitation.4 Shelley expressed his love for freedom and his hatred toward tyranny in several of his lyrics such as: Ode to Liberty,” “Ode to Naples,” “Sonnet: England in 1819” and so on.5 Best of all the well-known lyric pieces is his “Ode to the west win d” it is rhapsodic and declamatory.6 Shelley’s style abounds in personification and metaphor and other figure of speech, which describe vividly what we see and feel, or express what passionately moves us.John Keats1. Work: Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St.Agnes2. The Odes are generally regarded as Keats’s most important and mature works.Ode on Melancholy, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Psyche3. Keats’s poetry is always sensuous, colorful and rich in imagery, which expresses the acuteness of his senses,sights, sound, scent, taste and felling are all taken in to give an entire understanding of an experience of others either human or animal.4."Beauty is truth, truth beauty."is taken from John Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn5 Ode on a Grecian Urn" shows the contrast between the (permanence. ) of art and the (transience ) of human passion.Jane Austen1 Works: Pride and Prejudice. Sense and Sensibility. Northanger Abbey2 And in style, she is a neoclassicism advocator,upholding those traditional ideals of order, reason, proportion and gracefulness in novel writing.The Victorian PeriodCharles Dickens / Charlotte Bronte / Emily Bronte/Alfred Tennyson / Robert Browning1. The Victorian Period roughly coincides with the reign of Queen Victorian from 1836 to 1901, the most glorious in the English history. (Inthis period, the novel became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of progressive thought, criticism of the society and the defense of the mass. ----they are all concerned about the fate of common people.)2 Towards the mid-19th century, England had reached it’s highly point of development as a world power.3 Darwin’s The origin of species and The De scent of Man shook theoretical basic of traditional faith. Utilitarianism was widely accepted and practiced.4 Famous novelists like Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackery, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Mrs. Gaskell and Anthony Trollope.5 typical feature of the English Victorian literature is that writers becamegreatest critical realist writers of the Victorian Age2 In language, he is often compared with Shakespeare for his adeptness with the vernacular and large vocabulary with which he brings out manya wonderful verbal picture of man and scene.3 His humor and wit seem inexhaustible; character portrayal is the most distinguished feature of his work.4 His best-depicted characters are those innocent, virtuous, persecuted helpless child characters.5 Dickens work are also characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos. He seems to believe that life is itself a mixture of joy and grief.The Victorian Age was largely and age of (epic prose),eminently represented by Dickens and Thackeray.The Bronte sistersCharlotte Bronte1 Masterpiece: Jane Eyre2 The success of the novel is also due to its introduction to the English novel the first governess heroine, Jane Eyre, description of her intense feeling and her thought and inner conflicts brings her to the heart of the audience.Emily Bronte1 Masterpiece: Wuthering Heights2 As a love story, this is one of the most misery: the passion between Heathcliff and Cathrine proves the most intense, the most beautiful and at the same time, the most horrible passion are to be found in human being.Alfred Tennyson1. His poetry voices the doubt and the faith, the grief and the joy of English people in an age of fast social change.2. In 1850, Tennyson was appointed the poet laureate.3. Tennyson is a real artist. He has the natural power of linking visual picture with musical expression, and these two with the feelings.Robert Browning1 Dramatic MonologueA kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to one or more listeners whose reply is not given in the poem. The occasion is usually a crucial one in the speaker’s life, and the dramatic monologue reads the speaker’s personality as well as the incident that is the subject of the poem; a n experience of a dramatic monologue is “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning.2“My Last Duchess”: this dramatic monologue is the duke’s speech addressed to the agent who comes to negotiate the marriage. In this talk about “Last Duchess” the du ke reveals himself as a self-conceited, cruel and tyrannical man. The poem is written is heroic couplet,but with no regular metrical system. In reading, it sounds like bland verse.George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans)1 her popular novels, Adam Bede, The Mill on the floss ,Silas Marner, all drawn from her lifelong knowledge of English country life and notable for their realistic details , pungent characterization and high moral tone.11。
英国文学简史笔记(完整版)
Chapter 1伊丽莎白统治之前的时代分为三个阶段：古英语（安格鲁撒克逊）时期，中世纪英语（安格鲁诺曼）时期，伊丽莎白统治前时期。
大不列颠岛相继被卡尔特人、罗马人和安格鲁撒克逊人占据。
【 The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period 】✧sign: the Stonehenge（巨石阵）prehistoric monumental pile of stones Celts（凯尔特人）were probably the first inhabitants of the British Isles in recorded history.One of their tribes, the Britons（不列颠人）， came over in the 5th century BC. 亚瑟王传奇 Arthurian legends 500 yearsRoman Conquest, Julius Caesar（尤里乌斯凯撒） 55BC500 yearsAnglo-Saxon Conquest, 5th centuryIn 597 AD the Anglo-Saxons began to be converted to Christianity.pagan elements/regular elementsreligion elementsIn the second half of the 7th century, the first English poet, Caedmon byname， began to sing.Another century passed, Beowulf.In the 9th century, King Alfred decided that literature should be writtenin the vernacular（方言） of Old English.✧With the arrival of St. Augustine in 597 AD and the subsequent spread of Christianinfluence and classical learning, heathen poetry was maneuvered out of the scene.a time of intermingling（过渡时期） of the pagan with the Christian components in poetry.1. Thenational epic of English people, a pagan poem2. An epic of well over 3000 lines.3. The greatest epic ever left by the ancient Germanic tribes.4. The most ancient ever since the demise of the Greek andRoman literatures.5. The only organic whole poem to come out of the Anglo-Saxonperiod.6. The story takes place in Scandinavia, no mention ofEngland.7. Anglo Saxon’s early life in Englandth century hero, Beowulf. It is basicallya two-part narrative——Beowulf’s fight with the sea-monstersGrendel and his mother in the first part, and his killing a fierydragon and his death in the second.1.human desire for some super power to conquer nature.2.great tradition of realism（现实主义传统）Versification:1.Pagan story has an Christian overlay（覆盖物，表面）.（作诗法）The mixture of pagan and Christian elements2. using of kenning(一种描写手法)e.g.: sea is often ‚swan’s way‛ or ‚whale-path.3. conspicious occurrence of alliteration(头韵).4. narrator of the poem, the ‚I‛ is aminstrel/scop/gleeman（吟游诗人）5. story’s digressive manner of narration.6. elevated tone（提高的音调）.7. the use of metaphors and understatements✧Then the pagan was superseded（超过） by the religious spirit, and minstrels（吟游诗人） gave way to learned men.✧Caedmon（凯德蒙）: the first known poet in English literary history.✧The Ecclesiastical History of England（英格兰教会史）by the venerable Bede（比得）.欧洲最早的编年史：Anglo-Saxon Chronicle（编年史）founded by King Alfred the Great （阿尔弗雷德大帝）.【 Medieval（中世纪）Literature: a brief introduction 】✧☑In 1066, ____, with his Norman army, succeeded in invading and defeating England.A. William the ConquerorB. Julius CaesarC. Alfred the GreatD. Claudius☑After the Norman Conquest, three languages existed in England at that time. The Normans spoke _____.A. FrenchB. EnglishC. LatinD. SwedishThe changes and replacement of dynasty and government:The Norman line of kings90 years1154 Angevin kingsKing Henry Ⅱ and his descendants 245 years1399 The House of Lancaster✧William the Conqueror grabbed Anglo-Saxon land by force and gave it tohis nobles and followers.A historical record of Anglo-Saxon institutions, customs, and way oflife（十字军东征）A serious of wars between Christians and the Muslims (1096-1270)The first communication between east and west（大宪章）King John was forced to recognize the rights of the powerful barons.（男爵）（Duke公 Marquis侯 Count伯 Viscount子 Baron爵）Norman and Anglo-Saxon elements began to coalesce into one nation, andthe English language started to revive.The emergence of nation（民族兴起）✧传奇：The Growth of the Arthurian Legends（亚瑟王传奇）Not put down on paper until 1147 Geoffrey of Monmouth came out with hisLatin Historia Reugm Britanniae.Be enriched by a good number of later writers.1205 Layamon wrote his cast verse work of 32,000 lines Brut in English.The beginning of the revival of English as a literary medium骑士文学：Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:(《高文爵士和绿骑士》)or prose.☑The prevailing form of Medieval English literature is ____.A. novelB. dramaC. romanceD. essay☑The story of ___ is the culmination of the Arthurian romances.A. Sir Gawain and the Green KnightB. BeowulfC. Piers the PlowmanD. The Canterbury Tales☑The theme of ____ to king and lord was repeatedly emphasized in romances.A. loyaltyB. revoltC. obedienceD. mockeryA famous roman about King Arthur’s storyA 4-part work of 2,530 lines in 101 sections.knightly virtues: loyalty, valor（勇猛）,rectitude（正直）,and integrity.One Christmas（故事发生的时间）1.某年圣诞节，亚瑟王在自己的宫廷里举行宴会。
英国文学笔记整理
英国文学笔记整理英国文学史考试要点听课笔记（2006）1、it is ―Beowulf‖,the national epic of the English people.《贝奥武夫》（Beowulf），又译贝奥武甫，完成于西元八世纪，约750年左右的英雄叙事长诗，长达3000行。
故事的舞台位于北欧的斯堪的纳维亚半岛。
是以古英语记载的传说中最古老的一篇，在语言学方面也是相当珍贵的文献。
贝奥武夫（Beowulf）乃现存古英文文学中最伟大之作，也是欧洲最早的方言史诗。
该诗中并未提及英国，但学者相信该诗约於西元七二五年左右在英国完成。
全诗凡三千一百八十二行，以斯堪地那维亚的英雄贝奥武夫的英勇事迹构成主要内容。
虽然历史上并未证实确有贝奥武夫其人，但诗中所提及的许多其他人物与事迹却得到印证。
Features of ―Beowulf‖:The most striking feature i n its poetical form is the use of alliteration. Other features of ―Beowulf‖ are the use of metaphors and of understatements.本诗原以西撒克逊方言写成，押头韵而不押尾韵，用双字隐喻而不用明喻。
全诗内容分为两部分：第一部分描叙丹麦霍格国王（King Hrothgurs）宏伟的宫殿，在前后十二年中，半人半魔的妖怪格兰戴（Grendel）每晚出没捉食霍格的战士。
此时恰巧瑞典南部济兹（Geats）王子贝奥武夫率家臣来访，协助除害。
国王当晚设宴款待，熟料妖怪格兰戴又复出现，捉食一名济兹战士，贝奥武夫与之格斗，贝氏扭断其臂，妖怪落荒而逃，因受重伤致死。
第二天晚上，格兰戴的母亲前来为其子复仇，其后贝氏把她在一湖泊的洞穴中杀死。
第二部分描叙贝奥武夫返国，被拥为王，前后五十年，举国大治。
最后贝奥武夫以垂老之年，杀一喷火巨龙，但其个人亦因而身受重创，终於身死。
英国文学笔记
1. Literature of the absurd: (荒诞派文学) The term is applied to a number of works in drama and prose fiction which have in common the sense that the human condition is essentially absurd, and that this condition can be adequately represented only in works of literature that are themselves absurd. The current movement emerged in France after the Second World War, as a rebellion against essential beliefs and values of traditional culture and traditional literature. They hold the belief that a human being is an isolated existent who is cast into an alien universe and the human life in its fruitless search for purpose and meaning is both anguish and absurd.2. Theater of the absurd: (荒诞派戏剧) belongs to literature of the absurd. Two representatives of this school are Eugene Ionesco, French author of The Bald Soprano (1949) (此作品中文译名<秃头歌女>), and Samuel Beckett, Irish author of Waiting for Godot (1954) (此作品是荒诞派戏剧代表作<等待戈多>). They project the irrationalism, helplessness and absurdity of life in dramatic forms that reject realistic settings, logical reasoning, ora coherently evolving plot.3. Black comedy or black humor: (黑色幽默) it mostly employed to describe baleful, naïve, or inept characters in a fantastic or nightmarish modern world playing out their roles in what Ionesco called a “tragic farce”, in which the events are often simultaneously comic, horrifying, and absurd. Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (美国著名作家约瑟夫海勒<二十二条军规>) can be taken as an example of the employment of this technique.4. Aestheticism or the Aesthetic Movement（唯美主义）: it began to prevail in Europe at the middle of the 19th century. The theory of “art for art’s sake” was first put forward by some French artists. They declared that a rt should serve no religious, moral or social purpose. The two most important representatives of aestheticists in English literature are Walt Pater and Oscar Wilde.5. Allegory（寓言）: a tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities, such as John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. An allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.6. Fable（寓言）: is a short narrative, in prose or verse, that exemplifies an abstract moral thesis or principle of human behavior. Most common is the beast fable, in which animals talk and act like the human types they represent. The fables in Western cultures derive mainly from the stories attributed to Aesop, a Greek slave of the sixth century B. C.7. Parable（寓言）: is a very short narrative about human beings presented so as to stress analogy with a general lesson that the narrator is trying to bring home to his audience. For example, the Bible contains lots of parables employed by Jesus Christ to make his flock understand his preach.