英美文学选读
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History of English Literature
PartⅠ: Early and medieval English literature PartⅡ: The English Renaissance Part Ⅲ: The period of the English bourgeois revolution Part Ⅳ: The eighteenth century Part Ⅴ: Romanticism in England Part Ⅵ: English critical realism Part Ⅶ: Prose-writers and poets of the mid and late 19th century Part Ⅷ: Twentieth century English literature
Contents: Beginning and ending with the funeral of a great
king, and composed against a back ground of impending disaster, ―Beowulf‖ describes the exploits of a Scandinavian culture hero, Beowulf, in destroying the monster Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a firebreathing dragon.
What is the significance of ―Beowulf‖?
(see the textbook)
What is an epic?
Epic is one of the ancient types of poetry and plays a very important role in Early development of literature and civilization. An epic is a long narrative poem of great scale and grandiose style about the heroes who are usually warriors or even demigods. The epic deals with noble characters and heroic deeds. Basically, the epic is a story about hero. Meanwhile, it incorporates myth, legend and folk tale. More Significantly, it reflects national history. An epic is more cultural than literary. There are two kinds of epic, the primitive and the literary epics. The primitive epic belongs to the oral tradition. ―Iliad,‖ ―Odyssey‖ and ―Beowulf‖ are primitive epics. Literary epics are the results of improvement by literary men on the existent works. ―Paradise Lost‖ belongs to this kind. The term ―epic‖ is also applied to works that do not treat heroic deeds or national history, but that have some qualities embodied by true epics, namely, coverage of vast space, concentration on characters and unusual happenings. In this sense, ―Divine Comedy,‖ ―Faerie Queene,‖ Moby Dick, War and Peace can be taken as epics. (《文学导论》，邵锦娣，白劲鹏 编著，上海外语教育出版社，347-348页。）
Artistic Features:
1) Alliteration: Each full line has four stresses with a number of unstressed syllables, three of which begin with the same sound or letter. 2) Metaphors 3) Understatements The epic poem ―Beowulf‖ came from this period before 1066.
society that was highly civilized and rather newly Christian. The poem was originally in an oral form, sung by the bards (minstrels) at the end of the 6th century. The present script was written down in the 10th century. The English language before 1066 was quite different from what it is today.
In 55 B.C., Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar and was completely subjugated to the Roman Empire in 78 A.D. (What was the Britain’s response to the Roman Conquest?) The Roman occupation lasted for about 400 years. And with the decline of the Roman Empire, all the Roman troops went back to the continent and never returned. Thus Ended the Roman occupation in Britain in 410 A.D. (How did the Roman Conquest influence the lives of the Britain? Britain was then invaded by three tribes of pirates from Northern Europe: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. (Which area did each of these tribes occupy?) By the 7th century these small kingdoms were combined into a united kingdom called England or the land of Angles. The three tribes had mixed into a whole people called English. And the three dialects spoken by them naturally grew into a Single language called Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.
Relics of Roman Empire
The Colosseum
The Anglo-Saxon people
Chapter 2: “Beowulf”
Excerpt from the epic poem ―Beowulf‖
Introduction: English literature began with the Anglo-Saxon
Part One: Early and Medieval English Literature
Chapter 1: The Making of England
The early inhabitants in the island were Britons, a tribe of Celts. The Britons were a primitive people. They were divided into dozens of small tribes, each of which lived in a clustering of huts. (100 B.C.—44 B.C) Vendi, vidi, vici.– I came, I saw, I conquered.
settlement in England. The epic ―Beowulf‖ (3183 lines ), written in the 8th century, is among the earliest recorded poem in British literature.
Setting: The story took place in Scandinavia, where existed a
Chapter 3: Feudal England
The Danish Invasout 787, bands of Danish vikings came to England to make permanent settlements. King Alfred the Great (849-901) succeeded in driving the Danes off . However, after his death, The Danes occupied the country in1013 and held it for 30 years. In 1066, invaders from what is now northern France crossed the English Channel and successfully conquered England. William the conqueror was crowned as King of England and it was he who pushed England well on its way to feudalism, and the Norman Conquest marks the establishment of feudalism in England.
Native English speakers cannot read or speak Old English unless they have studied it.
Group discussion:
What kind of man do you think Beowulf is?
Beowulf is not simply a man of great military bravery but he is forever eager to help others in distress, and in his last adventure with dragon he shows himself a worthy leader ready to sacrifice his own life for the welfare of his people.
