英国文学简史 笔记整理
刘炳善《英国文学简史》完整版笔记
(4)The roma nee.
(5)the sec ond half of the 14th een tury: Lan gla nd, Gaw in poet, Chaucer.
II.Sir Gawin and Green Knight.
1.A gen eral in troducti on.
(7)The 15th ce ntury.
a.The Peasants Revolt(1453)
b.The War of Roses betwee n Lan caster and Y orks.
c.the prin ti ng-press— William Caxt on.
d.the starting of Tudor Monarchy(1485)
2.The Overview of Literature.
(1)the stories from the Celtic lands of Wales and Brittan—great myths of the Middle Ages.
(2)Geoffrye of Monm outh—Historia Regum Brita nni ae— King Authur.
III.The Old En glish Prose
1.Wnerable Bede
(2)Alfred the Great
Chapter 2 En glish Literature of the Late Medieval Ages l.ln troducti on
(2)During the Germanic invasion
a.immigrati on;
(完整版)常耀信英国文学简史笔记1-4章
英国文学简史重点笔记(1-4章)（南开大学出版社常耀信版）Chapter 1 The old English periodBeowulf作品特点及历史意义：1. The only organic whole poem to come out of the Anglo-Saxon period. 2. epic(史诗). 3. The story takes place in Scandinavia, there is no mention of England.作品概述：two part narrative-Beowulf’s fight with the sea-monsters Grendel and his mother; his killing a fiery dragon and his death.写作特点：1. Pagan story has an Christian overlay.2. 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. story’s disgressive manner of narration.5. elevated tone.Chapter 2 Chaucer. The pre-Elizabethan Period. More Geoffrey Chaucer代表作：The Canterbury Tales作家：1. first preeminent English poet. 2. Chaucer was the first most significant poet in English literary history to write in Middle English. 3. a master of realism.作品：Canterbury Tales:主要内容：a collection of 20-odd stories, 4 fragments.作品特点：1. substance is from others, the telling isChaucer’s own. 2. enormous sense of humor. 3.loyalty toreality. Offers such a panorama (全景)of social life. 4.infinite (无限的)sense if humanity.Thomas More代表作：Utopia作家：a humanist. He witnessed the evils of the future of the world and sought to help mend things.作品：Utopia:主要内容：1. consist of two book with emphasis on book two in which the Utopian weal republic is described in detail. 2. book two has 9 sections: section 1: geographic contours. Section 2: city life. Section 3: administration of the country. Section4: lifestyle. Section5: family structure. Section6: utopia travel. Section 7: bondmen. Section 8: attitude towards war. Section 9: religion.作品特点：1. nothing private in Utopia, no one has anything, yet everyis rich. Offers best ideal social system possible. 2. someproblems: strict adherence to conformity; slave system; superpower politics; male-dominated.Chapter 3 The Elizabethan Age. Spenser. Sidney. Marlowe Edmund Spenser代表作：The Faerie Queene; The Shepheardes Calendar.作家：a non-dramatic poet; of Queen Elizabeth’s period; read and loved Chaucer andsaw him as his pattern in literary creation.作品：The Shepheardes Calendar: 主要内容：1. consists of 12 pastoral eclogues(田园牧歌)，one for each month of the year. 2. Dialoguesbetween shepherds or of soliloquies, the everyday life ofcountry people, their feelings and attitudes, and their simplelife of harmony with nature. 3. around with suchobservations on the religious strife and political turbulence ofhis day.作品特点：1. full of archaic(古代的) or“Chaucerian” words, bring into relief a rustic（乡村的，纯朴的）effect.2. The eclogues in the Calendarfall into three groups-plaintive, recreative, and moral.The Faerie Queene: 主要内容：1. praise of ElizabethⅠ’s England in itself.2. Consistent of six books and a fragment of the seventhbook. 3. tell respectively about the Red Cross Knight ofHoliness, the Knight of Temperance, the legend of chastity,that of friendship, the Knight of Justice, and the Knight ofCourtesy.作品特点：1. Courageous experimentation with themeters. Special rhyme scheme of the Spenserian sonnets ,and in the Spenserian stanza.Marlowe代表作：The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus; The Jew of Malta作家：The most preeminent figure among the University wits.作品：The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus: 主要内容：1. first part of the play tellsof Faustus’s dissatisfactionwith earthly knowledge and of hispart with the devil.2. second part about his satisfaction withhis newly acquired knowledge and power. 3.The third partsoul being dragged down to hell, tries to pray to God’s save.作品特点：1. famous both for itsthematic and formal features. 2. Thematically, Faustusrepresents the archetypal Renaissance humanist of 16thcentury, and a supreme specimen of Everyman for all time.3.Formally, uses some dramatic devices like the choruses.Chapter4Shakespeare主要作品：sonnets, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchantof Venice, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello,King Lear, Macbeth作品：sonnets: 154 in totalTheme: 1. love, passion, and sparks of wisdom. 2.clear vision of lifeand people. 3. Renaissance paean of man. 4. a faithful recordof the mood and tenor of the times.Style: grace in form, depth in thought, and vivacity in tone.Plays: first period: generally happy and cheerful. All dramas this period endhappily.Second period: frustration, tragic period. All his major tragedies werewritten within the space of a few years.Last period: acceptance of the inevitability of life.特点：1. highly moral. Evil be punished and good rewarded.2. wisdom and profound philosophy.3. tolerant of human foibles and faults4. avoids the use of just one color-pure black or white5. comic element alongside the serious.6. sense of individual worth.7. borrows from existing works but revises and makes themsubstantially and superior.Bacon代表作品：Essays作品特点：wisdom and his unique style.Intimate knowledge of human nature。
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
刘炳善《英国文学简史》完整版笔记(免费)
英国文学简史完全版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 Venerable Bede（2）Alfred the GreatChapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages I.Introduction 1. 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 Wycliffe.（7）The 15th century.a. The Peasants Revolt （1453）b. The War of Roses between Lancaster 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 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.Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance I.A Historical Background II. 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 Queen: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—Hamlet; 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 “humor”.（2）an advocate of classical drama and a forerunner of classicism in English literature.3. Major plays（1）Everyone in His Humor—“humor”; three unities.（2）V olpone the FoxChapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century I.A HistoricalBackgroundII. 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 things to 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 his poems.Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th CenturyI. 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 favor.（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 aliterary 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 – novella - 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 Crusoe.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 the masterpieces 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 AgeI. 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, humor, 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 tothe 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 poemsa. loved beauty;b. seeking refuge in an idealistic world of illusions and dreams. V. Novelists of the Romantic Age.。
刘炳善《英国文学简史》完整版笔记
英国文学简史完全版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?（1）The Venerable Bede（2）Alfred the GreatChapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages1. 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 Wycliffe.（7） The 15th century.a. The Peasants Revolt （1453）b. The War of Roses between Lancaster 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 themarketplace.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 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.Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance 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 andreformed 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 Queen: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—Hamlet; 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 ladyin 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 “literaryking” （Sons of Ben）:（1）the idea of “humor”.（2） an advocate of classical drama and? a forerunner of classicism in English literature.3. Major plays（1） Everyone in His Humor—“humor”; three unities.（2） Volpone the FoxChapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century 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 conviction 2. 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 hisPuritanism 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 things to 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.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 lightpoetry, 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 his poems.Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th CenturyI. 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 favor.（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” providea 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 CatholicChurch.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 –novella - 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 Crusoe.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 the masterpieces 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 AgeI. 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, humor, 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 anddisorganized.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 critica. 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.。
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。
刘炳善《英国文学简史》完整版笔记