(注意以上三个词在汉语中都翻译成语言，但是内涵并不相同，不要搞混)8. Alliteration（头韵）: the repetition of the initial consonant sounds. In Old English alliterative meter, alliteration is the principal organizing device of the verse line, such as in Beowulf.9. Consonance is the repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants but with a change in the intervening vowel, such as “live and love”.10. Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar vowel, especially in stressed syllables, in a sequence of nea rby words, such as “child of silence”.11. Allusion （典故）is a reference without explicit identification, to a literary or historical person, place, or event, or to another literary work or passage. Most literary allusions are intended to be recognized by the generally educated readers of the author’s time, b ut some are aimed at a special group.12. Ambiguity（复义性）: Since William Empson（燕卜荪）published Seven Types of Ambiguity（《复义七型》）, the term has been widely used in criticism to identify a deliberate poetic device: the use of a single word or expression to signify two or more distinct references, or to express two or more diverse attitudes or feeling.13. Antihero（反英雄）：the chief character in a modern novel or play whose character is totally different from the traditional heroes. Instead of manifesting largeness, dignity, power, or heroism, the antihero is petty, passive, ineffectual or dishonest. For example, the heroine of Defoe’s Moll Flanders is a thief and a prostitute.14. Antithesis（对照）：(a figure of speech) An antithesis is often expressed in a balanced sentence, that is, a sentence in which identical or similar syntactic structure is used to express contrasting ideas. For example, “Marriage has many pains, but celibacy（独身生活）has no pleasures.” by Samuel Johnson obviously employs antithesis.15. Archaism（拟古）：the literary use of words and expressions that have become obsolete in the common speech of an era. For example, the translators of the King James Version of Bible gave weight and dignity to their prose by employing archaism.16. Atmosphere（氛围）: the prevailing mood or feeling of a literary work. Atmosphere is often developed, at least in part, through descriptions of setting. Such descriptions help to create an emotional climate to establish the reader’s expectations and attitudes.17. Ballad（民谣）：it is a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story. It originated and was communicated orally among illiterate or only partly literate people. It exists in many variant forms. The most common stanza form, called ballad stanza is a quatrain in alternate four- and three-stress lines; usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme. Although many traditional ballads probably originated in the late Middle Age, they were not collected and printed until the eighteenth century.18. Climax：as a rhetorical device it means an ascending sequence of importance. As a literary term, it can also refer to the point of greatest intensity, interest, or suspense in a story’s turning point. The action leading to the climax and the simultaneous increase of tension in the plot are known as the rising action. All action after the climax is referred to as the falling action, or resolution. The term crisis is sometimes used interchangeably with climax.19. Anticlimax（突降）：it denotes a writer’s deliberate drop from the serious and elevated to the trivial and lowly, in order to achieve a comic or satiric effect. It is a rhetorical device in English.20. Beat Generation（垮掉一代）：it refers to a loose-knit group of poets and novelists, writing in the second half of the 1950s and early 1960s, who shared a set of social attitudes –antiestablishment, antipolitical, anti-intellectual, opposed to the prevailing cultural, literary, and moral values, and in favor of unfettered self-realization and self-expression. Representatives of the group include Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. And most famous literary creations produced by this group should be Allen Ginsberg’s long poem Howl and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.21. Biography（传记）：a detailed account of a person’s life written by another person, such as Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the English Poets and James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson.22. Autobiography（自传）：a person’s account of his or her own life, such as Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography.23. Blank Verse(无韵体):24. A parody（模仿）imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work, or the distinctive style of a particular author, or the typical stylistic and other features of a serious literary genre, and deflates the original by applying the imitation to a lowly or comically inappropriate subject.25. Celtic Revival also known as the Irish Literary Renaissance（爱尔兰文艺复兴）identifies the remarkably creative period in Irish literature from about 1880 to the death of William Butler Yeats in 1939. The aim of Yeats and other early leaders of the movement was to create a distinctively national literature by going back to Irish history, legend, and folklore, as well as to native literary models. The major writers of this movement include William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, John Millington Synge and Sean O’Casey and so on.26. Characters（人物）are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from the dialogues, actions and motivations. E. M. Forster divides characters into two types: flat character, which is presented without much individualizing detail; and round character, which is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularity.27. Chivalric Romance (or medieval romance)（骑士传奇或中世纪传奇）is a type of narrative that developedin twelfth-century France, spread to the literatures of other countries. Its standard plot is that of a quest undertaken by a single knight in order to gain a lady’s favor; frequently its central interest i s courtly love, together with tournaments fought and dragons and monsters slain. It stresses the chivalric ideals of courage, loyalty, honor, mercifulness to an opponent, and elaborate manners.28. Comedy:（喜剧）in general, a literary work that ends happily with a healthy, amicable armistice between the protagonist and society.29. Farce （闹剧）is a type of comedy designed to provoke the audience to simple and hearty laughter. To do so it commonly employs highly exaggerated types of characters and puts them into improbable and ludicrous situations.30. Confessional poetry（自白派诗歌）designates a type of narrative and lyric verse, given impetus by Robert Lowell’s Life Studies, which deals with the facts and intimate mental and physical experiences of the poet’s own life. Confessional poetry was written in rebellion against the demand for impersonality by T. S. Elliot and the New Criticism. The representative writers of confessional school include Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath and so on.31. Critical Realism:（批判现实主义）The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the fouties and in the beginning of fifties. The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils. Representative writers of this trend include Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray and so on.32. Drama:（戏剧）The form of composition designed for performance in the theater, in which actors take the roles of the characters, perform the indicated action, and utter the written dialogue. (The common alternative name for a dramatic composition is a play.)33. Dramatic Monologue:（戏剧独白）a monologue is a lengthy speech by a single person. Dramatic monologue does not designate a component in a play, but a type of lyric poem that was perfected by Robert Browning. By using dramatic monologue, a single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment. For example, Robert Browning’s famous poem “My Last Duchess” was written in dramatic monologue.34. Elegy（哀歌或挽歌）：a poem of mourning, usually over the death of an individual. An elegy is a type of lyric poem, usually formal in language and structure, and solemn or even melancholy in tone.35. Enlightenment（启蒙运动）：The name applied to an intellectual movement which developed in Western Europe during the seventeenth century and reached its height in the eighteenth. The common element was a trust in human reason as adequate to solve the crucial problems and to establish the essential norms in life, together with the belief that the application of reason was rapidly dissipating the remaining feudal traditions. It influenced lots of famous English writers especially those neoclassic writers, such as Alexander Pope.36. Epic（史诗）：it is a long verse narrative on a serious subject, told in a formal and elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race.37. Epiphany:（顿悟）In the early draft of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce employed this term to signify a sudden sense of radiance and revelation that one may feel while perceiving a commonplace object. “Epiphany” now has become the standard term for the description, fr equent in modern poetry and prose fiction, of the sudden flare into revelation of an ordinary object or scene.38. Epithet: as a term in criticism, epithet denotes an adjective or adjectival phrase used to define a distinctive quality of a person or thing. This method was widely employed in ancient epics. For example, in Homer’s epic, the epithet like “the wine-dark sea” can be found everywhere.39. Essay:（散文）any short composition in prose that undertakes to discuss a matter, express a point of view, persuade us to accept a thesis on any subject, or simply entertain. The essay can be divided as the formal essay and the informal essay (familiar essay).40. Euphemism（委婉语）: An inoffensive expression used in place of a blunt one that is felt to be disagreeable or embarrassing, such as “pass away” instead of “die”41. Expressionism（表现主义）：a German movement in literature and the other arts which was at its height between 1910 and 1925 – that is, in the period just before, during, and after WWⅠ. The expressionist artist or writer undertakes to express a personal vision – usually a troubled or tensely emotional vision – of human life and human society. This is done by exaggerating and distorting. We recognize its effects, direct or indirect, on the writing and staging of such plays as Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman as well as on the theater of the absurd. 