PartⅠ: Early and medieval English literature PartⅡ: The English Renaissance Part Ⅲ: The period of the English bourgeois revolution Part Ⅳ: The eighteenth century Part Ⅴ: Romanticism in England Part Ⅵ: English critical realism Part Ⅶ: Prose-writers and poets of the mid and late 19th century Part Ⅷ: Twentieth century English literature
Contents: Beginning and ending with the funeral of a great
king, and composed against a back ground of impending disaster, ―Beowulf‖ describes the exploits of a Scandinavian culture hero, Beowulf, in destroying the monster Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a firebreathing dragon.
What is the significance of ―Beowulf‖?
(see the textbook)
What is an epic?
Epic is one of the ancient types of poetry and plays a very important role in Early development of literature and civilization. An epic is a long narrative poem of great scale and grandiose style about the heroes who are usually warriors or even demigods. The epic deals with noble characters and heroic deeds. Basically, the epic is a story about hero. Meanwhile, it incorporates myth, legend and folk tale. More Significantly, it reflects national history. An epic is more cultural than literary. There are two kinds of epic, the primitive and the literary epics. The primitive epic belongs to the oral tradition. ―Iliad,‖ ―Odyssey‖ and ―Beowulf‖ are primitive epics. Literary epics are the results of improvement by literary men on the existent works. ―Paradise Lost‖ belongs to this kind. The term ―epic‖ is also applied to works that do not treat heroic deeds or national history, but that have some qualities embodied by true epics, namely, coverage of vast space, concentration on characters and unusual happenings. In this sense, ―Divine Comedy,‖ ―Faerie Queene,‖ Moby Dick, War and Peace can be taken as epics. (《文学导论》，邵锦娣，白劲鹏 编著，上海外语教育出版社，347-348页。）
Artistic Features:
1) Alliteration: Each full line has four stresses with a number of unstressed syllables, three of which begin with the same sound or letter. 2) Metaphors 3) Understatements The epic poem ―Beowulf‖ came from this period before 1066.
society that was highly civilized and rather newly Christian. The poem was originally in an oral form, sung by the bards (minstrels) at the end of the 6th century. The present script was written down in the 10th century. The English language before 1066 was quite different from what it is today.
In 55 B.C., Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar and was completely subjugated to the Roman Empire in 78 A.D. (What was the Britain’s response to the Roman Conquest?) The Roman occupation lasted for about 400 years. And with the decline of the Roman Empire, all the Roman troops went back to the continent and never returned. Thus Ended the Roman occupation in Britain in 410 A.D. (How did the Roman Conquest influence the lives of the Britain? Britain was then invaded by three tribes of pirates from Northern Europe: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. (Which area did each of these tribes occupy?) By the 7th century these small kingdoms were combined into a united kingdom called England or the land of Angles. The three tribes had mixed into a whole people called English. And the three dialects spoken by them naturally grew into a Single language called Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.
Relics of Roman Empire
The Colosseum
The Anglo-Saxon people
Chapter 2: “Beowulf”
Excerpt from the epic poem ―Beowulf‖
Introduction: English literature began with the Anglo-Saxon
Part One: Early and Medieval English Literature
Chapter 1: The Making of England
The early inhabitants in the island were Britons, a tribe of Celts. The Britons were a primitive people. They were divided into dozens of small tribes, each of which lived in a clustering of huts. (100 B.C.—44 B.C) Vendi, vidi, vici.– I came, I saw, I conquered.
settlement in England. The epic ―Beowulf‖ (3183 lines ), written in the 8th century, is among the earliest recorded poem in British literature.
Setting: The story took place in Scandinavia, where existed a
Chapter 3: Feudal England
The Danish Invasout 787, bands of Danish vikings came to England to make permanent settlements. King Alfred the Great (849-901) succeeded in driving the Danes off . However, after his death, The Danes occupied the country in1013 and held it for 30 years. In 1066, invaders from what is now northern France crossed the English Channel and successfully conquered England. William the conqueror was crowned as King of England and it was he who pushed England well on its way to feudalism, and the Norman Conquest marks the establishment of feudalism in England.
Native English speakers cannot read or speak Old English unless they have studied it.
Group discussion:
What kind of man do you think Beowulf is?
Beowulf is not simply a man of great military bravery but he is forever eager to help others in distress, and in his last adventure with dragon he shows himself a worthy leader ready to sacrifice his own life for the welfare of his people.