英国文学简史完全版A Con cise History of British LiteratureChap ter 1 En glish Literature of An glo-Sax on Period1.The historical backgro und(1)Before the Germanic invasion(2)During the Germanic invasiona.immigrati on;b.Christia nity;c.hep tarchy.d.social classes structure: hide-hu ndred; eolderme n(lord ) thane - middle class (freemen) - lower class (slave orbondmen: theow);e.social orga ni zati on: cla n or tribes.f.m ilitary Orga ni zati on;g.Church fun cti on: sp irit, civil service, educati on;h.economy: coins, trade, slavery;i.f easts and festival: Hallowee n, 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.1.A gen eral in troductio n.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 elementsOld En glish P roseis p rose?(1)The Venerable Bede(2)Alfred the GreatChap ter 2 En glish Literature of the Late Medieval Ages 1.The Historical Backgr ound.(1)The year 1066: Norman Con quest.(2)The social situations soon after the conquest.A.Norma n n obles and serfs;B.restorati on of the church.(3)The 11th century.A.the crusade and kni ghts.B.dominance of Fre nch and Lati n;(4)The 12th century.c. the prin ti ng-pr ess — William Caxt A. the cen tralized gover nment;(5) The 13th century. A. The lege nd of Robin Hood; B. Magna Carta (1215);C. the begi nning of the Parliame ntD. En glish and Lat in: official la nguages (6) The 14th century.a. the House of Lords and the House of Com mons — con flict betwee n the P arliame nt and Kings;b. the rise of tow ns.c. the cha nge of Church.d. the role of wome n.e. the Hun dred Years' War — starti ng.f. the devel opment of the trade: London.g. the Black Death.h. the P easa nts' Revolt —1381. i. The tran slation of Bible by Wycliff. (7) The 15th century. a. The P easa nts Revolt(1453)b. The War of Roses betwee n Lan casters and Yo rks.B. kings and the church(Henry II and Thomas );(the end )d. the starti ng of Tudor Mon archy (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 — KingAuthur.(3)Wace— Le Roman de Brut.(4)The romanee.(5)the second half of the 14th century: Langland, Gawin poet,Chaucer.Gawin and Gree n Kni ght.1. a gen eral in troducti on.2.the plot.Lan gla nd.1. Life2. P iers the P lowma n1.Life2. Literary Career: three p eriods(1)French period(2) Italian period(3)master period3.The Can terbury TalesA. The Framework;B. The Gen eral Pro logue;C.The Tale Proper.4.His Co ntributio n.(1)He introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types.(2)He is the first great poet who wrote in the current EnglishIan guage.(3)The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in mak ing the dialect of London the sta ndard for the moder n En glish sp eech.V. Pop ular Ballads.Malory and En glish Prosebegi nning of En glish Drama.1. Miracle Plays.Miracle play or mystery play is a form of medieval drama that came from dramatizati on of the liturgy of the Roma n Catholic Church.It developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching its heightin the 15th century. The simpie lyric character of the early texts was enl arged by the additi on of dialogue and dramatic acti on.Eve ntually the p erforma nee was moved to the churchyard and the market place.po wer -in tellectual life-ex pl oratio n-new imp etus and directio n literature. Humanism-study of the literature of classical antiquityreformed educati on.2. Morality Plays.A morality p lay is a p lay enforcing a moral truth or less on by mea ns of the speech and action of characters which are personified abstracti onsfigures representing vices and virtues, qualitiesof the huma n mind, or abstract concep ti ons in gen eral. 3. I nterlude.The in terlude, which grew out of the morality, was inten ded, as its nameimplies, to be used more as a filler than as the main part of an en terta inment. As its best it was short, witty, simple in pl ot, suited for the divers ion of guests at a banq uet, or for the relaxation of the audienee between the divisions of a serious play. It was esse ntially an in doors p erforma nee, and gen erally of an aristocratic n ature.Chap ter 3 En glish Literature in the Ren aissa neeHistoricalBackgro undII. The Overview of the Literature (1485-1660)Printingpr ess — readersh ip — growthofmiddleclass ——trade-educati on for laypeop le-ce ntralizatio nof ofandLiterary style-modeled on the an cie nts.The effect of humanism-the dissemination of the cultivated, clear, and sen sible attitude of its classically educated adhere nts. 1. p oetryThe first tendency by Sidney and Spen ser: orn ate, florid, highlyfigured style.The sec ond tendency by Donne: meta physical style — compi exity and ingenu ity.The third tendency by Joh nson: reacti on restrai ned style.The fourth tendency by Milt on: cen tral Christia n and Biblical traditi on. 2. Dramaa. the n ative traditi on and classical exa mples.b. the drama sta nds highest in popu lar estimati on: Marlowe Shakes peare — Jonson.3. P rose a. tran slati on of Bible; b. More; c. Bacon. p oetry.1. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry HowardClassically pure and(courtly makers )(1) Wyatt: introducing sonnets.(2) Howard: in troduc ing sonn ets and writ ing the first bla nk verse.2. Sir P hili p Sidney — p oet, critic, p rose writer (1) Life: a. En glish gen tlema n;b. brillia nt and fasc in at ing person ality;c. courtier. (2) worksa. Arcadia: p astoral roma nee;(108) : sonnet sequenee to Penelope Dvereux —p lat onic devoti on.orig in ality-act of writ ing. an apo logy for imagi nativeliterature — begi nning of literary criticism. 3. Edm und Spenser(1) life: Cambridge - Sidn ey's friend - “ Are op agus ” - Irela nd -Westm in ster Abbey.(2) works a. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry inb. Astr op hel and Stella Petrarcha ncon ceitsandorig inalfeeli ngs-movi ng tocreative ness — build ingof a n arrativestory; theme-lovec. Defense of Poesy:Ren aissa nee.b. Amoretti and Ep ithalam ion: sonnet seque nee e. Faerie Quee ne:virtue.Holi ness, temperan ce, justice and courtesy.l Two-level funetion:part of the story and part of allegory(symbolic meaning ) l Many allusi ons to classical writers. l Themes: puritanism, nationalism,humanism and RenaissaneeNeoclassicism — a Christia n huma ni st. (3) Spenserian Stanza. P rose 1. Thomas More(1) Life: “Renaissanee man ”，scholar, statesman, theorist, p rose writer, dipIo mat, patron of arts a. lear ned Greek at Can terbury College, Oxford;b. studies law at Li ncol n Inn;c. Lord Chan cellor;d. beheaded.(2) Utopia: the first English scienee fiction.l The gen eral endA roma ntic and allegorical epic —ste ps tol 12 books and 12 virtues:Writte n in Lat in, two p arts, the sec ond —p lace of no where.A p hilos op hicalmari ner(Raphael Hythloday ) tells his voyagesin which he discovers a Ian d-Utopia.a. The part one is orga ni zed as dialogue with marinerdep ict inghis p hilosophy.b. The part two is a descri ptio n of the isla nd kin gdomwhere goldand silver are worn by crim in al, religious freedom istotal andno one owns any thing.c. the nature of the book: attacking the chief political and social evils of histime.d. the book and the Rep ublic: an atte mpt to describe theRep ublicin a new way, but it possesses an modern character and theresembla nee 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 Ren aissa neesecularism.f. theUtopia(3) thesignificanee.a. it was the first champion of national ideas and n ational Ianguages; it created a national prose, equally adapted to han dlingscie ntific and artisticmaterial.b. a elega nt Lat in scholar and the father of En glishp rose: hecomp osed works in En glish, tra nslated from Lati n into En glishbiogra phy, wrote History of Richard III.2. Fran cis Bac on: writer, p hilos op her and statesma n(1) life: Cambridge - huma nism in Paris Chancellor - bribery - focusing on philosophy and literature.scienee — peopie:servants and interpreters of nature — method: achild before n ature — facts and observati ons: exp erime ntal.(3) “Essays ” : 57.a. he was a master of nu merous and varied styles.b. his method is to weigh and balanee maters, indicating the idealcourse of action and the practical one, pointing out the advantagesand disadva ntages of each, but leav ing the readerDrama 1. A gen eral survey.(1) Everyman marks the beginning of modern drama.(2) two in flue nces.a. the classics: classical in form and En glish in content;b. n ative or popu lar drama.(3) the University Wits.2. Christ op her Marlowe: greatest p laywright before Shakes peare and -knighted - Lordp hilos op hicalideas: adva nceme nt ofto make thefinal decisi ons. (argume nts)most gifted of the Wits.——the n in drama.(1) Life: first interested in classical poetry(2) Major works a. Tamburlai ne;b. The Jew of Malta;c.The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.(3)The significanee of his plays.V. William Shakes peare 1. Life1564, Stratford-o n-Avon;Grammar School;Quee n visit to Castle;marriage to Anne Hathaway;London, the Globe Theatre: small part and prop rietor;the 1st Folio, Quarto;Retired, son — Hamn et; H. 1616.2. Dramatic career3.Major p lays-me n-ce ntered.(1) Romeo and Juliet tragic love and fate(2) The Mercha nt of Ven ice.Good over evil.An ti-Semitism.(3)He nry IV.Nati onal unity.Falstaff.(4)Julius CaesarRep ublica nism vs. dictatorshi p.(5)HamletRevengeGood/evil.(6)OthelloDiabolic character jealousy gap betwee n app eara nee and reality.(7)King LearFilial in gratitude(8)MacbethAmbiti on vs. fate.(9)Antony and Cleopatra.Passi on vs. reas on(10)The TempestRecon ciliatio n; reality and illusio n.3.Non-dramatic po etry(1) Venus and Adonis; The Rape of Lucrece.(2) Sonnets: a. theme: fair, true, ki nd.b.two major p arts: a han dsome young man of n oble birth; a lady in dark comp lexi on.c.the form: three quatra ins and a coup let.d.the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.Jonson1.life: poet, dramatist, a Latin and Greek scholar, the “ literary king ”(Sons of Ben )the idea of “ humour”.(2 ) an advocate of classical drama and a forerunner of classicism in En glish literature.3. Major p lays(1) Every one in His Humour “ humour” ; three unities.(2) Volpone the FoxChap ter 4 En glish Literature of the 17th Cen tury HistoricalBackgro undOverview of the Literature (1640-1688)1. The revoluti on p eriod(1) The meta physical p oets;(2) The Cavalier poets.3) Milton: the literary and philosophical heritage of theRenaissance merged with Protestant political and moral conviction2. The restoration period.1) The restoration of Charles II ushered in a literaturecharacterized by reason, moderation, good taste, deft2 ) The ideals of impartial investigation and scientificexperimentation promoted by the newly founded Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge ( 1662 ) influential in the development of clear and simple prose instrument ofrational communication.3) The great philosophical and political treatises of the time emphasize rationalism.4) The restoration drama.5) The Age of Dryden.Miltoncontinent — involved into therevolution epics.2. Literary career. 1) The 1st period was up to 1641, during which time he ismanagement, and simplicity.school of Ben Jonson )were as an 1. Life:educated at Cambridge —visiting the—persecuted —writingto be seen chiefly as a son of the humanists and Elizabethans,although his Puritanism is not absent. L'Allegre and ILPenseroso (1632) are his early masterpieces, in which we findMilton a true offspring of the Renaissance, a scholar ofexquisite taste and rare culture. Next came Comus, amasque.The greatest of early creations was Lycidas, a pastoralelegyon the death of a college mate, EdwardKing.2) The second period is from 1641 to 1654, when the Puritanwas in such complete ascendancy that he wrote almost no poetry.In 1641, he began a long period of pamphleteering for thepuritan cause. For some15 years, the Puritan in him alone ruledhis writing. He sacrificed his poetic ambition to thecall ofthe liberty for which Puritans werefighting.