42. Free verse（自由体诗）：Like traditional verse, it is printed in short lines instead of with the continuity of prose, but it differs from such verse by the fact that its rhythmic pattern is not organized into a regular metrical form – that is, into feet, or recurrent units of weak and strong stressed syllables. Most free verse also has irregular line lengths, and either lacks rhyme or else uses it only occasionally. Walt Whitman is a representative who employed this poem form successfully.The locale was often a gloomy castle. The typical story focused on the sufferings imposed on an innocent heroine by a cruel villain. This type of fictions made bountiful use of ghosts, mysterious disappearances, and other supernatural occurrences. The principle aim of such novels was to evoke chilling terror and the best of this type opened up to the fiction the realm of the irrational and of the perverse impulses and nightmarish terrors that lie beneath the orderly surface of the civilized mind. Some famous novelists liked to employ some Gothic elements in their novels, such as Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.43. Gothic novel:（哥特式小说）It is a type of prose fiction. The writers of this type of fictions mostly set their stories in the medieval period and in a Catholic country, especially Italy or Spain.44. Graveyard poets（墓园派诗歌）: A term applied to eighteenth-century poets who wrote meditative poems, usually set in a graveyard, on the theme of human mortality, in moods which range from pensiveness to profound gloom. The vogue resulted in one of the most widely known English poems, Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”.45. Harlem Renaissance（哈莱姆文艺复兴）：a period of remarkable creativity in literature, music, dance, painting, and sculpture by African-Americans, from the end of the First World War in 1917 through the 1920s. As a result of the mass migrations to the urban North in order to escape the legal segregation of the American South, and also in order to take advantage of the jobs opened to African Americans at the beginning of the War, the population of the region of Manhattan known as Harlem became almost exclusively Black, and the vital center of African American culture in America. Distinguished writers who were part of the movement included Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer. The Great Depression of 1929 and the early 1930s brought the period of buoyant Harlem culture – which had been fostered by prosperity in the publishing industry and the art world – effectively to an end.46. Heroic Couplet（英雄双韵体）refers to lines of iambic pentameter which rhyme in pairs: aa, bb, cc, and so on. The adjective “heroic” was applied in the later seventeenth century because of the frequent use of such couplets in heroic poems and dramas. This verse form was introduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer. From the age of John Dryden through that of Samuel Johnson, the heroic couplet was the predominant English measure for all the poetic kinds; some poets, including Alexander Pope, used it almost to the exclusion of other meters.47. Hyperbole（夸张）:this figure of speech called hyperbole is bold overstatement, or the extravagant exaggeration of fact or of possibility. It may be used either for serious or ironic or comic effect.48. Understatement（轻描淡写）：this figure of speech deliberately represents something as very much less in magnitude or importance than it really is, or is ordinarily considered to be. The effect is usually ironic.49. Imagism（意象派）：it was a poetic vogue that flourished in England, and even more vigorously in America, between the years 1912 and 1917. It was planned and exemplified by a group of English and American writers in London, partly under the influence of the poetic theory of T. E. Hulme, as a revolt against the sentimental and mannerish poetry at the turn of the century. The typical Imagist poetry is written in free verse and undertakes to beas precisely and tersely as possible. Meanwhile, the Imagist poetry likes to express the writers’ momentary impression of a visual object or scene and often the impression is rendered by means of metaphor without indicating a relation. Most famous Imagist poem, “In a Station of the Metro”, was written by Ezra Pound. Imagism was too restrictive to endure long as a concerted movement, but it influenced almost all modern poets of Britain and America.50. Irony（反讽）：This term derives from a character in a Greek comedy. In most of the modern critical uses of the term “irony”, there remains the root sense of dissembling or hiding what is actually the case; not, however, in order to deceive, but to achieve rhetorical or artistic effects.51. Local Colorism（地方色彩）was a literary trend belonging to Realism. It refers to the detailed representation in prose fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress and ways of thinking and feeling which are distinctive of a particular region. After the Civil War a number of American writers exploited the literary possibilities of local color in various parts of America. The most famous representative of local colorism should be Mark Twain who took his hometown near the Mississippi as the typical setting of nearly all his novels.52. Lyric（抒情诗）：in the most common use of the term, a lyric is any fairly short poems consisting of the utterance by a single speaker, who expresses a state of mind or a process of perception, thought and feeling.the 18th century: the Age of Reason Historical BackgroundEnlightenment of the 18th centuryThe Literary Achievements of the 18th CenturyDaniel DefoeJonathan SwiftJoseph AddisonHenry FieldingSentimentalism: Thomas GrayDrama: Richard Brinsley SheridanPre-Romanticism: William Blake and Robert BurnsHistorical BackgroundPolitically: the appearance of two hostile parties—Whigs and Tories, and its influence on literature. P.164 Socially (Age of Bourgeoisie) : Rapid development of social life and its influences on literature. P. 165 辉格党和托利党这两个政党名称皆起源于1688年的光荣革命，一般认为他们是最早出现的资产阶级政党。
英国文学笔记总结
英国文学笔记总结English LiteratureWhat is literature?It is an art that uses language as a medium. This art is something imaginative, fictional and created to reflect life or record human dreams or human ideas .Literary Periods449-1485 The Old (Anglo-Saxon) and Medieval (Middle)English Literature1485-1603 English Literature in the Renaissance Period1603-1660 English Literature in the Seventeenth Century1660-1798 English Literature in the Eighteenth Century1798-1832 English Literature in the Romantic Period1832-1901 English Literature in the Victorian Age1901- English Literature of the Twentieth CenturyThe social, political and ideological conditions of each period of English LiteratureThe prevailing literary trends and schools of the timeLiterary TermsExample :genre---a type or class of literatureIn English literature, the main generic division today is into poetry, drama and the novel, but in earlier times the major genres were recognized asepic, tragedy, lyric, comedy and satire.(Literary Terms and Criticism by John Peck and Martin Coyle) mode---a recognized type or kind of work within a genre, such as the sonnet or the realistic novel.Do you agree that these definitions of the genres or of themodes can help us to identify what is distinctive about specific works of literature? Why or why not?Another popular division:1 Fiction: it is referred to as creative or figurative expression of life.four genres ---novels, short stories, plays and poems.2 non-fiction(essay): it is referred to a literal expression of life or discursive writing. description, narration, exposition , and argumentation. What is poetry?Poetry is a kind of writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through its meaning, sound, and rhythm. Types of Poetry1 lyric poetryIt expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet elegies, odes, and sonnets2 Narrative PoetryIt tells a story or presents a narrative3 Dramatic PoetryIt is written in the form of a speech of an individual character to an imaginary audienceThe Anglo-Saxon Period(449-10661 Anglo-Saxon Conquest1.1 The making of Englandthree tribes :Angles, Saxons and JutesAnglo-Saxon Conquest ( the 5th century)Angles-the east midland-kingdom of East AnglesSaxons- the southern part of the island EnglandJutes - the southeastern corner of the islandAnglo-Saxon ConquestAnglo-Saxons---- Angles, Saxons and JutesEnglishmenLanguage---- the Old English (foundation)The history of English literature beganCharacteristics of Anglo-Saxon Literature or the Old English LiteratureGeneral Characteristicsa verse literature in oral form/ unknown creators /a written form long after its compositionThe two divisions of Anglo-Saxon 1literatureTwo divisions: pagan , Christian (textbook)English Poetry in Anglo-Saxon periodthe pagan poetry (Beowulf) ,the religious poetry ( see textbook)2.2.3 English Prose in Anglo-Saxon periodAnglo-Saxon PoetryWhat is the oldest surviving epic in British literature?written by an anonymous scribe (an unknown scribethe national epic of the English peopledescribes the adventures of a great Scandinavian hero Beowulf of the sixth century3182 linesa written form long after its compositionWhat are the main incidents of the poem Beowulf?The Subject Matter of The Song of BeowulfFour incidents of the poemBeowulf’s fight with the monster Grendel in Hrothgar’s hall. Beowulf’s slaying of Grendel’s mother in her lair.Beowulf’s return in glory to his uncle, and his succession tothe throne. Beowulf’s victory in death over the fire dragon fifty years later Metaphor:a figure of speech that makes a comparison between twothings that are basically dissimilar.understatement :A figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants.“not troublesome” for very welcome“need not praise” for a right to condemn.The Anglo-Norman Period(1066-1350)The Norman ConquestDuke William /1066 /Hastings/the King of England /the establishment of feudalism in England/the feudal social structure /the pyramid in Egypt /King William - barons and knights The influence of the Norman Conquest on the English Language Three languages existed in England at that time: the Normans spoke Frenchthe lower class spoke Englishthe scholars and clergymen used LatinMany French words were adopted into the English language.Example: calf, swine and sheep for the animalsveal, pork, mutton are the French for the flesh The influence of the Norman Conquest on the English Literature chivalry (ideal knight’s charact eristics) was introduced by the Normans into England.The prevailing form : Romance.In romance, the chivalric love, faith and courage of the Middle Ages in Europe is always emphasized.The Romances in the Anglo-Norman PeriodThe essential features of the Romance1 It lacks general resemblance to reality.2 The central character was always the knight. He was devoted to the church and the king.3The theme of loyalty to king and lord was repeatedly emphasized. The devotion to a fair lady was also emphasized.4 The adventures are remote from our ordinary life.5 It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtue. Romance Cycles1The matters of France deal with the adventures of Charles the Great and his peers.2 The matters of Roman deal with the tales from Greek and Roman sources.3 The matters of Britain mainly deal with the adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round.The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the culmination of the Arthurian romances.Sir Gawain and the Green KnightAbout the storywritten in the late fourteenth centuryfour sections, 2530 lines, from Celtic legendtwo stories:the testing at Bercilak’s castlethe beheading of the Green Knight at the beginning and the return blow at the endSir Gawain and the Green KnightComments on the romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the culmination of the Arthurian romancesin form---combination of French and Saxon elementtwo main motifs :the testing of faith, courage and puritythe proving of human weakness for self-preservationSir Gawain and the Green KnightThe story well toldthe careful interweaving of one episode with anothersuspense and surprisethe psychological analysislanguage is simple and straightforwardShortcomings:superstition and supernatural elementsthe heroic adventures of Sir Gawain -- for adventure’s sake.epic: It is a long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. The oldest surviving epic in British literature is The Song of Beowulf. alliteration : It is mainly a poetic device. It refers to the repetition of consonants, especially at the beginning of words. In alliterative verse, certain accented words in a line begin with the same consonant sound. In Old English poetry alliteration was a regular element of each line. romance: It was the prevailing form of literature in the Middle Ages. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the best of the medieval romances.IntroductionThe Romances---an epitome of the Middle Agesthe Norman Conquest ->feudalism in Englandthe romance-> the noble classsongs and ballads > the English common peoplefolk songs-(oral , existed long before the Norman Conquest , continued after it)ballad: a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with thesecond and fourth lines rhymed.Joined by the audienceIn various English and Scottish dialectsThe origin is obscureBe handed down orally for many generationsThe subjects of balladsThe struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded familiesThe conflict between love and wealthThe matters of class struggle etc.The Ballads of Robin Hooda legendary outlawlived during the reign of Richard Ithe leader of a band of outlawslived in the deep forestattacked the richhelped the poor people.waged war against the bishops and archbishops.“Popular ballads portray Robin Hood as a tireless enemy of the Norman oppressors, the idol of the country folk and champion of the poor and needy, as a man who readily responds to anyone’s call for help. And in gratitude for this poetic emotion, the people have made an almost saintlike hero out of a man who was probably no more than a common outlaw.”(Gorky)在民谣中，罗宾汉被刻画成为了一个与诺曼压迫者进行无休止斗争的反抗者，农民心中的偶像，贫民眼里的勇士，一个随时会去帮助他人的好汉。
