英国文学 Part 1 知识点总结

Part 1 Old and Middle English Periods
Old English Period and Beowulf
1.BC 600, Celts(tribal people at early stage of Iron Age) came to British Isles.
2.BC 400-BC 300, Britons came to the Isles.
3.BC 55- AD 407, the conquest of Roman led by Julius Caesar.
4.At the beginning of 5th century, the Roman Empire declined. In AD 410, all Roman troops
were withdrawn.
5.AD 450, the conquest of Angles, Saxons and Jutes. These people were a seafaring people
who orginally lived along the coast of Denmark and Germany.
6.By the end of 6th century, a fedual society replaced the primitive tribal life.
7.Modern English orginates from Anglo-Saxon.
te 8th century, Vikings invaded English. In the second half of the 9th century, English
people led by Alfred drove the Vikings off. But they invaded again in 1013 and were brought to a stop until 1036.
9.The first Anglo-Saxon chronicle was a landmark of the Old English periods.
10.In 1066, the Norman conquest and it made influence on the English language. The year 1066
was also a dividing part in English history (from old English to middle English ).
11.In 1349, English was officially introduced in school and in 1362 in courts of law.
12.In 597, Christianity was taken to England by Augustine. And it took Roman Catholic Church
about a century to Christianise all England.
13.Venerable(father) Bede 彼得神父: the greatest Latinist of Northumbrian School(诺桑波雷
恩学派). His most outstanding work is The Ecdesiastical History of Angles(《英国教会史》).
14.Caedmon: an Anglo-Saxon poet, who wrote in Anglo-Saxon a poetic paraphrase of the Bible.
15.Cynewulf: the author of poems on religious subjects during Old English periods.
16.Beowulf or The Song of Beowulf, is the great national epic poem of 3182 lines and it tells
events that took place on European Continent before Anglo-Saxon's moving.
17.There are two parts in Beowulf: ①fighting against Grendel and then against Grendel's
mother; ②fighting against a firedragon.
18.Artistic features of Beowulf: alliteration, kennings, solemn and animated mood.
Middle English Period and Chaucer
1.During Anglo-Norman period, there is the coexistence of three languages: Latin, Old English
and French.
2.The 1381 peasant uprising was led by Wat Tyler, but finally they were betrayed and Wat
Tyler was executed.
3.Two wars : ①War of the Roses(1455-1485) broke between the House of York(white) and
the House of Lancaster(red); ②Hundred Years War(against French), happened during 1337-1453, and finally the French won.
4.Trouvers brought romance from French to England.
5.Three subject matters of Romans(传奇故事): matter of France, matter of Rome and
matter of Britain.
6.Arthurian cycle(组诗) is the representative work in the group of matter of Britain.
7.One of the most well-known stories in Arthurian cycle is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight(高
文爵士和绿骑士).
8.John Ball: preaching equality and his works summoned many people during peasant
uprising.
9.John Wyclif: translating the Bible into English.
10.William Langland: The author of The Vision of Piers Plowman (农夫皮尔斯之幻想).
11.Ballad (民谣): the most famous one is The Robin Hood Ballads (罗宾汉).
12.Two important features of ballads: repetition and alliteration.
13.Geoffrey Chaucer(乔叟): "Father of English poetry ", he was the first one to be buried at the
Poets' Corner(诗人角).
14.Three phases of Chaucer's creative career:
①phase of French influence: The Book of Duchess (《公爵夫人之书》).
②phase of Italian influence: Troilus and Criseyole (《特伊勒斯和克里西得》).
③English phase: The Canterbury Tales (《坎特伯雷故事集》)——his masterpiece.
15. There are two parts in The Canterbury Tales : the general prologue(前言) and 24 stories.
16. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer used the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter(五步抑扬格押韵的对句)，also named the heroic couplet(英雄双韵体).
17. Chaucer is the first one who introduced heroic couplet(英雄双韵体) to England.
18. We call English used and developed by Chaucer and his contemporaries Middle English, which was the foundation of Modern English.。