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 somefamous sonnets.The three long poems are the fruit of the long contestwithinMilton of Renaissance tradition and his Puritan faith.Theyform the greatest accomplishments of any English poetexceptShakespeare. In Milton alone, it would seem, Puritanismcouldnot extinguish the lover of beauty. In these works wefindhumanism and Puritanism merged in magnificence.3.Major Works1)Paradise Lost a. 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 especiallya great master of blank verse. He learned muchfromShakespeare and first used blank verse in non-dramatic works.3) Milton is a great stylist. Heis 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.Bunyanpuritan age;poor family;parliamentary army;Baptist society, preacher;prison, writing the book.2. The Pilgrim Progress1) The allegory in dream form.2) the plot.3) the theme.V. Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets.1. Metaphysical PoetsThe term “metaphysical poetry ” is commonlyused to designate century writers who wrote under theinfluence of John Donne. Pressured by the harsh, uncomfortable and curious age, the metaphysical poets sought to shatter myths andreplace them with new philosophies, newsciences, new words and new poetry. They tried to break away from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry, and favoured in poetry for a morecolloquial 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 Cavalierpoets. They were often courtiers who stood on the side of the king, and called themselves “sons ” of Ben Jonson. TheCavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elegant, amorous 1. life:the works of the 17thand 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 theElizabethan's.Dryden.1.Life:the representative of classicism in the Restoration.poet, dramatist, critic, prose writer, satirist.changeable in attitude.Literary career —four decades.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 essaysand in the numerous prefaces to hispoems.Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18thCentury1. The HistoricalBackground.2. The literaryoverview.1) The Enlightenment.2) The rise of Englishnovels.When the literary historian seeks to assign to eachage itsfavourite form of literature, he finds no difficulty in dealing with our owntime. As the Middle Ages delighted in long romanticnarrative poems, the Elizabethans in drama, the Englishmanofthe reigns of Anne and the early Georges in didactic andsatirical verse, so the public of our day is enamoredof thenovel. Almost all types of literary productioncontinue toappear, but whether we judge from the lists of publishers, thestatistics of public libraries, or generalconversation, wefind abundant evidence of the enormous preponderance ofthiskind of literary entertainment in popularfavour.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 weremajor exponents of the neo-classicalschool.4) Satiricliterature.5) Sentimentalisma general description )1. Alexander Pope1) Life: family;health;himself by reading and translating;of Addison, Steele and Swift.2) three groups of poems:manifesto of neo-classicism );f. The Rape of Lock;of two epics.3) His contribution: heroic couplet —finish, elegance, wit, pointedness; 4) weakness: lack of imagination.2. Addison and Steele1) Richard Steele: poet, playwright, essayist, publisher ofnewspaper.2) Joseph Addison: studies at Oxford, secretary of state,1711)Essay on Criticismcreated a literary periodicalSpectator ” ( with Steele,3)Spectator Club.4)The significance of their essays.The Tatler ”, and “The Spectator ”a. Their writings inprovide 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: at Oxford;a living by writing and translating;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.of Satire: Jonathan Swift.studies at Trinity College;worked as a secretary;the chief editor of The Examiner;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.—ridiculous scientific experiment.Part IV. Satire —mankind.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 novel to a genre of prose fiction thatoriginated in Spain and depicts in realistic detail the adventures of a roguish hero, often with satiric or humorous effects.: Arcadia. 1) born in Ireland;Part III. Satire novel in Spain and England16th century ) : Of or relatingc. Addison and Steele: The Spectator.plot and characterization and realism3)novel and drama ( 17the century )2. Daniel Defoe—novelist, poet, pamphleteer, publisher, merchant, journalist. )1)Life:career;career;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:dramatic career;career; writing career.2) works.3)Tom Jones.plot;: Tom, Blifil, Sophia;4)the theory of realism.5)the style of language.V. Writers of Sentimentalism.1. Introduction2. Samuel Richardson —novelist, moralistOne who is unduly concerned with the morals of others.1)Life:book seller;writer.2)Pamela, Virtue Rewarded.storysignificancePamela 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 charactersbut their also their secret thoughts and feelings. Itwas, infact, the first English psycho-analyticalnovel.3. Oliver Goldsmith —poet and novelist.A.Life:inIreland;singer and tale-teller, a life ofvagabondage;LiteraryClub;miserablelife;f. the most lovable character in Englishliterature.B. The Vicar ofWakefield.signicance.Drama of the 18thcentury1. The decline of thedrama2. Richard BrinsleySheridenA.life.B. works: Rivals, The School forScandals.C. significance of hisplays.a. The Rivals and The School for Scandal are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy.b. In his plays, morality is the constant theme. He ismuchconcerned with the current moral issues and lashes harshlyatthe social vices of theday.c. Sheridan's greatness also lies in his theatricalart. Heseems to have inherited from his parents a natural ability andinborn knowledge about the theatre. His plays are theproductof a dramatic genius as well as of a well-versed theatrical man.d. His plots are well-organized, his characters, eithermajoror minor, are all sharply drawn, and his manipulation ofsuchdevices as disguise, mistaken identity and dramaticirony ismasterly. Witty dialogues and neat and decent languagealsomake a characteristic of hisplays.Chapter 6 English Literature of the RomanticAge1. HistoricalBackground2. Literary Overview:RomanticismCharacteristics ofRomanticism:1) The spontaneous overflow of powerfulfeelingsThe creation of a world ofimaginationThe return to nature formaterial4) Sympathy with the humble and glorification of thecommonplace5)Emphasis upon the expression of individual genius6) The return to Milton and the Elizabethans forliterarymodels7) The interest in old stories and medievalromances8) A sense of melancholy and loneliness9) The rebelliousspirit1. Robert Burns1) Life: French Revolution2) Features of poetrya. Burns is chiefly remembered for his songs writtenin theScottishdialect.b. His poemsare usually devoid of artificial ornament and havea great charm ofsimplicity.c. His poems are especially appreciated for their musicaleffect.d. His political and satirical poems are noted for hispassionate love for freedom and fiery sentiments ofhatredagainsttyranny.3) Significance of hispoetryHis poetry marks an epoch in the history of English literature.They suggested that the spirit of the Romantic revivalwasembodied in this obscure ploughman. Love, humour, pathos,theresponse to n ature — all the p oetic qualities that touch the human heart are in his poems, which marked the sunrise of ano ther day — the day of Roma nticism.2.William Blake1)life: French Revolution2)works.l Songs of Innocence l Songs of Experience3)featuresa.sympathy with the French Revolutionb.hatred for 18th century conformity and social institutionc.attitude of revolt against authorityd.strong protest against restrictive codes4)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.Poets of the first generation 1. Introduction 2. William Wordsworth: representative poet, chief spokesmanofRomantic poetry1)Life:nature;to France;revolution;f. The Lake District;of Coleridge;after revolution.2)works:a.the Lyrical Ballads preface ): significanceb.The Prelude: a biographical poem.c.the other poems3)Features of his poems.A constant theme of his poetry wasthe growth of the humanspirit through the natural description with expressions of inward states of mind.of style.His poemsare characterized by a sympathy with the poor, simple peasants, and a passionate love of nature.3.Samuel Taylor Coleridge: poet and critic1)Life:with Southey and Wordsworth;opium.2)works.l The fall of Robespierre l The Rime of the Ancient Mariner l Kubla Khan l Biographia Literaria3)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.Poets of the Second Generation.1. Introduction2. George Gordon Byron1)Life: , published poems and reviews;tour of Europe and the East;England;withShelley;in Greece: nationalhero;f. radical and sympathetic with FrenchRevolution.2) Works.l Don Juanl When We Two Partedl She Walks in BeautyByronic Hero.Byron introduced into English poetry a new style of character, which as often been referred to as “Byronic Hero” of “satanicspiri t ”. People imagined that they saw something of Byronhimself in these strange figures of rebels, pirates, and desperate adventurers.4) Poetic style: loose, fluent andvivid3. Percy Bysshe Shelley: poet andcritic1) Life:family;heart;national liberationMovement;of William Godwin;f. marriage with Harriet, and Marry;England and wandered in EUrope, died in Italy;and sympathetic with the French revolution;i. Friend with Byron(2) works: two types - violent reformer and wanderer3)Characteristics of poems.of a better society;beauty;c.superb artistry: imagination.4)Defense of Poetry.4.John Keats.1)Life:a poor family;School;with Byron and Shelley;by the conservatives and died in Italy.2)works.3)Characteristics of poemsbeauty;refuge in an idealistic world of illusions and dreams. V. Novelists of the Romantic Age.1.Water Scott. Novelist and poet。
英国文学简史完全笔记
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.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 anmodern 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 things to 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 his poems.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 writi ngs 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 the masterpieces 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 anatural 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 ontwentieth 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 poemsa.loved beauty;b.seeking refuge in an idealistic world of illusions and dreams.V. Novelists of the Romantic Age.1. Water Scott. Novelist and poet。