简明英国文学史笔记整理
简明英国文学史笔记整理
英国文学史可以追溯到古罗马时期，从那时起就有大量的古典文献流传下来。
十七世纪开始，英国文学便进入了一个重要的发展阶段，此时出现了一批重要的文学作家，如莎士比亚、乔叟等。
十八世纪是伊丽莎白时期，英国文学出现了多面性的发展，此时出现的文学作家有荒诞主义创始人博罗斯基、浪漫主义诗人华兹华斯等。
19世纪英国文学发展迅速，出现了大量伟大的作家，如狄更斯、奥斯卡王尔德、萧伯纳等。
20世纪，现代主义文学派站稳脚跟，英国文学又有了新的发展，让许多伟大的作家如福克纳、厄普代克等留下了众多精彩的文学作品。
英国文学史课堂笔记
英国文学史课堂笔记两希文化：古希腊文化和希伯来文化。
干禄《圣经》（《旧约》和《新约》）房龙：《圣经的故事》《丑陋的中国人》斯宾格勒：《文明的衰落》汤因比：《历史研究》亨廷顿：《文明的冲突与世界秩序的重建》（文明冲突论）老子，李耳，玄元皇帝/玄祖庄子：《南华真经》儒家——入世道家——出世《培根论说文集》钱钟书、辜鸿鸣、徐志摩……The Celtsthe Celtic Invasion1) Iberian --- Celtic invasion --- Britons (tribe of Celts)2) The Roman Conquest: 55 BC-410, Natives --- Britons, Christianity introduced培根说：“笔记使人准确。
”《培根论说文集》《新工具》3) English Conquest: mid-5th century, tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes --- Anglo-Saxons (English) --- Anglo-Saxon / Old English7 kingdoms --- 7 century(The Anglo-Saxons Christianized), United kingdom (England --- the land of Angles)Transition from tribal society to feudalism4) The Danish Invasion: 787-1043, King Alfred the Great,The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle --- prose of Old English5) The Norman Conquest: 1066-, William, the Conqueror, confiscate the lands of lords, surveyI came and I conquered.我死后哪怕洪水滔天。
英国文学简完全笔记
英国文学简史完全笔记A Concise History of British LiteratureChapter 1 English Literature of Anglo-Saxon PeriodI.Introduction1. The historical background（1）Before the Germanic invasion（2）During the Germanic invasiona. immigration;b. Christianity;c. heptarchy.d. social classes structure: hide-hundred; eoldermen （lord）– thane - middle class （freemen）- lower class （slave or bondmen: theow）;e. social organization: clan or tribes.f. military Organization;g. Church function: spirit, civil service, education;h. economy: coins, trade, slavery;i. feasts and festival: Halloween, Easter; j. legal system.2. The Overview of the culture（1）The mixture of pagan and Christian spirit.（2）Literature: a. poetry: two types; b. prose: two figures.II.Beowulf.1. A general introduction.2. The content.3. The literary features.（1）the use of alliteration（2）the use of metaphors and understatements（3）the mixture of pagan and Christian elementsIII.The Old English Prose1.What is prose?2.figures（1）The V enerable Bede（2）Alfred the GreatChapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages I.Introduction1. The Historical Background.（1）The year 1066: Norman Conquest.（2）The social situations soon after the conquest.A. Norman nobles and serfs;B. restoration of the church.（3）The 11th century.A. the crusade and knights.B. dominance of French and Latin;（4）The 12th century.A. the centralized government;B. kings and the church （Henry II and Thomas）;（5）The 13th century.A. The legend of Robin Hood;B. Magna Carta （1215）;C. the beginning of the ParliamentD. English and Latin: official languages （the end）（6）The 14th century.a. the House of Lords and the House of Commons—conflict between the Parliament and Kings;b. the rise of towns.c. the change of Church.d. the role of women.e. the Hundred Years' War—starting.f. the development of the trade: London.g. the Black Death.h. the Peasants' Revolt—1381.i. The translation of Bible by Wycliff.（7）The 15th century.a. The Peasants Revolt （1453）b. The War of Roses between Lancasters and Yorks.c. the printing-press—William Caxton.d. the starting of Tudor Monarchy（1485）2. The Overview of Literature.（1）the stories from the Celtic lands of Wales and Brittany—great myths of the Middle Ages. （2）Geoffrye of Monmouth—Historia Regum Britanniae—King Authur.（3）Wace—Le Roman de Brut.（4）The romance.（5）the second half of the 14th century: Langland, Gawin poet, Chaucer.II.Sir Gawin and Green Knight.1. a general introduction.2. the plot.III.William Langland.1. Life2. Piers the PlowmanIV.Chaucer1. Life2. Literary Career: three periods（1）French period（2）Italian period（3）master period3. The Canterbury TalesA. The Framework;B. The General Prologue;C. The Tale Proper.4. His Contribution.（1）He introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types.（2）He is the first great poet who wrote in the current English language.（3）The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.V. Popular Ballads.VI.Thomas Malory and English ProseVII.The beginning of English Drama.1. Miracle Plays.Miracle play or mystery play is a form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching its height in the 15th century. The simple lyric character of the early texts was enlarged by the addition of dialogue and dramatic action. Eventually the performance was moved to the churchyard and the marketplace.2. Morality Plays.A morality play is a play enforcing a moral truth or lesson by means of the speech and action of characters which are personified abstractions – figures representing vices and virtues, qualities of the human mind, or abstract conceptions in general.3. Interlude.The interlude, which grew out of the morality, was intended, as its name implies, to be used more as a filler than as the main part of an entertainment. As its best it was short, witty, simple in plot, suited for the diversion of guests at a banquet, or for the relaxation of the audience between the divisions of a serious play. It was essentially an indoors performance, and generally of an aristocratic nature.英国文学简史完全笔记2007-7-2713:56页面功能【字体：大中小】【打印】【关闭】Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance I.A Historical BackgroundII.The Overview of the Literature （1485-1660）Printing press—readership—growth of middle class—trade-education for laypeople-centralization of power-intellectual life-exploration-new impetus and direction of literature.Humanism-study of the literature of classical antiquity and reformed education.Literary style-modeled on the ancients.The effect of humanism-the dissemination of the cultivated, clear, and sensible attitude of its classically educated adherents.1. poetryThe first tendency by Sidney and Spenser: ornate, florid, highly figured style.The second tendency by Donne: metaphysical style—complexity and ingenuity.The third tendency by Johnson: reaction——Classically pure and restrained style.The fourth tendency by Milton: central Christian and Biblical tradition.2. Dramaa. the native tradition and classical examples.b. the drama stands highest in popular estimation: Marlowe – Shakespeare – Jonson.3. Prosea. translation of Bible;b. More;c. Bacon.II.English poetry.1. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard （courtly makers）（1）Wyatt: introducing sonnets.（2）Howard: introducing sonnets and writing the first blank verse.2. Sir Philip Sidney—poet, critic, prose writer（1）Life:a. English gentleman;b. brilliant and fascinating personality;c. courtier.（2）worksa. Arcadia: pastoral romance;b. Astrophel and Stella （108）: sonnet sequence to Penelope Dvereux—platonic devotion. Petrarchan conceits and original feelings-moving to creativeness—building of a narrative story; theme-love originality-act of writing.c. Defense of Poesy: an apology for imaginative literature—beginning of literary criticism.3. Edmund Spenser（1）life: Cambridge - Sidney's friend - “Areopagus” – Ireland - Westminster Abbey.（2）worksa. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry in Renaissance.b. Amoretti and Epithalamion: sonnet sequencec. Faerie Queene:l The general end——A romantic and allegorical epic—steps to virtue.l 12 books and 12 virtues: Holiness, temperance, justice and courtesy.l Two-level function: part of the story and part of allegory （symbolic meaning）l Many allusions to classical writers.l Themes: puritanism, nationalism, humanism and Renaissance Neoclassicism—a Christian humanist. （3）Spenserian Stanza.III.English Prose1. Thomas More（1）Life: “Renaissance man”, scholar, statesman, theorist, prose writer, diplomat, patron of artsa. learned Greek at Canterbury College, Oxford;b. studies law at Lincoln Inn;c. Lord Chancellor;d. beheaded.（2）Utopia: the first English science fiction.Written in Latin, two parts, the second—place of nowhere.A philosophical mariner （Raphael Hythloday）tells his voyages in which he discovers a land-Utopia.a. The part one is organized as dialogue with mariner depicting his philosophy.b. The part two is a description of the island kingdom where gold and silver are worn by criminal, religious freedom is total and no one owns anything.c. the nature of the book: attacking the chief political and social evils of his time.d. the book and the Republic: an attempt to describe the Republic in a new way, but it possesses an modern character and the resemblance is in externals.e. it played a key role in the Humanist awakening of the 16th century which moved away from the Medieval otherworldliness towards Renaissance secularism.f. the Utopia（3）the significance.a. it was the first champion of national ideas and national languages; it created a national prose, equally adapted to handling scientific and artistic material.b. a elegant Latin scholar and the father of English prose: he composed works in English, translated from Latin into English biography, wrote History of Richard III.2. Francis Bacon: writer, philosopher and statesman（1）life: Cambridge - humanism in Paris –knighted - Lord Chancellor –bribery - focusing on philosophy and literature.（2）philosophical ideas: advancement of science—people:servants and interpreters of nature—method: a child before nature—facts and observations: experimental.（3）“Essays”: 57.a. he was a master of numerous and varied styles.b. his method is to weigh and balance maters, indicating the ideal course of action and the practical one, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each, but leaving the reader to make the final decisions. （arguments）IV.English Drama1. A general survey.（1）Everyman marks the beginning of modern drama.（2）two influences.a. the classics: classical in form and English in content;b. native or popular drama.（3）the University Wits.2. Christopher Marlowe: greatest playwright before Shakespeare and most gifted of the Wits.（1）Life: first interested in classical poetry—then in drama.（2）Major worksa. Tamburlaine;b. The Jew of Malta;c. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.（3）The significance of his plays.V. William Shakespeare1. Life（1）1564, Stratford-on-Avon;（2）Grammar School;（3）Queen visit to Castle;（4）marriage to Anne Hathaway;（5）London, the Globe Theatre: small part and proprietor;（6）the 1st Folio, Quarto;（7）Retired, son—Hamnet; H. 1616.2. Dramatic career3. Major plays-men-centered.（1）Romeo and Juliet——tragic love and fate（2）The Merchant of Venice.Good over evil.Anti-Semitism.（3）Henry IV.National unity.Falstaff.（4）Julius CaesarRepublicanism vs. dictatorship.（5）HamletRevengeGood/evil.（6）OthelloDiabolic characterjealousygap between appearance and reality.（7）King LearFilial ingratitude（8）MacbethAmbition vs. fate.（9）Antony and Cleopatra.Passion vs. reason（10）The TempestReconciliation; reality and illusion.3. Non-dramatic poetry（1）Venus and Adonis; The Rape of Lucrece.（2）Sonnets:a. theme: fair, true, kind.b. two major parts: a handsome young man of noble birth; a lady in dark complexion.c. the form: three quatrains and a couplet.d. the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.VI.Ben Jonson1. life: poet, dramatist, a Latin and Greek scholar, the “literary king” （Sons of Ben）2.contribution:（1）the idea of “humour”.（2）an advocate of classical drama and a forerunner of classicism in English literature.3. Major plays（1）Everyone in His Humour—“humour”; three unities.（2）V olpone the FoxChapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century I.A Historical BackgroundII.The Overview of the Literature （1640-1688）1. The revolution period（1）The metaphysical poets;（2）The Cavalier poets.（3）Milton: the literary and philosophical heritage of the Renaissance merged with Protestant political and moral conviction2. The restoration period.（1）The restoration of Charles II ushered in a literature characterized by reason, moderation, good taste, deft management, and simplicity. （school of Ben Jonson）（2）The ideals of impartial investigation and scientific experimentation promoted by the newly founded Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge （1662）were influential in the development of clear and simple prose as an instrument of rational communication.（3）The great philosophical and political treatises of the time emphasize rationalism.（4）The restoration drama.