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 literature

Chapter 1: the making of england

1 the Briton

2 the Roman Consequent

3 the English Consequent

4 the social condition of the Anglo-Saxons

Chapter 2: Beowulf

贝奥武夫:the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons

Epic: 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 Odyssey

Artistic features:

1 Using alliteration

2 Using metaphor and understatement

Definition of alliteration: a rhetorical device, meaning some words in a sentence begin with the same consonant sound（头韵）Some examples on P5

Definition of understatement: expressing something in a controlled way Understatement is a typical way for Englishmen to express their ideas

Chapter 3 : Feudal England

1 the Norman Conquest:

①the Danish invasion

King Alfred: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

②the Norman Conquest:

Marks the establishment of feudalism in England\

2 Feuda England

Social features of the Feuda England：Two classes（landlord and peasant）

The miseries of the peasant：Black Death

The raising of 1381

3 the Romance: knight

Famous three:

King Arthur

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Beowulf

Chapter 4 William Langland

Piers The Plowman耕者皮尔斯:a picture of feudal England

①the exposure of the ruling classes

②the story of the Cat and Rats

③the marriage of lady Meed

④the condition of the peasants

⑤the search for truth

⑥a representative of the most oppressed section of the peasantry

Artistic features:

It is written in the form of a dream vision

Using symbolism

Chapter 5 the English Bllads民谣

Oral literature

Ballad: is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.

The Robin Hood Ballad

Chapter 6 Geoffery Chaucer

英国文学史上首先用伦敦方言写作。约翰·德莱顿（John Dryden）称其为“英国诗歌之父”

The father of English poetry.

writing style: wisdom, humor, humanity.

①坎特伯雷故事集：

first time to use ‘heroic couplet’(双韵体) by middle English

②特罗伊拉斯和克莱希德

③声誉之宫

Part Two ：The English Renaissance

A period of drama and poetry. The Elizabethan drama is the real mainstream of the English Renaissance. Chapter 1 Old England in transition

1 the new monarchy

2 the reformation

3the English Bible：

Jhon Wycliffe, translated the first complete English Bile

Authorized Version: also called King James Bible

4 the enclosure movement

5 the commercial exoansion

6 the war between Spain：it ended with the route of the Spanish fleet"Armada"

7 the Renaissance and Humanism

Renaissance: the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.

Humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance.

Humanism: reflected the new outlook of the rising bourgeois class, which saw the world openning before it.

Three historical events of the Renaissance – rebirth or revival:

1. new discoveries in geography and astrology

2. the religious reformation and economic expansion

3. rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture

The most famous dramatists:

Christopher Marlowe

William Shakespeare

8 William Caxton: the first English printer

Chapter2 Thomas More

One of the greatest English humanists