刘炳善《英国文学简史》完整版笔记(汇编)
英国文学简史完全笔记Part one：early and medieval english literatureChapter 1: the making of england1 the Briton2 the Roman Consequent3 the English Consequent4 the social condition of the Anglo-SaxonsChapter 2: Beowulf<Beowulf>贝奥武夫:the national epic of the Anglo-SaxonsEpic: long narrative poems that record the adventures or heroic deeds of a hero enacted in vast landscapes. The style of epic is grand and elevated.e.g. Homer’s Iliad and OdysseyArtistic features:1 Using alliteration2 Using metaphor and understatementDefinition of alliteration: a rhetorical device, meaning some words in a sentence begin with the same consonant sound（头韵）Some examples on P5Definition of understatement: expressing something in a controlled way Understatement is a typical way for Englishmen to express their ideasChapter 3 : Feudal England1 the Norman Conquest:①the Danish invasionKing Alfred: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle②the Norman Conquest:Marks the establishment of feudalism in England\2 Feuda EnglandSocial features of the Feuda England：Two classes（landlord and peasant）The miseries of the peasant：Black DeathThe raising of 13813 the Romance: knightFamous three:King ArthurSir Gawain and the Green KnightBeowulfChapter 4 William LanglandPiers The Plowman耕者皮尔斯:a picture of feudal England①the exposure of the ruling classes②the story of the Cat and Rats③the marriage of lady Meed④the condition of the peasants⑤the search for truth⑥a representative of the most oppressed section of the peasantryArtistic features:It is written in the form of a dream visionUsing symbolismChapter 5 the English Bllads民谣Oral literatureBallad: is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.The Robin Hood BalladChapter 6 Geoffery Chaucer英国文学史上首先用伦敦方言写作。
刘炳善《英国文学简史》完整版笔记
英国文学简史完全版A Concise History of British LiteratureChapter 1 English Literature of Anglo-Saxon Period1. 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..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 elements Old English Proseis prose?（1）The Venerable Bede（2）Alfred the GreatChapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages 1. 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. Gawin and Green Knight.1. a general introduction.2. the plot.Langland.1. Life2. Piers the Plowman1. 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.Malory and English Prosebeginning 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.Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance 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.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.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）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.Jonson1. life: poet, dramatist, a Latin and Greek scholar, the “literary king” （Sons of Ben）:（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 Historical BackgroundOverview 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.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 things to 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.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 oftheir 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.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 his poems.Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th Century1. 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）Sentimentalism. （a general description）1. Alexander Pope（1）Life:family;health;himself by reading and translating;of Addison, Steele and Swift.（2）three groups of poems:Essay on Criticism （manifesto of neo-classicism）;f. The Rape of Lock;of two epics.（3）His contribution:heroic couplet—finish, elegance, wit, pointedness;.（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:at Oxford;a living by writing and translating;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.of Satire: Jonathan Swift.:（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.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 novelnovel 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.: 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:career;career;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:dramatic career;career; writing career.（2）works.（3）Tom Jones.plot;: Tom, Blifil, Sophia;.（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:book seller;writer.（2）Pamela, Virtue Rewarded.storysignificancePamela 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:in Ireland;singer and tale-teller, a life of vagabondage;;Literary Club;miserable life;f.? the most lovable character in English literature.B. The Vicar of Wakefield.;signicance.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 the masterpieces 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 Age1. 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 spirit1. 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. Theysuggested 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.Poets of the first generation1. Introduction2. William Wordsworth: representative poet, chief spokesman ofRomantic poetry（1）Life:nature;;to France;revolution;;f.? The Lake District;of Coleridge;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 constant theme of his poetry was the growth of the human spirit through the natural description with expressions of inward states of mind. 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:;with Southey and Wordsworth;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.Poets of the Second Generation.1. Introduction2. George Gordon Byron（1）Life:, published poems and reviews;tour of Europe and the East;England;with Shelley;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:family;heart;;national liberation Movement;of William Godwin;f.? marriage with Harriet, and Marry;England and wandered in EUrope, died in Italy;and sympathetic with the French revolution;i.? Friend with Byron（2）works: two types – violent reformer and wanderer （3）Characteristics of poems.of a better society;beauty;c. superb artistry: imagination.（4）Defense of Poetry.4. John Keats.（1）Life:a poor family;School;with Byron and Shelley;by the conservatives and died in Italy.（2）works.（3）Characteristics of poemsbeauty;refuge in an idealistic world of illusions and dreams. V. Novelists of the Romantic Age.1. Water Scott. Novelist and poet（1）Life:;of Edindurgh;to novel;publishing firm;contribution: historical novel.（2）three groups of novels（3）Features of his novels.（4）his influence.2. Jane Austen（1）Life:clergyman;life, domestic duties;（2）works.（3）features of her writings.Austen's novels are britened by their witty conversation and omnipresent humour. Her stories are skillfully woven together; her plots never leave the path of realism, and have always been sensible. Her language shines with an exquisite touch of lively gracefulness, elegant and refined, but never showy. She herself compared her work to a fine engraving made up on a little piece of ivory only two inches square. The comparison is true. The ivory surface is small enough, but the lady who made the drawings of human life on it was a real artist.（4）rationalism, neoclassicism, romanticism and realism.Essays.。
《英国文学简史》完整版笔记
Chapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century I.A HistoricalBackgroundII. 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）（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 —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 rareculture. Next came Comus, a masque. The greatest of early creations was Lycidas, a pastoral elegy on the death of a college mate, Edward King.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 '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 things to 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 Poets2. 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 his poems.Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th CenturyI. 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 favor.（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.（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）（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 in the 18th century.3. Samuel Johnson—poet, critic, essayist, lexicographer, editor.（1）Life:a. studies at ;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 .2. Works: The of Books, A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal, Gulliver's Travels.3. Gulliver's Travels.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 – novella - 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. : .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 Crusoe.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: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 ;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 .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.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. '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 AgeI. 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（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, humor, 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. ;c. tour to ;d. French revolution;e. Dorathy;f. The ;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. ;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. , published poems and reviews;b. a tour of and the East;c. left ;d. friend with Shelley;e. worked in : 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. ;d. Irish national liberation Movement;e. disciple of William Godwin;f. marriage with Harriet, and Marry;g. left and wandered in EUrope, died in ;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. ;c. friend with Byron and Shelley;d. attacked by the conservatives and died in .（2）works.（3）Characteristics of poemsa. loved beauty;b. seeking refuge in an idealistic world of illusions and dreams. V. Novelists of the Romantic Age.1. Water Scott. Novelist and poet（1）Life:a. ;b. ;c. poem to novel;d. unsuccessful publishing firm;e. great contribution: historical novel.（2）three groups of novels（3）Features of his novels.（4）his influence.2. Jane Austen（1）Life:a. country clergyman;b. uneventful life, domestic duties;（2）works.（3）features of her writings.（4）rationalism, neoclassicism, romanticism and realism. VI. Familiar Essays.1. Introduction2. Charles Lamb: essayist and critic（1）life:a. poor family;b. friend of Coleridge;c. sister Mary;d. worked in the East India House;e.a miserable life;f. a man of mild character.g. a Romanticist of the city.