（5）The Age of Dryden.III.John Milton1. Life: educated at Cambridge—visiting the continent—involved into the revolution—persecuted—writing epics.2. Literary career.（1）The 1st period was up to 1641, during which time he is to be seen chiefly as a son of the humanists and Elizabethans, although his Puritanism is not absent. L'Allegre and IL Pens eroso （1632）are his early masterpieces, in which we find Milton a true offspring of the Renaissance, a scholar of exquisite taste and rare culture. Next came Comus, a masque. The greatest of early creations was Lycidas, a pastoral elegy on the death of a college mate, Edward King.（2）The second period is from 1641 to 1654, when the Puritan was in such complete ascendancy that he wrote almost no poetry. In 1641, he began a long period of pamphleteering for the puritan cause. For some 15 years, the Puritan in him alone ruled his writing. He sacrificed his poetic ambition to the call of the liberty for which Puritans were fighting.（3）The third period is from 1655 to 1671, when humanist and Puritan have been fused into an exalted entity. This period is the greatest in his literary life, epics and some famous sonnets. The three long poems are the fruit of the long contest within Milton of Renaissance tradition and his Puritan faith. They form the greatest accomplishments of any English poet except Shakespeare. In Milton alone, it would seem, Puritanism could not extinguish the lover of beauty. In these works we find humanism and Puritanism merged in magnificence.3. Major Works（1）Paradise Losta. the plot.b. characters.c. theme: justify the ways of God to man.（2）Paradise Regained.（3）Samson Agonistes.4. Features of Milton's works.（1）Milton is one of the very few truly great English writers who is also a prominent figure in politics, and who is both a great poet and an important prose writer. The two most essential thingsto be remembered about him are his Puritanism and his republicanism.（2）Milton wrote many different types of poetry. He is especially a great master of blank verse. He learned much from Shakespeare and first used blank verse in non-dramatic works.（3）Milton is a great stylist. He is famous for his grand style noted for its dignity and polish, which is the result of his life-long classical and biblical study.（4）Milton has always been admired for his sublimity of thought and majesty of expression. IV.John Bunyan1. life:（1）puritan age;（2）poor family;（3）parliamentary army;（4）Baptist society, preacher;（5）prison, writing the book.2. The Pilgrim Progress（1）The allegory in dream form.（2）the plot.（3）the theme.V. Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets.1. Metaphysical PoetsThe term “metaphysical poetry” is commonly used to designate the works of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. Pressured by the harsh, uncomfortable and curious age, the metaphysical poets sought to shatter myths and replace them with new philosophies, new sciences, new words and new poetry. They tried to break away from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry, and favoured in poetry for a more colloquial language and tone, a tightness of expression and the single-minded working out of a theme or argument.2. Cavalier PoetsThe other group prevailing in this period was that of Cavalier poets. They were often courtiers who stood on the side of the king, and called themselves “sons” of Ben Jonson. The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elegant, amorous and gay, but often superficial. Most of their verses were short songs, pretty madrigals, love fancies characterized by lightness of heart and of morals. Cavalier poems have the limpidity of the Elizabethan lyric without its imaginative flights. They are lighter and neater but less fresh than the Elizabethan's.VI.John Dryden.1. Life:（1）the representative of classicism in the Restoration.（2）poet, dramatist, critic, prose writer, satirist.（3）changeable in attitude.（4）Literary career—four decades.（5）Poet Laureate2. His influences.（1）He established the heroic couplet as the fashion for satiric, didactic, and descriptive poetry. （2）He developed a direct and concise prose style.（3）He developed the art of literary criticism in his essays and in the numerous prefaces to hispoems.Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th Century I.Introduction1. The Historical Background.2. The literary overview.（1）The Enlightenment.（2）The rise of English novels.When the literary historian seeks to assign to each age its favourite form of literature, he finds no difficulty in dealing with our own time. As the Middle Ages delighted in long romantic narrative poems, the Elizabethans in drama, the Englishman of the reigns of Anne and the early Georges in didactic and satirical verse, so the public of our day is enamored of the novel. Almost all types of literary production continue to appear, but whether we judge from the lists of publishers, the statistics of public libraries, or general conversation, we find abundant evidence of the enormous preponderance of this kind of literary entertainment in popular favour.（3）Neo-classicism: a revival in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of classical standards of order, balance, and harmony in literature. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major exponents of the neo-classical school.（4）Satiric literature.（5）SentimentalismII.Neo-classicism. （a general description）1. Alexander Pope（1）Life:a.Catholic family;b.ill health;c.taught himself by reading and translating;d.friend of Addison, Steele and Swift.（2）three groups of poems:e.An Essay on Criticism （manifesto of neo-classicism）;f. The Rape of Lock;g.Translation of two epics.（3）His contribution:h.the heroic couplet—finish, elegance, wit, pointedness;i.satire.（4）weakness: lack of imagination.2. Addison and Steele（1）Richard Steele: poet, playwright, essayist, publisher of newspaper.（2）Joseph Addison: studies at Oxford, secretary of state, created a literary periodical “Spectator” （with Steele, 1711）（3）Spectator Club.（4）The significance of their essays.a. Their writings in “The Tatler”, and “The Spectator” provide a new code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie.b. They give a true picture of the social life of England in the 18th century.c. In their hands, the English essay completely established itself as a literary genre. Using it as a form of character sketching and story telling, they ushered in the dawn of the modern novel.3. Samuel Johnson—poet, critic, essayist, lexicographer, editor.（1）Life:a.studies at Oxford;b.made a living by writing and translating;c.the great cham of literature.（2）works: poem （The Vanity of Human Wishes, London）; criticism （The Lives of great Poets）; preface.（3）The champion of neoclassical ideas.III.Literature of Satire: Jonathan Swift.1.Life:（1）born in Ireland;（2）studies at Trinity College;（3）worked as a secretary;（4）the chief editor of The Examiner;（5）the Dean of St. Patrick's in Dublin.2. Works: The Battle of Books, A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal, Gulliver's Travels.3. Gulliver's Travels.Part I. Satire—the Whig and the Tories, Anglican Church and Catholic Church.Part II. Satire—the legal system; condemnation of war.Part III. Satire—ridiculous scientific experiment.Part IV. Satire—mankind.IV.English Novels of Realistic tradition.1. The Rise of novels.（1）Early forms: folk tale – fables – myths – epic – poetry – romances – fabliaux – novelle - imaginative nature of their material. （imaginative narrative）（2）The rise of the novela.picaresque novel in Spain and England （16th century）: Of or relating to a genre of prose fiction that originated in Spain and depicts in realistic detail the adventures of a roguish hero, often with satiric or humorous effects.b.Sidney: Arcadia.c. Addison and Steele: The Spectator.（plot and characterization and realism）（3）novel and drama （17the century）2. Daniel Defoe—novelist, poet, pamphleteer, publisher, merchant, journalist.）（1）Life:a.business career;b.writing career;c.interested in politics.（2）Robinson Cusoe.a. the story.b. the significance of the character.c. the features of his novels.d. the style of language.3. Henry Fielding—novelist.（1）Life:a.unsuccessful dramatic career;b.legal career; writing career.（2）works.（3）Tom Jones.a.the plot;b.characters: Tom, Blifil, Sophia;c.significance.（4）the theory of realism.（5）the style of language.V. Writers of Sentimentalism.1. Introduction2. Samuel Richardson—novelist, moralist （One who is unduly concerned with the morals of others.）（1）Life:a.printer book seller;b.letter writer.（2）Pamela, Virtue Rewarded.a.the storyb.the significancePamela was a new thing in these ways:a）It discarded the “improbable and marvelous” accomplishments of the former heroic romances, and pictured the life and love of ordinary people.b）Its intension was to afford not merely entertainment but also moral instruction.c）It described not only the sayings and doings of characters but their also their secret thoughts and feelings. It was, in fact, the first English psycho-analytical novel.3. Oliver Goldsmith—poet and novelist.A. Life:a.born in Ireland;b.a singer and tale-teller, a life of vagabondage;c.bookseller;d.the Literary Club;e.a miserable life;f. the most lovable character in English literature.B. The Vicar of Wakefield.a.story;b.the signicance.VI.English Drama of the 18th century1. The decline of the drama2. Richard Brinsley SheridenA. life.B. works: Rivals, The School for Scandals.C. significance of his plays.a. The Rivals and The School for Scandal are generally regarded as important links between themasterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy.b. In his plays, morality is the constant theme. He is much concerned with the current moral issues and lashes harshly at the social vices of the day.c. Sheridan's greatness also lies in his theatrical art. He seems to have inherited from his parents a natural ability and inborn knowledge about the theatre. His plays are the product of a dramatic genius as well as of a well-versed theatrical man.d. His plots are well-organized, his characters, either major or minor, are all sharply drawn, and his manipulation of such devices as disguise, mistaken identity and dramatic irony is masterly. Witty dialogues and neat and decent language also make a characteristic of his plays.Chapter 6 English Literature of the Romantic Age I.Introduction1. Historical Background2. Literary Overview: RomanticismCharacteristics of Romanticism:（1）The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings（2）The creation of a world of imagination（3）The return to nature for material（4）Sympathy with the humble and glorification of the commonplace（5）Emphasis upon the expression of individual genius（6）The return to Milton and the Elizabethans for literary models（7）The interest in old stories and medieval romances（8）A sense of melancholy and loneliness（9）The rebellious spiritII.Pre-Romantics1. Robert Burns（1）Life: French Revolution（2）Features of poetrya. Burns is chiefly remembered for his songs written in the Scottish dialect.b. His poems are usually devoid of artificial ornament and have a great charm of simplicity.c. His poems are especially appreciated for their musical effect.d. His political and satirical poems are noted for his passionate love for freedom and fiery sentiments of hatred against tyranny.（3）Significance of his poetryHis poetry marks an epoch in the history of English literature. They suggested that the spirit of the Romantic revival was embodied in this obscure ploughman. Love, humour, pathos, the response to nature – all the poetic qualities that touch the human heart are in his poems, which marked the sunrise of another day – the day of Romanticism.2. William Blake（1）life: French Revolution（2）works.l Songs of Innocencel Songs of Experience（3）featuresa. sympathy with the French Revolutionb. hatred for 18th century conformity and social institutionc. attitude of revolt against authorityd. strong protest against restrictive codes（4）his influenceBlake is often regarded as a symbolist and mystic, and he has exerted a great influence on twentieth century writers. His peculiarities of thought and imaginative vision have in many ways proved far more congenial to the 20th century than they were to the 19th.III.Romantic Poets of the first generation1. Introduction2. William Wordsworth: representative poet, chief spokesman of Romantic poetry（1）Life:a.love nature;b.Cambridge;c.tour to France;d.French revolution;e.Dorathy;f. The Lake District;g.friend of Coleridge;h.conservative after revolution.