英国文学ppt课件

3. Anglo-Saxon poetry
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The earliest is Widsith and the last is Maldon. Beowulf As early as the 6th in oral form Written down in the 8th. The manuscript preserved dates back to the 10th and in Wessex dialect. One datable fact in the poem is a raid on the Franks by Gelac in 520. 3183 lines. Danish King Hrothgar built a hall called Heorot. Grendel for 12 years. Beowulf, nephew to King Hygelac of the Geats. With 14 companions. Hrothgar's friend Aeschere killed by Grendel's mother. Killing Grendel’s mother with a magic sword in the cave. ’ One of the 12 companions, Wiglaf, helped Beowulf kill the dragon. Physical strength demonstrates his high spiritual qualities. A mixture of paganism and Christian elements.
4. Romance and the influence of French literature • Through French literature the introduction of Italian literature. • Chief breeding ground was the aristocratic society in France in the 12th and early 13th and was introduced into England in the second half of the 13th and the 14th. • In subject matters, romance naturally falls under three categories. • 1) The matter of France: the exploits of Charlemagne the Great and Roland, a national hero in the 8th, Chanson de Roland. • 2) The matter of Rome: Alexander the Great and the siege of Troy. • 3) The matter of Britain: the Arthurian legend, Sir Gawain, Launcelot, Merlin, the Holy Grail, the death of King Arthur. • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight • Written about 1375-1400. • About 2500 lines. • Four “fyttes”. ” • Green Chapel
1. Chapter One The Anglo-Saxon Period (450 —— 1066)
• • • • 1. Historical background The Celts 〉the Brythons. The Iron Age. The ceremonies of May dayand the cult of mistletoe. • From 55 BC to 407 AD,the Roman Empire, a slave society. • London was founded. • Little influence on the cultural life of the CeltTown with names ending in “chester” or “caster”.s,
• 2. The scop also used a figurative language called “kenning”, a metaphor usually composed of two words, which becomes the formula of a special object: “helmet bearer” for “warrior.wk.baidu.com • 3. The use of repetition and variation. Same idea expressed more than once by synonyms. • PS: 第4頁第2段第3行經Word自動更正提示以及 維基百科確認，“Ecclesiatical”為印刷錯誤，應 為“Ecclesiastical”。
• De Bello Gallico by Julius Caesar and Germania by Publius Cornelius Tacitus • 450 AD, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. • “angul” means a hook; “seax” means a short ” ” sword. • Around 500 AD, the Celtic King Arthur fought against Cerdic, the founder of the kingdom of Wessex. Camelot, King Arthur’s capital. ’ • Later 8th, the Danes, or the Vikings. King Alfred the Great of Wessex (849-899) • Harold, the last Saxon King 〉William the Duke of Normandy. 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine to England and the first converted king was King Ethelbert of Kent.
2. Chapter Two The Norman Period (1066-1350)
1. Historical background • 1066, the battle of Hastings • The Normans, also descendants of Scandinavian marauders, having seized a wide part of northern France. • Accelerated the feudalism in England. • Large tracts of land by the king, barons, knights and the church. • A peasant uprising in 1381. 2. Middle English • For 3 centuries after the Norman conquest, two languages were used side by side in England: Latin and French. • Words and expressions from Latin and French and Greek in the 14th. • Inflectional forms dropped and grammar simplified. 3. Religious literature • The issue of personal salvation. • Moral and spiritual responsibilities of individual rather than his ethical and social responsibilities. • Conventional theme: homiletic paraphrases of the Gospels
2. Northumbrian School and Wessex literature
• two highlights in the development of the AngloSaxon literature. • Monasteries and abbeys in the kingdom of Northumbria. • Caedmon in the 7th turned the stories in the Bible into verse form——Paraphrase. Inspired by God. • The Venerable Bede (673-735), wrote in Latin The Ecclesiastical History of the English People from Caesar to 731. It was Bede who told about the story of Caedmon. • The reign of King Alfred (871-899) • First, Latin books into West Saxon dialect. It is said that King Alfred translated the history of Bede. Second, the launching of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from Caesar’s conquest to 1154. ’ • Third, created a style of Anglo-Saxon prose which was not obscure.
• Green Chapel • First day, a deer; second day, a boar; the third day a fox. A girdle. —〉the Order of Garter 〉 • A true knight should not only dedicate himself to the church but also should possess the virtues of great courage, of fidelity to his promise, and of physical chastity and purity. • It contained several element which prepared for a new culture. • A vivid portrayal of the hero and a fine analysis of his psychology. • A well unified and exciting plot full of climaxes and surprises. • The three hunting scenes and the three bedchamber scenes are closely related with each other. • A mixture of Anglo-Saxon poetry, the musical effect of which depends on the alliterated initial syllables and French poetry, the musical effect of which depends on the fixed number of accented and unaccented syllables in a verse line. Paragraphs of long alliterative lines of varying length are followed by a single line of two syllables, called “the bob”, and a group of ” four-stressed lines called “the wheel”, i.e., a set of short lines ” forming the concluding part of a stanza.