（2）works: Essays of Elia. Three groups.（3）Features.a. The most striking feature of his essays is his hum our.b. Lamb was especially fond of old writers.c. His essays are intensely personal.d. He was a romanticistChapter 7 English Literature of the Victorian AgeI. Introduction1. Historical Background（1）An age of expansion（2）The conditions of the workers and the chartist movement（3）Reforms（4）Darwin's theory of evolution and its influence（5）The women question2. Literary Overview: critical realism.In Victorian period appeared a new literary trend called critical realism. English critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the 40s and in the early 50s. It found its expression in the form of novel. The critical realists, most of whom were novelists, described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint.II. Novels of Critical Realists.1. Charles Dickens.（1）Life:a. clerk family;b. a miserable childhood;c. a clerk, a reporter, a writer;d. a man of hard work.（2）works of three periods.a. optimizeb. frustrationc. pessimism（3）Features of his works.a. character sketches and exaggerationb. broad humor and penetrating satired. the power of exposure2. William Makepeace Thackeray（1）Life:a. born in ;b. studied in ;c. worked as artist and illustrator and writer.（2）work: The Vanity Fair（3）Thackeray and Dickens – featuresa. Just like Dickens, Thackeray is one of the greatest critical realists of the 19th century . He paints life as he has seen it. With his precise and thorough observation, rich knowledge of social life and of the human heart, the pictures in his novels are accurate and true to life.b. Thackeray is a satirist. His satire is caustic and his humour subtle.c. Besides being a realist and satirist, Thackeray is a moralist. His aim is to produce a moral impression in all his novels.3. The Bronte Sisters（1）Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre（2）Emily Bronte and The Wuthering Heights.4. George Eliot.（1）Life:a. Mary Ann Evans;b. the rural midland;c. abandoned religion;d. interested in social philosophical problems;e. editor of the Westminster Review;f. George Henry Lewis.（2）worksl Adam Bedel Silas Marnerl Middlemarch（3）Features of works.As a moralist, she shows in each of her characters the action and reaction of universal forces and believes that every evil act must bring inevitable punishment to the man who does it. Moral law was to her as inevitable and automatic as gravitation.5. Thomas Hardy: novelist and poet（1）Life:a. —“Wexssex;b. close to peasantry;c. belief in evolution.（2）Works:a. Romances and fantasiesb. novels of ingenuityc. novels of characters and environment（3）Ideas of Fate.Unlike Dickens, most of Hardy's novels are tragic. The cause of tragedy is man's own behaviour or his own fault but the supernatural forces that rule his fate. According to Hardy, man is not the master of his destiny; he is at the mercy of indifferent forces which manipulate his behaviour and his relations with others.III. English Poets of the Age1. Alfred Tennyson（1）life:a. ;b. friend with Hallem;c. poet laureate.（2）Works: In Memoriam; Idylls of the King.2. Robert Browning.（1）Life: married Elizabeth Barret, a poetess.（2）Works（3）the Dramatic MonologueThe dramatic monologue is a soliloquy in drama in which the voice speaking is not the poet himself, but a character invented by the poet, so that it reflects life objectively. It was imitated by many poets after Browning and brought to its most sophisticated form by T. S. Eliot in his The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock （1915）IV. English Prose of the age1. Thomas Carlyle（1）life（2）works2. John Ruskin（1）life（2）works（3）social and aesthetic ideasV. Aestheticism1. AestheticismThe basic theory of the aesthetic –“art for art's sake” – was set forth by a French poet, Theophile Gautier. The first Englishman who wrote about the theory of aestheticism was Walter Peter, the most important critical writer of the late Victorian period, whose most important works were studies in the History of Renaissance and Appreciations. The chief representative of the movement in was Oscar Wilde, with his The Picture of Dorian Gray. Aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life should imitate art, not art imitate life. According to aesthetes, all artistic creation is absolutely subjective as opposed to objective. Art should be free from any influence of egoism. Only when art is for art's sake can it be immortal. It should be restricted to contributing beauty in a highly polished style.2. Oscar Wilde（1）Life: dramatist, poet, novelist and essayist, spokesman for the school of “Art for art's sake”, the leader of the Aesthetic movement（2）worksl The Happy Prince and Other Talesl The Picture of Dorian Grayl The Importance of Being EarnestChapter 8 English Literature of the first half of the 20th Century I. Historical Background1. Rational changes on old traditions, in social standards and in people's thoughts2. The high tide of anti-Victorianism3. The First World War4. The success of women's struggle for social and civil rightsII. Overview of the Literature – the Modernism1. What is modernism?2. Features of modernism（1）Complexity（2）Radical and deliberate break with traditional aesthetic principles（3）Back to Aristotle3. Development of modernism after WWIISection 1 Poetry I. A General Survey1. The century has produced a large number of both major and minor poets, many of whom have received general acclaim.2. Many writers of significant works of fiction also write distinguished poetry.3. The poets of the 20th century have tended to group themselves into schools whose poetry has particular distinguishing characteristics.II. Thomas Hardy1. Life2. Works（1）his poetrya. Poems and Other Versesb. Poems of the Past and the Presentc. Time's Laughing Stocksd. Moments of Visione. Late Lyrics and Earlierf. The famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwellg. Winter Words（2）his fictionsa. Tess of the D'Urbervillesb. Jude the Obscurec. The Return of the Natived. Far from the Madding Crowde. The Mayor of Casterbridge3. Point of viewAccording to his pessimistic philosophy, mankind is subjected to the rule of some hostile mysterious fate, which brings misfortune into human life.III. William Yeats1. Life – poet and dramatist2. Works（1）his poetrya. The Responsibilitiesb. The Wild Swans at Coolec. The Towerd. The Winding Stair（2）his dramasa. The Hour Glassb. The 's Desirec. On Baile's（3）his book of philosophy – Visions3. StyleIV.Thomas Stearns Eliot1. life- poet, playwright, literary critic2. Works（1）poemsl The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrockl The Waste Land （epic）l Hollow Manl Ash Wednesdayl Four Quarters（2）Playsl Murder in the Cathedrall Sweeney Agonistesl The Cocktail Partyl The Confidential Clerk（3）Critical essaysl The Sacred Woodl Essays on Style and Orderl Elizabethan Essaysl The Use of Poetry and The Use of Criticismsl After Strange Gods3. Point of view（1）The modern society is futile and chaotic.（2）Only poets can create some order out of chaos.4. Style（1）Fresh visual imagery, flexible tone and highly expressive rhythm（2）Difficult and disconnected images and symbols, quotations and allusions （3）Elliptical structures, strange juxtapositions, an absence of bridges5. The Waste Land: five parts（1）The Burial of the Dead（2）A Game of Chess（3）The Fire Sermon（4）Death by Water（5）What the Thunder SaidSection 2 Fiction I. The Continuing of Realism 1. The two characteristics of 20th century fiction （1）Modernism（2）Continuation of the tradition of realism2. The beginning3. General featuresII. John Galsworthy1. Life2. Works（1）The Island Pharisees（2）Turgenev（3）The Man of Property（4）In Chancery（5）Forsyte Saga（6）The End of the Chapter（7）The Silver Box（8）Strife3. Point of view4. Style（1）strength and elasticity（2）powerful sweep（3）brilliant illustrations（4）deep psychological analysisIII. Stream of Consciousness1. James Joyce（1）life（2）major worksa. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Manb. Dublinersc. Ulyssesd. Finnegans Wake（3）significance of his worksa. He changed the old style of fictions and created a strange mode of art to show the chaos and crisis of consciousness of that period.b. From him, stream of consciousness came to the highest point as a genre of modern literature.c. In Finnegans Wake, this pursue of newness overrode the normalness and showed a tendency of vanity.2. Virginia Woolf（1）life（2）worksa. Mrs. Dallowayb. To the Lighthousec. The Wavesd.e. Flushf. The Yearsg. Between the Actsh. A Room of One's Owni. Threej. Modern Fictionk. The Common Reader （2 series）（3）point of viewa. She challenged the traditional way of writing and created her novels in a new way.b. She thought the depiction of details darkened the characters.c. She called the writers for writing about events of daily life that gave one deep impression.3. Influence（1）The stream of consciousness presented by Joyce and Woolf marks a total break from the tradition of fiction and has promoted the development of modernism.（2）However, at the same time, because of the newness in form but hard to understand, this kind of fiction cannot attract readers.（3）The writers showed interest in the psychological depiction of the bourgeoisie but neglected the conflict that most people cared about at that time.IV.David Herbert Lawrence1. Life2. Works（1）Sons and Lovers（2）The Rainbow（3）Women in Love（4）Lady Chatterlay's Lover3. His influenceSection 3 Drama I. Overview1. the development of science （light）and the revival of drama2. Social dramas3. The renaissance of Irish dramas4. The poetic drama5. Different schools of dramaII. George Bernard Shaw1. Life2. Works（1）Widower's Houses（2）Man and Superman（3）Major Barbara（4）Pygmalion（5）Heartbreak House（6）Mrs. 's Profession（7）The Apple Cart（8）Saint Joan3. Point of view（1）Shaw was very much impressed by the Norwegian dramatist Ibsen.（2）He opposed the idea of “art for art's sake”, maintaining that “the theatre must turn from the drama of romance and sensuality to the drama of edification”.4. Style（1）Shaw is a critical realist writer. His plays bitterly criticize and attack English bourgeois society.（2）His plays deal with contemporary social problems. He portrays his situations frankly and honestly, intending to shock his audiences with a new view of society.（3）He is a humorist and manages to produce amusing and laughable situations.版权所有,谢绝转载~31/ 31。
《英国文学简史》完整版笔记