（2）works:a. the Lyrical Ballads （preface）: significanceb. The Prelude: a biographical poem.c. the other poems（3）Features of his poems.a.ThemeA constant theme of his poetry was the growth of the human spirit through the natural description with expressions of inward states of mind.b.characteristics of style.His poems are characterized by a sympathy with the poor, simple peasants, and a passionate love of nature.3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge: poet and critic（1）Life:a.Cambridge;b.friend with Southey and Wordsworth;c.taking opium.（2）works.l The fall of Robespierrel The Rime of the Ancient Marinerl Kubla Khanl Biographia Literaria（3）Biographia Literaria.（4）His criticismHe was one of the first critics to give close critical attention to language. In both poetry and criticism, his work is outstanding, but it is typical of him that his critical work is very scattered and disorganized.IV.Romantic Poets of the Second Generation.1. Introduction2. George Gordon Byron（1）Life:a.Cambridge, published poems and reviews;b.a tour of Europe and the East;c.left England;d.friend with Shelley;e.worked in Greece: national hero;f. radical and sympathetic with French Revolution.（2）Works.l Don Juanl When We Two Partedl She Walks in Beauty（3）Byronic Hero.Byron introduced into English poetry a new style of character, which as often been referred to as “Byronic Hero” of “satanic spirit”. People imagined that they saw something of Byron himself in these strange figures of rebels, pirates, and desperate adventurers.（4）Poetic style: loose, fluent and vivid3. Percy Bysshe Shelley: poet and critic（1）Life:a.aristocratic family;b.rebellious heart;c.Oxford;d.Irish national liberation Movement;e.disciple of William Godwin;f. marriage with Harriet, and Marry;g.left England and wandered in EUrope, died in Italy;h.radical and sympathetic with the French revolution;i. Friend with Byron（2）works: two types – violent reformer and wanderer（3）Characteristics of poems.a.pursuit of a better society;b.radian beauty;c. superb artistry: imagination.（4）Defense of Poetry.4. John Keats.（1）Life:a.from a poor family;b.Cockney School;c.friend with Byron and Shelley;d.attacked by the conservatives and died in Italy.（2）works.（3）Characteristics of poems。
英国文学精髓笔记整理
• 1. William Shakespeare P27 Hamlet• 2. John Milton P57 Paradise Lost• 3. Daniel Defoe P81 Robinson Crusoe• 4. Robert Burns p.121 A Red, Red Rose• 5. William Wordsworth P130 I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud• 6. George Gordon Byron P149 When We Two Parted•7. Percy Bysshe Shelley P159 Ode to the West Wind•8. William Makepeace Thackeray P206 Vanity Fair•9. Thomas Hardy P266 Tess‘s of D‘Urbervilles•10. Oscar Wilde P278 The Importance of Being Earnest•11. Joseph Conrad p.309 Heart of Darkness•12. Virginia Woolf P325 Mrs. DallowayRomeo and Juliet•About the author, William Shakespeare•P.8•Iambic pentameter is one of many meters used in poetry and drama. It describes a particular rhythm that the words establish in each line. That rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables; these small groups of syllables are called "feet". The word "iambic"describes the type of foot that is used. The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these "feet".• 2. Bright on the cheek of night,•Rich jewel in an Ethiop‘s ear,• A snowy dove trooping with crows•Images of contrasting light and darkness color highlight Juliet‘s beauty. As the prominence of darkness and light suggests, Romeo and Juliet is a play about extremes and oppositions: the union of the lovers versus the feud between their families; age against youth; the weight of the past versus the promise of the future. Most important, the lovers themselves stand in opposition to the rest of the world.•Humanism in Romeo and Juliet•Both the story of Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare's life take place during the Renaissance, a period that begins in the fourteenth century and extends into theseventeenth century. The term renaissance means rebirth and refers to the revival of an interest in the classical cultures of Greece and Rome.Renaissance and Humanism•Read pp.21-22•The term renaissance means rebirth and refers to the revival of an interest in the classical cultures of Greece and Rome.•During the sixteenth century, ancient Greek and Roman literature was rediscovered, translated, and then widely read. The classical writers focused on the human condition;they explored human nature and asserted some valuable insights about what causes human suffering and what works to establish social order. These ideas, along with many others, converged as a philosophy called humanism. It was in the broadest sense a focus on human beings as opposed to a focus on the supernatural. Renaissance writers such asShakespeare were well-read in classical literature and were influenced by it. In one sense, Romeo and Juliet dramatizes how an inherited feud coupled with impetuosity(急噪) can disrupt the state and ruin good people's lives. The play shows that passion can bedisruptive, dangerous, and destructive, and yet ironically it also expresses love and grief.Through the loss of these two young lovers, the feuding families find reconciliation, and order in the community is reestablished. This examination of the human scene is anexample of humanism with clear connections to classical handling of tragedy, as inOedipus by Sophocles and Pyramus and Thisbe by Ovid.•For example, Homer‘s Odyssey and Iliad.Hamlet, Prince of Denmark•William Shakespeare (pp.27-29)•His birthday and birthplace•The four great tragedies•Main characters in Hamlet: Hamlet, Claudius, Ophelia, Polonius, Horatio, Laertes, …•Read Act III, Scene I•Understand Hamlet‘s soliloquy.•Soliloquy: Soliloquy is a dramatic speech delivered by one character speaking aloud while under the impression of being alone. The soliloquist thus reveals his or her inner thoughts and feelings to the audience, either in supposed self-communion or in a consciously direct address. It is also known as interior monologue.•Tragedy:• A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.•The genre made up of such works.•The art or theory of writing or producing these works.• A play, film, television program, or other narrative work that portrays or depicts calamitous events and has an unhappy but meaningful ending.• A disastrous event, especially one involving distressing loss or injury to life: an expedition that ended in tragedy, with all hands lost at sea.• A tragic aspect or element.•Humanism: Humanism is a system of beliefs upheld by writers and artists of the Renaissance period in their fighting against medieval asceticism. It states that man is godly, that man is able to find truth, goodness and beauty, and that man is in control of the present life rather than being controlled by God. Briefly, humanism puts man at the center of their beliefs and takes man to be the measure of every thing while the former asceticism puts God at the center of their beliefs and takes personal salvation to be the mostimportant thing on the earth for man.•Humanism in Hamlet•One sees from the very beginning that he is a very complex and conflicted man, and that his tragedy has already begun.•His decision not to kill himself because of religious beliefs shows that this weakness is balanced with some sense of morality. Such an obvious paradox is only one example of the inner conflict and turmoil that will eventually lead to Hamlet‘s down fall. This internal struggle is obvious from his best-known soliloquy.•―To be, or not to be,‖ shows Hamlet contemplating the idea of loyalty, acting upon one‘s morals and their relation to fighting against the challenges of evil. •Meanwhile, he doubts everything, including love. He hesitates, which makes him enter the tragedy.•His tragedy shows the limitation of his thinking as a humanist.•Hamlet, although a complex and unique character, clearly represents the tragic hero.Shakespeare wants to tell us that the real world is unreasonable, but he can‘t solve the question. Because of the limitation of time and rank, the great of Hamlet is that he can reveal ugly exists in the world bravely, but not how to sweep these sins.•Summary of Hamlet‘s characteristics:•Hamlet is in a serious conflict or contradiction, to be or not to be; that is the question; •Hamlet is in a great melancholy and he is sensitive and alert;•Hamlet believes more in the life than the afterlife;•Hamlet is very cautious and thoughtful;•Hamlet has a very perceptive mind at the cruelty and hardships of the life or the society.English Literature during the English Revolution and the Restoration •Before the 17th century•In the 17th century•James I, 1603-1625•Charles I, after James I•Power of King, or, power of parliament•Civil war, 1642-1649•Oliver Cromwell, military dictatorship,1653•Monarchy restoration, 1658, Charles II•James II, King of England, 1685•Prince William of Orange, King of England, 1688, ―Glorious Revolution‖, ―The Bill of Rights‖, the constitutional monarchy•John Milton‘s poetic style: grand in themes, lofty in ideas, and supreme in language.•Paradise Lost•John Bunyan‘s The Pilgrim’s Progress •Metaphysical poets, John Donne, Andrew Marvell •Cavalier poet, Robert Herrick•John DydenJohn Milton and His Paradise Lost •The Story (p.18) learn by heart•人类最初违反天神命令而偷尝禁果，把死亡和其他各种各样的灾难带到人间，于是失去了伊甸乐园，直到出现了一个更伟大的人，才为我们恢复了这乐土。
英国文学与美国文学学习笔记摘抄
I.Literature文学i)English Literature英国文学I .Old and Medieval English literature(450-1066)&(1066-15世纪后期）上古及中世纪英国文学Background：英伦三岛自古以来遭遇过3次外族入侵，分别为古罗马人、盎格鲁-萨克逊人&诺曼底人。
其中后两次在英国文学史上留下了深远影响。
中世纪时期(约1066-15世纪后期）即从诺曼底征服起到文艺复兴前夕，为英国封建社会时期的文学，盛行文学形式为民间抒情诗(the folk ballad)和骑士抒情诗(the romance)。
I）The Anglo-Saxon Period(450-1066)盎格鲁撒克逊文明兴盛时期（上古时期）文学表现形式主要为诗歌散文。
i代表人物和主要作品：第一部民族史诗(the national epic)《贝奥武甫》Beowulf,体现盎格鲁撒克逊人对英雄君主的拥戴和赞美，歌颂了人类战胜以妖怪为代表的神秘自然力量的伟大功绩。
"Down off the moorlands' misting fells cameGrendel stalking;God's brand was on him.大踏步地走下沼泽地，上帝在每个人身上都打下了烙印。
"II)The Norman Period(1066-1350)诺曼时期In the early 11th century all England was conquered by the Danes for 23 years. Then the Danes were expelled, but in 1066 the Normans came from Normandy in northern France to attack England under the leadship of the Duck of Normandy who claimed the English throne. For the last Saxon king, Harold ,had promised that he would give his kingdom to William, Duck of Normandy, as an expression of his gratitude for protecting his kingdom during the invasion by the Danes. This is known as the Norman Conquest.诺曼征服Middle English中世纪英语III)The Age of chaucer(1350-1400)乔叟时期The Hundred Years' War英法百年战争Geoffrey Chaucer杰弗里.乔叟-中世纪最伟大诗人、英国民族文学奠基者。
英国文学笔记整理