Chapter 4 En glish Literature of the 17th Cen tury I.A HistoricalBackgro undII. The Overview of the Literature (1640-1688)1. The revoluti on period(1)The metaphysical poets;(2)The Cavalier poets.(3)Milto n: the literary and philosophical heritage of the Ren aissa nee merged with Protesta nt political and moral conv icti on2. The restorati on period.(1)The restorati on of Charles II ushered in a literature characterized by reas on, moderatio n, good taste, deft man ageme nt, and simplicity. (school of Ben Jon son)(3)The great philosophical and political treatises of the time emphasize rati on alism.(4)The restorati on drama.(5)The Age of Dryde n.III. Joh n Milt on1. Life: educated at —visiti ng the continent—invo Ived in to the revoluti on —persecuted—writi ng epics.2. Literary career.(1)The 1st period was up to 1641, duri ng which time he is to be see n chiefly as a son of the huma ni sts and Elizabetha ns, although his Purita nism is not abse nt. L'Allegre and IL Pens eroso (1632) are his early masterpieces, in which we find Milt on a true offspri ng of the Ren aissa nee, a scholar of exquisite taste and rare culture. Next came Comus, a masque. The greatest of early creati ons was Lycidas, a pastoral elegy on the death of a college mate, Edward King.3. Major Works(1)Paradise Losta. the plot.b. characters.c. theme: justify the ways of God to man.(2)Paradise Rega in ed.(3)Sams on Agoni stes.4. Features of 's works.(1)Milt on is one of the very few truly great En glish writers who is also a prominent figure in politics, and who is both a great poet and an importa nt prose writer. The two most esse ntial thi ngs to be remembered about him are his Purita nism and his republica ni sm.(2)Milt on wrote many differe nt types of poetry. He is especially a great master of bla nk verse. He lear ned much from Shakespeare and first used bla nk verse in non-dramatic works.(3)Milt on is a great stylist. He is famous for his grand style no ted for its dig nity and polish, which is the result of his life-lo ng classical and biblical study.(4)Milt on has always bee n admired for his sublimity of thought and majesty of expressi on.IV. John Bun yan1. Life:(1)purita n age;(2) poor family;(3) parliame ntary army;(4) Baptist society, preacher;(5) pris on, writ ing 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 Poets2. Cavalier PoetsThe other group prevail ing in this period was that of Cavalier poets. They were ofte n courtiers who stood on the side of the king, and called themselves Ben Jonson. The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elega nt, amorous and gay, but ofte n superficial. Most of their verses were short son gs, pretty madrigals, love fan cies characterized by light ness of heart and of morals. Cavalier poems have the limpidity of the Elizabetha n lyric without its imagi native flights. They are lighter and n eater but less fresh tha n the Elizabetha n's.VI. John Dryde n.1. Life:the represe ntative of classicism in the Restorati on.poet, dramatist, critic, prose writer, satirist.(4) Literary career —four decades.(1) (2)(3) cha ngeable in attitude.(5)Poet Laureate2. His in flue nces.(1)He established the heroic couplet as the fashi on for satiric, didactic, and descriptive poetry.(2)He developed a direct and con cise prose style.(3)He developed the art of literary criticism in his essays and in the nu merous prefaces to his poems.Chapter 5 En glish Literature of the 18th Cen turyI. I ntroducti on1. The Historical Backgro und.2. The literary overview.(1)The En lighte nment.(2)The rise of En glish no vels.When the literary historia n seeks to assig n to each age its favourite form of literature, he finds no difficulty in deali ng with our own time. As the Middle Ages delighted in long roma ntic n arrative poems, the Elizabetha ns in drama, the En glishma n of the reig ns of Anne and the early Georges in didactic and satirical verse, so the public of our day is en amored of the no vel. Almost all types of literary producti on con ti nue to appear, but whether we judge from the lists of publishers, the statistics of public libraries, or gen eral conv ersati on, we find abundant evide nee of the eno rmous prep on dera nee of this kind of literary en terta inment in popular favor.(3)Neo-classicism: a revival in the seve ntee nth and eightee nth cen turies of classical sta ndards of order, bala nee, and harm ony in literature. Joh n Dryde n and Alexa nder Pope were major exp onents of the n eo-classical school.(4)Satiric literature.(5)Sen time ntalismII. Neo-classicism. (a general description)1. Alexa nder Pope(1)Life:a. Catholic family;b. ill health;c. taught himself by readi ng and tran slat ing;d. friend of Addis on, Steele and Swift.(2)three groups of poems:e. An Essay on Criticism (manifesto of neo-classicism);f. The Rape of Lock;g. Tran slati on of two epics.(3)His contribution:h. the heroic couplet——fini sh, elega nee, wit, poin ted ness;i. satire.(4)weak ness: lack of imagi nati on.2. Addis on and Steele(1)Richard Steele: poet, playwright, essayist, publisher of n ewspaper.(2)Joseph Addis on: studies at Oxford, secretary of state, created a literary periodical “ Specta(orzith”Steele, 1711)(3)Spectator Club.(4)The sig ni fica nee of their essays.a. Their writings in “ The Tatler ” , and “ The Spectator ” provide a nesocial morality for the risi ng bourgeoisie.b. They give a true picture of the social life of in the 18th century.3. Samuel Joh nso—poet, critic, essayist, lexicographer, editor.(1)Life:a. studies at ;b. made a liv ing by writi ng and tran slat ing;c. the great cham of literature.(2)works: poem (The Vanity of Huma n Wishes, Lon don ； criticism (The Lives of great Poets ； preface.(3)The champi on of n eoclassical ideas.III. Literature of Satire: Jon atha n 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 .2. Works: The of Books, A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal, Gulliver's Travels.3. Gulliver's Travels.Satire—the Whig and the Tories, An glica n Church and Catholic Church.Part II. Satire— the legal system; condemn ati on of war.Part III. Satire—ridiculous scie ntific experime nt.Part IV. Satire—ma nki nd.IV. En glish Novels of Realistic traditi on.1. The Rise of no vels.(1)Early forms: folk tale -fables -myths -epic -poetry -romances —fabliaux —no vella - imagi native n ature of their material. (imag in ative n arrative)(2)The rise of the novela. picaresque novel in Spain and England (16th century) : Of or relating to a genre of prose ficti on that origi nated in Spain and depicts in realistic detail the adve ntures of a roguish hero, often with satiric or humorous effects.b. :.c. Addis on and Steele: The Spectator.(plot and characterization and realism)(3)no vel and drama (17the cen tury)2. Daniel Defoe— novelist, poet, pamphleteer, publisher, merchant, journalist.)(1)Life:a. bus in ess career;b. writi ng career;c. in terested in politics.(2)Robinson Crusoe.a. the story.b. the sig ni fica nee of the character.c. the features of his no vels.d. the style of Ian guage.3. Henry Fieldi ng—no velist.(1)Life:a. un successful dramatic career;b. legal career; writi ng career.(2)works.(3)Tom Jon es.a. the plot;b. characters: Tom, Blifil, Sophia;c. sig ni fica nee.(4)the theory of realism.(5)the style of Ian guage.V. Writers of Sen time ntalism.1. In troducti on2. Samuel Richardson- no velist, moralist (One who is un duly con cer ned with the morals of others.)(1)Life:a. prin ter book seller;b. letter writer.(2)Pamela, Virtue Rewarded.a. the storyb. the sig ni fica neePamela was a new thing in these ways:b) Its intension was to afford not merely en terta inment but also moral in structi on.c) It described not only the say ings and doings of characters but their also their secret thoughts and feeli ngs. It was, i n fact, the first En glish psycho-a nalytical no vel.3. Oliver Goldsmith—poet and no velist.A. Life:a. born in ;b. a sin ger and tale-teller, a life of vagab on dage;c. bookseller;d. the Literary Club;e. a miserable life;f. the most lovable character in En glish literature.B. The Vicar of .a. story;b. the sig nican ce.VI. En glish Drama of the 18th cen tury1. The decli ne of the drama2. Richard Brin sley Sheride nA. life.B. works: Rivals, The School for Scan dals.C. sig nifica nee of his plays.b. In his plays, morality is the con sta nt theme. He is much concerned with the curre nt moral issues and lashes harshly at the social vices of the day.c. 's great ness also lies in his theatrical art. He seems to have in herited from his pare nts a n atural ability and inborn kno wledge 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-orga ni zed, his characters, either major or minor, are all sharply draw n, and his man ipulatio n of such devices as disguise, mistake n ide ntity and dramatic irony is masterly. Witty dialogues and n eat and dece nt Ian guage also make a characteristic of his plays.Chapter 6 En glish Literature of the Roma ntic AgeI. I ntroducti on1. Historical Backgro und2. Literary Overview: Roma nticismCharacteristics of Roma nticism:(1)The spontan eous overflow of powerful feeli ngs(2)The creati on of a world of imag in atio n(3)The return to n ature for material(5)Emphasis upon the expressi on of in dividual genius(6)The return to Milt on and the Elizabetha ns for literary models(7)The in terest in old stories and medieval roma nces(8) A sense of mela ncholy and Ion eli ness(9)The rebellious spiritII. Pre-Roma ntics1. Robert Burns(1)Life: French Revolutio n(2)Features of poetrya. Bur ns is chiefly remembered for his songs writte n in the Scottish dialect.b. His poems are usually devoid of artificial orn ame nt and have a great charm of simplicity.c. His poems are especially appreciated for their musical effect.d. His political and satirical poems are no ted for his passi on ate love for freedom and fiery sen time nts of hatred aga inst tyranny.(3)Signi fica nee of his poetryHis poetry marks an epoch in the history of En glish literature. They suggested that the spirit of the Roma ntic revival was embodied in this obscure ploughma n. Love, humor, pathos, the resp onse to n ature -all the poetic qualities that touch the huma n heart are in his poems, which marked the sun rise of ano ther day-the day of Roma nticism.2. William Blake(1)life: French Revoluti on(2)works.l Songs of Innocencel Songs of Experie nee(3)featuresa. sympathy with the French Revoluti onb. hatred for 18th cen tury con formity and social in stituti onc. attitude of revolt aga inst authorityd. strong protest aga inst restrictive codes(4)his in flue neeBlake is ofte n regarded as a symbolist and mystic, and he has exerted a great in flue nee on twen tieth cen tury writers. His peculiarities of thought and imagi native visi on have in many ways proved far more congenial to the 20th cen tury tha n they were to the 19th.III. Roma ntic Poets of the first gen erati on1. In troducti on2. William Wordsworth: represe ntative poet, chief spokesma n of Roma ntic poetry(1)Life:a. love n ature;b. ；c. tour to ;d. Fre nch revolutio n;e. Dorathy;f. The ;g. friend of Coleridge;h. con servative after revoluti on.(2)works:a. the Lyrical Ballads (preface) : significaneeb. The Prelude: a biographical poem.c. the other poems(3)Features of his poems.a. ThemeA con sta nt theme of his poetry was the growth of the huma n spirit through the natural descripti on with expressi ons of i nward states of mind.b. characteristics of style.His poems are characterized by a sympathy with the poor, simple peasa nts, and a passi on ate love of n ature.3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge: poet and critic(1)Life:a. ；b. friend with Southey and Wordsworth;c. tak ing opium.(2)works.l The fall of Robespierrel The Rime of the An cie nt Marinerl Kubla Khanl Biographia Literaria(3)Biographia Literaria.(4)His criticismHe was one of the first critics to give close critical atte nti on to Ian guage. In both poetry and criticism, his work is outsta nding, but it is typical of him that his critical work is very scattered and disorga ni zed.IV. Roma ntic Poets of the Second Gen erati on.1. In troducti on2. George Gordon Byron(1)Life:a. , published poems and reviews;b. a tour of and the East;c. left ;d. friend with Shelley;e. worked in : n ati onal hero;f. radical and sympathetic with Fre nch Revolutio n.(2)Works.l Don Jua nl When We Two Partedl She Walks in Beauty(3)Byro nic Hero.Byron in troduced in to En glish poetry a new style of character, which as ofte n been referred to as “ Byronic Hero ” of “ satanic spirit ” . People imagine( someth ing of Byron himself i n these stra nge figures of rebels, pirates, and desperate adve nturers.(4)Poetic style: loose, flue nt and vivid3. Percy Bysshe Shelley: poet and critic(1)Life:a. aristocratic family;b. rebellious heart;c. ;d. Irish n atio nal liberati on Moveme nt;e. disciple of William Godwi n;f. marriage with Harriet, and Marry;g. left and wan dered in EUrope, died in ;h. radical and sympathetic with the French revoluti on;i. Frie nd with Byron(2)works: two types -viole nt reformer and wan derer(3)Characteristics of poems.a. pursuit of a better society;b. radia n beauty;c. superb artistry: imagi nati on.(4)Defense of Poetry.4. Joh n Keats.(1)Life:a. from a poor family;b. ;c. friend with Byron and Shelley;d. attacked by the con servatives and died in .(2)works.(3)Characteristics of poemsa. loved beauty;b. seek ing refuge in an idealistic world of illusi ons and dreams. V. Novelists of the Roma ntic Age.1. Water Scott. Novelist and poet(1)Life:a. ;b. ;c. poem to no vel;d. un successful publish ing firm;e. great con tributio n: historical no vel.(2)three groups of no vels(3)Features of his no vels.(4)his in flue nee.2. Jane Auste n(1)Life:a. country clergyma n;b. un eve ntful life, domestic duties;(2)works.(3)features of her writi ngs.(4)ratio nalism, n eoclassicism, roma nticism and realism.VI. Familiar Essays.1. In troducti on2. Charles Lamb: essayist and critic(1)life:a. poor family;b. friend of Coleridge;c. sister Mary;d. worked in the East In dia House;e. a miserable life;f. a man of mild character.g. a Roma nticist of the city.(2)works: Essays of Elia. Three groups.(3)Features.a. The most striki ng feature of his essays is his hum our.b. Lamb was especially fond of old writers.c. His essays are inten sely pers on al.d. He was a roma nticistChapter 7 En glish Literature of the Victoria n AgeI. I ntroducti on1. Historical Backgro und(1)An age of expa nsion(2)The con diti ons of the workers and the chartist moveme nt(3)Reforms(4)Darwi n's theory of evoluti on and its in flue nee(5)The wome n questi on2. Literary Overview: critical realism.In Victoria n period appeared a new literary trend called critical realism. En glish critical realism of the 19th cen tury flourished in the 40s and in the early 50s. It found its expressi on in the form of no vel. The critical realists, most of whom were no velists, described with much vivid ness and artistic skill the chief traits of the En glish society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoi nt.II. Novels of Critical Realists.1. Charles Dicke ns.(1)Life:a. clerk family;b. a miserable childhood;c. a clerk, a reporter, a writer;d. a man of hard work.(2)works of three periods.a. optimizeb. frustrati onc. pessimism(3)Features of his works.a. character sketches and exaggerati onb. broad humor and pen etrati ng satired. the power of exposure2. William Makepeace Thackeray(1)Life:a. born in ;b. studied in ;c. worked as artist and illustrator and writer.(2)work: The Vanity Fair(3)Thackeray and Dicke ns-featuresa. Just like Dicke ns, Thackeray is one of the greatest critical realists of the 19th cen tury . He pai nts life as he has see n it. With his precise and thorough observati on, rich kno wledge of social life and of the huma n heart, the pictures in his no vels are accurate and true to life.b. Thackeray is a satirist. His satire is caustic and his humour subtle.c. Besides being a realist and satirist, Thackeray is a moralist. His aim is to produce a moral impressio n in all his no vels.3. The Bro nte Sisters(1)Charlotte Bron te and Jane Eyre(2)Emily Bronte and The Wutheri ng Heights.4. George Eliot.(1)Life:a. Mary Ann Eva ns;b. the rural midla nd;c. aba ndoned religi on;d. in terested in social philosophical problems;e. editor of the Westmi nster Review;f. George Henry Lewis.(2)worksl Adam Bedel Silas Marnerl Middlemarch(3)Features of works.As a moralist, she shows in each of her characters the acti on and reacti on of uni versal forces and believes that every evil act must bring in evitable puni shme nt to the man who does it. Moral law was to her as in evitable and automatic as gravitati on.5. Thomas Hardy: no velist and poet(1) Life:a. —“ Wexssex;b. close to peasa ntry;c. belief in evolutio n.(2)Works:a. Roma nces and fan tasiesb. no vels of ingenuityc. no vels of characters and en vir onment(3)Ideas of Fate.Un like Dicke ns, most of Hardy's no vels are tragic. The cause of tragedy is man's own behaviour or his own fault but the super natural forces that rule his fate. Accord ing to Hardy,man is not the master of his desti ny; he is at the mercy of in differe nt forces which man ipulate his behaviour and his relati ons with others.III. En glish Poets of the Age1. Alfred Tennyson(1)life:a. ;b. friend with Hallem;c. poet laureate.(2)Works: In Memoriam; Idylls of the King.2. Robert Brow ning.(1)Life: married Elizabeth Barret, a poetess.(2)Works(3)the Dramatic Mono logueThe dramatic mono logue is a soliloquy in drama in which the voice speak ing is not the poet himself, but a character inven ted by the poet, so that it reflects life objectively. It was imitated by many poets after Brow ning and brought to its most sophisticated form by T. S. Eliot in his The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufroc( 1915)IV. En glish Prose of the age1. Thomas Carlyle(1)life(2)works2. John Ruskin(1)life(2)works(3)social and aesthetic ideasV. Aestheticism1. AestheticismThe basic theory of the aesthetic —“ art for art's sake was setforth by a French poet, Theophile Gautier. The first En glishma n who wrote about the theory of aestheticism was Walter Peter, the most importa nt critical writer of the late Victoria n period, whose most importa nt works were studies in the History of Ren aissa nee and Appreciations. The chief representative of the movement in was Oscar Wilde, with his The Picture of Doria n Gray. Aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life should imitate art, n ot art imitate life. Accord ing to aesthetes, all artistic creatio n is absolutely subjective as opposed to objective. Art should be free from any in flue nee of egoism. On ly whe n art is for art's sake can it be immortal. It should be restricted to con tributi ng beauty in a highly polished style.2. Oscar Wilde(1)Life: dramatist, poet, no velist and essayist, spokesma n for the school of “ Art for art's sake ” , the leader of the Aesthetic movement(2)worksl The Happy Prince and Other Talesl The Picture of Doria n Grayl The Importa nee of Bei ng Ear nestChapter 8 En glish Literature of the first half of the 20th Cen tury I. Historical Backgro und1. Ratio nal cha nges on old traditi ons, in social sta ndards and in people's thoughts2. The high tide of an ti-Victoria nism3. The First World War4. The success of wome n's struggle for social and civil rightsII. Overview of the Literature -the Modernism1. What is moder ni sm?2. Features of moder nism(1)Complexity(2)Radical and deliberate break with traditional aesthetic principles(3)Back to Aristotle3. Developme nt of moder nism after WWIISection 1 Poetry I. A General Survey1. The cen tury has produced a large nu mber of both major and minor poets, many of whom have received gen eral acclaim.2. Many writers of sig nifica nt works of ficti on also write dist in guished poetry.3. The poets of the 20th cen tury have ten ded to group themselves into schools whose poetry has particular disti nguishi ng characteristics.II. Thomas Hardy1. Life2. Works(1)his poetrya. Poems and Other Versesb. Poems of the Past and the Prese ntc. Time's Laughi ng Stocksd. Mome nts of Visio ne. Late Lyrics and Earlierf. The famous Tragedy of the Quee n of Cornwellg. Winter Words(2)his fictionsa. Tess of the D'Urbervillesb. Jude the Obscurec. The Retur n of the Natived. Far from the Maddi ng Crowde. The Mayor of Casterbridge3. Point of viewAccord ing to his pessimistic philosophy, mankind is subjected to the rule of some hostile mysterious fate, which brings misfort une into huma n life.III. William Y eats1. Life -poet and dramatist2. Works(1)his poetrya. The Resp on sibilitiesb. The Wild Swa ns at Coolec. The Towerd. The Winding Stair(2)his dramasa. The Hour Glassb. The 's Desirec. On Baile's(3)his book of philosophy -Visions3. StyleIV. Thomas Stear ns Eliot1. life- poet, playwright, literary critic2. Works(1)poemsl The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrockl The Waste Land (epic)l Hollow Manl Ash Wed nesdayl Four Quarters(2)Playsl Murder in the Cathedrall Swee ney Ago nistesl The Cocktail Partyl The Co nfide ntial Clerk(3)Critical essaysl The Sacred Woodl Essays on Style and Orderl Elizabetha n Essaysl The Use of Poetry and The Use of Criticismsl After Stra nge Gods3. Point of view(1)The modern society is futile and chaotic.