英国文学笔记整理【Chapter 1】The Anglo-Saxon Period (450 - 1066)1.Norman Conquest ，10662.Beowulf has 3183 lines, 两个国家：the Danes, the Geats形式：alliterative verse / head rhyme 头韵【Chapter 3】The Age of Chaucer (1350-1400)1.Historical backgroundChaucer and William Langland and the writer of Sir Gawain were contemporaries.But he deserves a period of his own.Two historical events which their influence can be detected in the writings of Chaucer andLangland: The Hundred Years’ War from the reign of Edward III (1327-1377) to the reign of Henry VI (1421-1471), or from 1337-1453; the peasant uprising of 1381, the reign of King Richard II.The French language was gradually replaced by the native tongue.William Langland and another writer John Wycliff expressed people’s hatred for the church and the government.2.John Wycliff 约翰·威克里夫One of the first figures who demanded to reform the church.Translated the Bible into standard English. Fixed a national standard for English prose to replace various dialects. Father of English prose.3.William Langland威廉·兰格伦作品：Piers Plowman《农夫皮尔斯》, or The Vision of Piers Plowman, another alliterative poem besides Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Giving a realistic picture of the 14th centuryEngland.The form of allegory, a story or description in which the characters and events symbolize some deeper underlying meaning, and serve to spread moral teaching. An allegory has a double meaning. A primary or surface meaning, and a secondary meaning, or underlying meaning. In an allegory, abstract qualities or ideas, such as patience, purity or truth, are personified as characters in the story.4.Geoffrey Chaucer 乔叟Died on Oct 25, 1400, buried in the Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey.Works divided into 3 periods, corresponding to the 3 periods of his life.(1) 1360-1372, wrote under the influence of the French literature, even translated French poems himself. Poem The Book of the Duchess, much of conventional romance elements in it.(2) 1372-1386, under the influence of the Italian literature. Troilus and Cryseyde, adapted from a long poem by Boccaccio （薄伽丘）, the writer of The Decameron《十日谈》. The Parliament of Fowls and The House of Fame.(3) the last 15 years of his life. The Canterbury Tales between 1387 and 1400. A general prologue and 24 tales that are connected by “links”.（本该有120个故事，只完成了24个）The Canterbury Tales is written in London dialectThere are 31 people in total （算上乔叟和店主）The prologue and most of the tales are written in heroic couplet（英雄双韵体）, i.e. ,a pair of rhyming iambic pentameter （五音步抑扬格）lines.The significance of The Canterbury Tales:(1)A comprehensive picture of Chaucer’s time. Theyrepresent the whole range of 14th century society except the very top and the very bottom. All persons connected with the church are drown with touches of gentle irony and mild satire, with the exception of the poor parson. It should be noted that each character is not only a typical representative of the class to which he or she belongs, but also has an individual character of his or her own.(2)The dramatic structure of the poem has been highly commended by critics. This kind of a collection of tales put together was not rare in history. For example, Boccacio’s The Decameron. But in The Decameron stories are loosely connected and there is no relation between the story and the story teller. In The Canterbury Tales, stories are cleverly woven together by links between the stories. Most of the stories are related to the personalities of the tellers.(3)Chaucer’s humour: Humour is a characte ristic feature of the English literature. Although he was associated with proud and important personages at court he must always have been conscious of the fact that he did not belong to that society. This explains his gentle satire and mild irony. But his satire can be the bitterest in the portrayal of the pardoner and the summoner.(4)Chaucer’s contribution to the English language: Ever since the Norman conquest, the French language was the language of the court and the upper classes, and Latin was the language of the learned and the church. Chaucer wrote in the London dialect of his day, which he handled dexterously. He proved that the English language is a beautiful language and can be easily handled to express different moods. In so doing, Chaucer greatly increased the prestige of the English language.【Chapter 4】The Fifteenth Century (1400-1550)Historical events:1.The Hundred Year’s War2.The War of the Roses (1455-1485)The War of the Roses, or the Thirty Years’ War, was a series of civil wars fought between the two great families, both of which claimed the right to the English throne.The House of Lancaster →red rose The House of York →white rose3.The discovery of America and the new sea routes4.Reformation of the ChurchPopular BalladsIn the field of literature, folk literature, especially ballads, became an important feature in the 15th century. A ballad is a narration poem that tells a story.★Basic characteristics:1.The beginning is often abrupt.2.There are strong dramatic elements.3.The story is often told through dialogue and action.4.The theme is often tragic, though there are a number of comic ballads.5.※It contains four-line stanzas. The odd numbered lines have four feet each and the even numbered lines have three feet each. Rhymes fall on the even numbered lines. And there is often a refrain at the end of each stanza.Of special significance are the Robin Hood Ballads.Sir Thomas MalorySir Thomas Malory, the author of The Death of Arthur（亚瑟王之死），was important in the fact that it was he who finally compiled together the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table which were scattered in a number of Frenchromances and made great contribution to the development of English prose.It is interesting to note that Robin Hood and King Arthur were both revived at a time when the medieval spirit of chivalry was dying fast and the feudal order was rapidly becoming a thing of the past.Early English PlaysIn ancient Greece and Rome, drama was one of the most popular forms of entertainment. But the Roman Catholic Church prohibited dramatic performances. It was not until the 9th and the 10th centuries that the Catholic Church allowed some of dramatic performance to be used as part of religious services. For example, on Christmas the clergymen would put on a liturgy（礼拜仪式）of the birth of Christ. By the 14th century, the liturgy had developed into mystery plays and miracle plays.mystery plays →based on stories from the Biblemiracle plays →based on the lives of Christian saints【Chapter 5】The English Renaissance (1550-1642)HumanismRenaissance began in the 14th century in Italy and later spread to France, Spain, the Netherlands, and England. It’s ideal was humanism. Renaissance is a French word which means “rebirth” in English.★★★1.With the spreading of the Greek and Roman culture, there appeared a number of humanist scholars who took great interest in the welfare of human beings.2.According to them, it was against human nature to sacrifice the happiness of his life for an after life.3.They argued that man should be given full freedom toenrich their intellectual and emotional life.4.In religion, they demanded the reformation of the church.5.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.6.Humanism shattered the shackles of spiritual bondage of man’s mind by the Roman Catholic Church and opened his eyes to “a brave new world” in front of him.Edmund SpenserSpenser’s first important work is The Shephearde’s Calender（牧羊人日记）, a pastoral poem in 12 parts, one for each month of the year.His major achievement, The Faerie Queen, is an unfinished allegorical romance. According to Spenser’s original plan there should be 12 books, each telling the adventures of one of the 12 knights despatched by the Faerie Queen, Gloria, who represents Glory and Queen Elizabeth in particular. However, Spenser only completed 6 of the books, in which the six virtues of Truth, Temperance, Friendship, Justice, Chastity, and Coutesy are presented.Spenserian stanza:九行一节，前八行均为五音步抑扬格，第九行为六个音节The seven deadly sins: Pride（傲慢）,Wrath（暴怒）,Sloth （懒惰）,Greed（贪婪）,Envy（嫉妒）,Gluttony（暴食）, Lust（淫欲）Christopher MarloweChristopher Marlowe was the most prominent of the University Wits.His first play Tamburlaine the Great (1587)（帖木儿大帝）is about the story of Timur the Tartar(1336-1405). The central figure Tamburlaine represents the Renaissance desire for infinite powerand authority. He is not only ruthlessly cruel and brutal in punishing his enemies, but also violently passionate in love.The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus (1592)（浮士德博士的悲剧）,adapted from a popular old German legend, is sort of companion to Tamburlaine in reflecting the Renaissance desire for infinite knowledge. Tired with the scholastic study of the four subjects of Medieval knowledge, that is , Theology, Philosophy, Medicine, and Law, Dr.Faustus turns to magic book and signs a contract with the devil Mephistopheles. He sells his soul to the devil on the condition that the latter will satisfy every demand of his for a period of 24 years.As a dramatist, Marlowe has limitations. His plot construction is loose and his characters are merely embodiments （具体化）of ideas. But Marlowe is the only dramatist of the time who is ever compared with Shakespeare.Ben Jonson coined the phrase “Marlowe’s magic lines”. The blank verse（无韵诗）, i.e. , unrhymed iambic pentameter, used in his dramas, was the chief verse form used by Shakespeare.William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare wrote 37 plays in all during his life.Shakespeare’s writing career may be roughly divided into four stages.1.The early years were years of his apprenticeship, dating from 1592 to 1594.2.The second period is a period of rapid growth and development, dating from 1595 to 1600.3.The third period is a period of gloom and depression, dating from 1601 to 1608.4.The fourth period is a period of restored serenity, from 1608 to 1612.★★★Shakespeare’s achievements:1.Shakespeare represented the trend of history in giving voice to the desires and aspirations of the people.2.Shakespeare’s humanism: More important than his historical sense of his time, Shakespeare in his plays reflects the spirit of his age.3.Shakespeare’s characterization: Shakespeare was most successful in his characterization. In his plays, he described a great number of characters, ranging from kings to crowns, rascals, and grave-diggers; from lunatics to ghosts; from lovers to man-haters.4.Shakespeare’s originality: Shakespeare drew most of his materials from sources that were known to his audience. But his plays are original because he instilled into the old materials a new spirit that gives new life to his plays.5.Shakespeare as a great poet: Shakespeare was not only a great dramatist, but also a great poet. Apart from his sonnets and long poems, his dramas are poetry.6.Shakespeare as a master of the English language: It is estimated that he had a command of about 15,000 words. He was especially successful in handling the different meanings of the same word, or words having the same sound but different meanings.A sonnet （十四行诗）is a poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter with various rhyming schemes. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets altogether in number. The 154 sonnets fall into two groups, divided at sonnet 126. The first group was addressed to a Mr. W. H.. The second group was addressed to a dark lady.The metrical form（韵律形式）of Shakespeare’s sonnets isdifferent from that of Petrarach’s（彼特拉克）. Italian Sonnet British SonnetOctave前八行abba abba （提出问题） 3 quatrains（四行诗）abab cdcd efefSestet 后六行cde cde （作出回答） a couplet（双行诗）gg【Chapter 6】The Seventeenth Century (1603-1688)Francis BaconThough Bacon was Shakespeare’s contemporary, he is generally regarded as the chief figure in English prose in the first half of the 17th century and his essays began the long tradition of the English essay in the history of English literature.As a philoso pher, Bacon is praised by Marx as “the progenitor of English materialism”（英国唯物主义的始祖）. because he stressed the importance of experience, or experiment, which is in direct opposition to the superstitution and scholasticism of the Middle Ages.Bacon’s 58 essa ys were publisher in 1625. They are the author’s reflections an comments, mostly on rather abstract subjects, such as “Of Truth”, “Of Friendship”, and “Of Riches”. They are known for their conciseness, brevity, simplicity, and forcefulness.Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier PoetsDuring the reign of Charles I, there were two schools of poets, metaphysical poets（玄学派诗人）and cavalier poets （骑士派诗人）.The main themes of the metaphysical poets are love, death, and religion. The chief representative of this school was John Donne.The cavaliers were royalists, whose poetry was marked by courtliness, urbanity, and polish. The chief representative of thecavaliers was Ben Jonson, who besides being a poet, was also a playwright.John Donne作品：Songs and Sonnets, a collection of his 55 love lyrics, was published after his death in 1633.Donne’s love lyrics may be classified into two groups. The poems of one group takes a negative attitude towards love, and those of the other group take a positive attitude towards love.John MiltonThe revolutionary enthusiasm of the bourgeois revolution （资产阶级革命）and the bitter hatred for the despotic ruler is best known in the works of John Milton.In 1665, after seven years’arduous labour in darkness, he finished Paradise Lost, which gave vent to his indignation against Charles II. The story of the epic is based on Genesis. The central theme of the poem deals with the Christian story of “ the fall of man ”. Evidently, the poet intended to write it as a epic and imitated the style of Homer’s epic.Milton’s purpose for writing Paradise Lost, as he puts it very clearly at the beginning of the poem, is to “assert eternal Providence and justify the ways of God to man.”There can hardly be any doubt that Milton’s own sentiments in the days of the Restoration are expressed in the powerful first speech made by Satan excerpted here. But it should be made clear that Milton as a Puritan did not have the least intention of making God a real tyrant to be hated and revenged upon. The rebellions speech by Satan was an outpouring of the poet’s personal hatred for the restored monarch at the time. On the whole, the characters o Satan and his followers are condemned in the epic.In the love between Adam and Eve, Milton voices his enthusiasm for humanistic elements.Characteristics of Milton’s style:1.The blank verse, i.e. , the unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter, is used throughout the epic and is characterized by its employment of long and involved sentences, which run on many lines with a variety of pauses, and achieving sometimes an oratorical and sometimes an elaborately logical effect. This richness of poetical style has frequently been called “Miltonic Style”./doc/975668172.html,ton’s style is also commonly said to be Latinate. Milton uses more elaborate patterns drawn from Latin. He is very fond of using inversion.3.Another characteristic of his style is the use of allusions to other works, especially the classic works.John BunyanAs Milton was the chief Puritan poet, so Bunyan was the chief puritan writer of prose.The Pilgrim’s Progress is written in the old fashioned medieval form of allegory and drama. The book opens with the author’s dream in which he sees a man “ with a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back”. The man is Christian the Pilgrim, the book is the Bible, and the burden on his back is the weight of worldly cares and concerns. It tells how Christian starts his pilgrimage from his home to the Kingdom of Heaven, and of his experiences and adventures on his journey.The book’s most significant aspect is its satire, which without doubt is directed at the ruling classes. Especially well known is the description of the Vanity Fair. The punishment of Christian and Faithful for disdaining things in the Vanity Fair mayha ve its significance in alluding to Bunyan’s repeated arrests and imprisonment for preaching. After all, like Milton, Bunyan in his book is preaching his religious views. He satirizes his society which is full of vices that violate the teaching of the Christian religion. However, his Puritanism weakens the effect of his social satire by exhorting his readers to endure poverty with patience in order to seek the “ Celestial City ”. Besides, the use of allegory in most of his works makes his satirical pictures less direct and more difficult to see. His books are more often read as religions books than as piercing exposures of social evils.Bunyan is known for his simple and lively prose style. Everyday idiomatic expressions and biblical language enables him to narrate his story and reveal his ideas directly and in a straightforward way.【Chapter 7】The Eighteenth Century (1688-1798)Neo-classicism★★★The characteristics of neo-classicism:1.People emphasized reason rather than emotion, form rather than content.2.As reason was stressed, most of the writings of the age were didactic and satirical.3.As elegance, correctness, appropriateness and restraint were preferred, the poet found closed couplet the only possible verse form for serious work.4.It is almost exc lusively a “ town ” poetry, catering to the interests of the “ society ” in great cities.5.It is entirely wanting in all those elements that are related with the “ romantic ”.Daniel DefoeDaniel Defoe is known as a pioneer novelist of England, and also a prolific writer of books and pamphlets on a great variety of subjects.He never stopped his creative activities until at the age of 60, with the publication of Robinson Crusoe, a long imaginative literary masterpiece, he was finally recognized as a major English novelist. Robinson Crusoe is based on a real accident.In Moll Flanders, Defoe introduces, for the first time, a lowly woman as the subject of literature.Jonathan SwiftThe Battle of Books is a satire on the controversy among literary people concerning the values of the ancients and moderns.A Tale of the Tab is a satire on the various churches of his time.A Modest Proposal is a more bitter satire on the policy of the English government towards the Irish people.Swift’s masterpiece is Gulliver’s T ravels. The book contains four parts that deal with the four voyages of its hero to strange places. The form of travel literature was popular in his time as there were many books of voyage and travel. Among them were Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.Alexander Pope。
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English LiteratureWhat is literature?It is an art that uses language as a medium. This art is something imaginative, fictional and created to reflect life or record human dreams or human ideas .Literary Periods449-1485 The Old (Anglo-Saxon) and Medieval (Middle)English Literature1485-1603 English Literature in the Renaissance Period1603-1660 English Literature in the Seventeenth Century1660-1798 English Literature in the Eighteenth Century1798-1832 English Literature in the Romantic Period1832-1901 English Literature in the Victorian Age1901- English Literature of the Twentieth CenturyThe social, political and ideological conditions of each period of English LiteratureThe prevailing literary trends and schools of the timeLiterary TermsExample :genre---a type or class of literatureIn English literature, the main generic division today is into poetry, drama and the novel, but in earlier times the major genres were recognized asepic, tragedy, lyric, comedy and satire.(Literary Terms and Criticism by John Peck and Martin Coyle)mode---a recognized type or kind of work within a genre, such as the sonnet or the realistic novel.Do you agree that these definitions of the genres or of the modes can help us to identify what is distinctive about specific works of literature? Why or why not?Another popular division:1 Fiction: it is referred to as creative or figurative expression of life.four genres ---novels, short stories, plays and poems.2 non-fiction(essay): it is referred to a literal expression of life or discursive writing. description, narration, exposition , and argumentation. What is poetry?Poetry is a kind of writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through its meaning, sound, and rhythm. Types of Poetry1 lyric poetryIt expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet elegies, odes, and sonnets2 Narrative PoetryIt tells a story or presents a narrative3 Dramatic PoetryIt is written in the form of a speech of an individual character to an imaginary audienceThe Anglo-Saxon Period(449-10661 Anglo-Saxon Conquest1.1 The making of Englandthree tribes :Angles, Saxons and JutesAnglo-Saxon Conquest ( the 5th century)Angles-the east midland-kingdom of East AnglesSaxons- the southern part of the island EnglandJutes - the southeastern corner of the islandAnglo-Saxon ConquestAnglo-Saxons---- Angles, Saxons and JutesEnglishmenLanguage---- the Old English (foundation)The history of English literature beganCharacteristics of Anglo-Saxon Literature or the Old English LiteratureGeneral Characteristicsa verse literature in oral form/ unknown creators /a written form long after its compositionThe two divisions of Anglo-Saxon 1literatureTwo divisions: pagan , Christian (textbook)English Poetry in Anglo-Saxon periodthe pagan poetry (Beowulf) ,the religious poetry ( see textbook)2.2.3 English Prose in Anglo-Saxon periodAnglo-Saxon PoetryWhat is the oldest surviving epic in British literature?written by an anonymous scribe (an unknown scribethe national epic of the English peopledescribes the adventures of a great Scandinavian hero Beowulf of the sixth century3182 linesa written form long after its compositionWhat are the main incidents of the poem Beowulf?The Subject Matter of The Song of BeowulfFour incidents of the poemBeowulf’s fight with the monster Grendel in Hrothgar’s hall. Beowulf’s slaying of Grendel’s mother in her lair.Beowulf’s return in glory to his uncle, and his succession to the throne. Beowulf’s victory in death over the fire dragon fifty years later Metaphor:a figure of speech that makes a comparison between twothings that are basically dissimilar.understatement :A figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants.“not troublesome” for very welcome“need not praise” for a right to condemn.The Anglo-Norman Period(1066-1350)The Norman ConquestDuke William /1066 /Hastings/the King of England /the establishment of feudalism in England/the feudal social structure /the pyramid in Egypt /King William - barons and knightsThe influence of the Norman Conquest on the English Language Three languages existed in England at that time:the Normans spoke Frenchthe lower class spoke Englishthe scholars and clergymen used LatinMany French words were adopted into the English language.Example: calf, swine and sheep for the animalsveal, pork, mutton are the French for the flesh The influence of the Norman Conquest on the English Literature chivalry (ideal knight’s charact eristics) was introduced by the Normans into England.The prevailing form : Romance.In romance, the chivalric love, faith and courage of the Middle Ages in Europe is always emphasized.The Romances in the Anglo-Norman PeriodThe essential features of the Romance1 It lacks general resemblance to reality.2 The central character was always the knight. He was devoted to the church and the king.3The theme of loyalty to king and lord was repeatedly emphasized. The devotion to a fair lady was also emphasized.4 The adventures are remote from our ordinary life.5 It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtue. Romance Cycles1The matters of France deal with the adventures of Charles the Great and his peers.2 The matters of Roman deal with the tales from Greek and Roman sources.3 The matters of Britain mainly deal with the adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round.The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the culmination of the Arthurian romances.Sir Gawain and the Green KnightAbout the storywritten in the late fourteenth centuryfour sections, 2530 lines, from Celtic legendtwo stories:the testing at Bercilak’s castlethe beheading of the Green Knight at the beginning and the return blow at the endSir Gawain and the Green KnightComments on the romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the culmination of the Arthurian romancesin form---combination of French and Saxon elementtwo main motifs :the testing of faith, courage and puritythe proving of human weakness for self-preservationSir Gawain and the Green KnightThe story well toldthe careful interweaving of one episode with anothersuspense and surprisethe psychological analysislanguage is simple and straightforwardShortcomings:superstition and supernatural elementsthe heroic adventures of Sir Gawain -- for adventure’s sake.epic: It is a long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. The oldest surviving epic in British literature is The Song of Beowulf. alliteration : It is mainly a poetic device. It refers to the repetition of consonants, especially at the beginning of words. In alliterative verse, certain accented words in a line begin with the same consonant sound. In Old English poetry alliteration was a regular element of each line. romance: It was the prevailing form of literature in the Middle Ages. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the best of the medieval romances.IntroductionThe Romances---an epitome of the Middle Agesthe Norman Conquest ->feudalism in Englandthe romance-> the noble classsongs and ballads > the English common peoplefolk songs-(oral , existed long before the Norman Conquest , continued after it)ballad: a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.Joined by the audienceIn various English and Scottish dialectsThe origin is obscureBe handed down orally for many generationsThe subjects of balladsThe struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded familiesThe conflict between love and wealthThe matters of class struggle etc.The Ballads of Robin Hooda legendary outlawlived during the reign of Richard Ithe leader of a band of outlawslived in the deep forestattacked the richhelped the poor people.waged war against the bishops and archbishops.“Popular ballads portray Robin Hood as a tireless enemy of the Norman oppressors, the idol of the country folk and champion of the poor and needy, as a man who readily responds to anyone’s call for help. And in gratitude for this poetic emotion, the people have made an almost saintlike hero out of a man who was probably no more than a common outlaw.”(Gorky)在民谣中，罗宾汉被刻画成为了一个与诺曼压迫者进行无休止斗争的反抗者，农民心中的偶像，贫民眼里的勇士，一个随时会去帮助他人的好汉。