(2)Only poets can create some order out of chaos.4. Style(1)Fresh visual imagery, flexible tone and highly expressive rhythm(2)Difficult and disconnected images and symbols, quotations and allusions(3)Elliptical structures, strange juxtapositions, an absenee of bridges5. The Waste Land: five parts(1)The Burial of the Dead(2)A Game of Chess(3)The Fire Sermon(4)Death by Water(5)What the Thunder SaidSecti on 2 Fictio n I. The Continuing of Realism1. The two characteristics of 20th cen tury ficti on(1)Modernism(2)Continuation of the tradition of realism2. The begi nning3. Gen eral featuresII. John Galsworthy1. Life(1)The Island Pharisees(2)Turgenev(3)The Man of Property(4)In Chancery(5)Forsyte Saga(6)The End of the Chapter(7)The Silver Box(8)Strife3. Point of view4. Style(1)strength and elasticity(2)powerful sweep(3)brilliant illustrations(4)deep psychological analysisIII. Stream of Con scious ness1. James Joyce(1)life(2)major worksa. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Manb. Dubli nersd. Finn ega ns Wake(3)significanee of his worksa. He cha nged the old style of ficti ons and created a stra nge mode of art to show the chaos and crisis of con scious ness of that period.b. From him, stream of con scious ness came to the highest point as a genre of moder n literature.c. In Finn ega ns Wake, this pursue of newn ess overrode the n orma In ess and showed a tendency of vani ty.2. Virgi nia Woolf(1)life(2)worksa. Mrs. Dallowayb. To the Lighthousec. The Wavesd.d. Flushe. The Y earsf. Betwee n the Actsg. A Room of On e's Ownh. Threei. Moder n Ficti onj. The Com mon Reader (2 series)(3)point of viewa. She challe nged the traditi onal way of writi ng and created her no vels in a new way.b. She thought the depicti on of details darke ned the characters.c. She called the writers for writi ng about eve nts of daily life that gave one deep impressi on.3. In flue nee(1)The stream of consciousness presented by Joyce and Woolf marks a total break from the traditi on of ficti on and has promoted the developme nt of moder ni sm.(2)However, at the same time, because of the newness in form but hard to un dersta nd, this ki nd of ficti on cannot attract readers.(3)The writers showed interest in the psychological depiction of the bourgeoisie but n eglected the con flict that most people cared about at that time.IV. David Herbert Lawre nee1. Life2. Works(1)Sons and Lovers(2)The Rainbow(3)Women in Love(4)Lady Chatterlay's Lover3. His in flue neeSecti on 3 Drama I. Overview1. the developme nt of scie nee (light) and the revival of drama2. Social dramas3. The ren aissa nee of Irish dramas4. The poetic drama5. Differe nt schools of dramaII. George Bernard Shaw1. Life2. Works(1)Widower's Houses(2)Man and Superman(3)Major Barbara(4)Pygmalion(5)Heartbreak House(6)Mrs.'s Profession(7)The Apple Cart(8)Sai nt Joan3. Point of view(1)Shaw was very much impressed by the Norwegian dramatist Ibsen.(2)He opposed the idea of “art for art's sake ” , maintaining that must turn from“the the drama of roma nee and sen suality to the drama of edificati on4. Style(1)Shaw is a critical realist writer. His plays bitterly criticize and attack English bourgeois society.(2)His plays deal with con temporary social problems. He portrays his situati ons fran kly and hon estly ‘intending to shock his audie nces with a new view of society.(3)He is a humorist and man ages to produce amus ing and laughable situati ons. 版权所有，谢绝转载~31 / 31。
(完整版)刘炳善《英国文学简史》完整版笔记(免费)
英国文学简史完全版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 Venerable Bede（2）Alfred the GreatChapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages I.Introduction 1. 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 Wycliffe.（7）The 15th century.a. The Peasants Revolt （1453）b. The War of Roses between Lancaster 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 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.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–Ireland - （1）life: Cambridge - Sidney's friend - “Areopagus” Westminster Abbey.（2）worksa. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry in Renaissance.b. Amoretti and Epithalamion: sonnet sequencec. Faerie Queen: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 silverare 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 o f 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 t o 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 a nd 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—Hamlet; 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（Sonsof Ben）2.contribution:humor”．（1）the idea of “（2）an advocate of classical drama and a forerunner of classicism inEnglish literature.3. Major plays（1）Everyone in His Humor—“humor”; three unities.（2）Volpone the FoxChapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century I.A HistoricalBackgroundII. 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（school reason, moderation, good taste, deft management, and simplicity.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 t hat 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 t radition and his Puritan faith. They form the greatest accomplishments of any English poet except Shakespeare. I n 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 things to 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 metaphysicalpoets sought to shatter myths and replace them with new philosophies,new sciences, new words and new poetry. They tried to break away fromthe conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry, and favoured inpoetry for a more colloquial language and tone, a tightness of expressionand the single-minded working out of a theme or argument.2. Cavalier PoetsThe other group prevailing in this period was that of Cavalier poets. Theywere 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 his poems.Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th CenturyI. 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 o f this kind of literary entertainment in popular favor.（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（with Steele, 1711）literary periodical “Spectator” （3）Spectator Club.（4）The significance of their essays.a. Their writings in “The Tatler”, and “The Spectator” provide a new c of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie.b. They give a true picture of the social life of England in the 18thcentury.c. In their hands, the English essay completely established itself as aliterary 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 – novella - 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 Crusoe.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 moralinstruction.c）It described not only the sayings and doings of characters but theiralso their secret thoughts and feelings. It was, in fact, the first Englishpsycho-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 the masterpieces o f Shakespeare a nd 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 a lso lies in his theatrical art. He seems t o 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 AgeI. 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 t hat the spirit of the Romantic revival was embodied in this obscure ploughman. Love, humor, 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 tothe 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 H ero” . Peopleo f “satanic spirit”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 poemsa. loved beauty;b. seeking refuge in an idealistic world of illusions and dreams. V. Novelists of the Romantic Age.。
刘炳善《英国文学简史》完整版笔记(汇编)
英国文学简史完全笔记Part one：early and medieval english literatureChapter 1: the making of england1 the Briton2 the Roman Consequent3 the English Consequent4 the social condition of the Anglo-SaxonsChapter 2: Beowulf<Beowulf>贝奥武夫:the national epic of the Anglo-SaxonsEpic: long narrative poems that record the adventures or heroic deeds of a hero enacted in vast landscapes. The style of epic is grand and elevated.e.g. Homer’s Iliad and OdysseyArtistic features:1 Using alliteration2 Using metaphor and understatementDefinition of alliteration: a rhetorical device, meaning some words in a sentence begin with the same consonant sound（头韵）Some examples on P5Definition of understatement: expressing something in a controlled way Understatement is a typical way for Englishmen to express their ideasChapter 3 : Feudal England1 the Norman Conquest:①the Danish invasionKing Alfred: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle②the Norman Conquest:Marks the establishment of feudalism in England\2 Feuda EnglandSocial features of the Feuda England：Two classes（landlord and peasant）The miseries of the peasant：Black DeathThe raising of 13813 the Romance: knightFamous three:King ArthurSir Gawain and the Green KnightBeowulfChapter 4 William LanglandPiers The Plowman耕者皮尔斯:a picture of feudal England①the exposure of the ruling classes②the story of the Cat and Rats③the marriage of lady Meed④the condition of the peasants⑤the search for truth⑥a representative of the most oppressed section of the peasantryArtistic features:It is written in the form of a dream visionUsing symbolismChapter 5 the English Bllads民谣Oral literatureBallad: is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.The Robin Hood BalladChapter 6 Geoffery Chaucer英国文学史上首先用伦敦方言写作。
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Part 1. Old and medieval
Beowulf贝尔武甫(the national epic of the English people) stricking feature: alliteration, metaphors and understatements.
William Langland威廉。兰格伦
Piers the Plowman耕者皮尔斯
Geoffrey Chaucer杰佛利·乔叟1340-1400
长诗：The House of Fame声誉之堂;Troilus and Criseyde特罗勒斯与克丽西德
小说：Canterbury Tales坎特伯雷故事集----英国文学史上现实主义第一部杰作
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
16
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
The Great Comedies: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;;Twelfth Night第十二夜;
The Great Tragedies:The Tragedy of Hamlet哈姆雷特/王子复仇记; Othello奥塞罗King Lear李尔王; The Tragedy of Macbeth麦克白;
The Later Comedies(romances):Pericles波里克利斯; Cymbeline辛白林; The Winter’s Tale冬天的故事; The Tempest暴风风雨;
Part 3. The English Bourgeois revolution period
John Milton约翰·弥尔顿1608-1674
Francis Bacon培根1561-1626
Advancement of Learning学术的进展;Novum Organum新工具;New Atlantic新大西岛;Essays论文集（Of Studies论学习;Of Wisdom for a Man’s Self）
The founder of English materialist philosophy
（他是最早有人文主义思想的作家，现实主义文学的奠基人）
his contribution to English poetry: introduced fromfrancethe rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic meter (the heroic couplet), is the first great poet who wrote in the English language. Who making the dialect ofLondonthe standard for the modern English speech.
L‘Allegro欢乐的人;Il Penseroso沉思的人;Comus科马斯;Lycidas列西达斯;Areopagitica论出版自由;Pro Populo Anglicano Defense为英国人民声辩; Pro Populo Anglicano Defense Secunda再为英国人民声辩;Paradise Lost失乐园;Paradise Regained复乐园;Samson Agonistes力士参孙
Part 2. The English renaissance
Thomas More托马斯。莫尔
Utopia乌托邦
Philip Sidney菲力普。锡德尼
Astrophel and Stella Apology for Poetry诗辩
Edmond Spenser埃德蒙。斯宾塞
The Faerie Queene仙后The Shepherds’s Calender牧羊人日历