英国文学史总结
Lecture One
The Making of England: The Anglo-Saxon Period
The Making of England I. The Bretons:the earliest settlers of the British Isles, a tribe of Celts. Legacies :the name of Britain: the land of Bretons
the religious ceremony of May Day and the cult of mistletoe, etc.
II. The Roman Conquest: 55 B.C.—invasion by Julius Caesar；78 A.D.—complete subjugation
410 A. D. –retreat of Roman troops
Legacies: The Roman Empire--a high level of civilization
Roman roads; London ；the introduction of Christianity to Britain.
?III. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest:
?About 450 AD. invasions by Angles, Saxons and Jutes from Northern Europe
?7th century: the united kingdom of England, or the land of the Angles
Legacies : the legend of King Arthur, a Celtic king, and his Round Table nights against the Anglo-Saxon invaders;
?the mark of northern mythology on the English language;
?Old English literature (Anglo-Saxon literature)
?IV. The Danish invasion
?about 787— the 11th century: the Danes, or the Vikings
?King Alfred the Great, the Anglo-Saxon king that defeated the invaders by their uniting forces.
?Expelled from England before the Norman Conquest
Development of the Anglo-Saxon literature
The Northumbrian School:
?Caedmon in the 7th century—Paraphrase
?The Venerable Bede: father of English history, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People
?King Alfred in Wessex
?Education and translation from Latin to English
?The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
?A style of Anglo-Saxon prose
Britons May Day celebration Kiss under the mistletoe Caesar and his troops
Roman Roads Conversion from heathenism to Christianity Anglo-Saxon Invasion to England King Arthur and His Round-table Knights Odin-Wednesday; Thor-Thursday; Frigga-Friday；Tiu-Tuesday；Danish Invasion and King Alfred the Great
Lecture 2 Beowulf
?The national epic of the English people
?Oral form since 6th century → written down in 8th century
?the story is based on partly historical and partly legendary materials, brought over by the Anglo-Saxon from their original homes.
?A mixture of paganism and Christian elements
Major characters:
?Beowulf—the nephew of Hygelac, King of the Geats,
?Grendel—the monster that had haunted Hrothgar‘s feasting hall
?Grendel‘s monster mother—who lives under the sea and tried to avenge her son‘s death
?The fire dragon —slaughtered by Beowulf but also wounded Beowulf seriously, which caused his death.
Contect;Grendel vs. Beowulf ; Beowulf fighting with Grendel‘s mother；Beowulf and the fire dragon；
?Grendel: Gluttonous, brutal, arrogant, sly, coward
?Beowulf ：strong, courageous, alert, resourceful, resolute, selfless, looking forward to honor Technical features of Old English poetry
?Alliteration: initial rhyme, or head rhyme
?Kenning: a kind of figurative language
?The use of repetition and variation
Alliteration―Thus made their mourning the men of Geatland,
For their h ero‘s passing, his hearth-companions
Quoth that of all the kings of earth,
Of men he was the mildest and most beloved,
To his kin the kindest, k eenest to praise‖
Kenning
?―swan‘s bath‖ or ―whale‘s road‖
Sea
?―sea-wood‖
Ship
?―helmet bearer‖
Warrior
?―the world candle‖
the sun
Lecture 2
The Norman Period and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
the Norman Conquest (1066)
?William the Conqueror : Duke William of Normandy or William I, King of England
?The establishment of feudalism:
?king-baron-knight and the church.
?serfs and the peasants
Middle English
?The coexistence of three languages—Latin, French, and English;
?Great changes in the Anglo-Saxon language: weakened inflectional system + absorption of French word --------bull/ beef, calf/veal, sheep/mutton;
-------Bureau, cigarette, memoir, surgeon, ballet, vogue, chef, mosque, design
Middle English literature
?Religious literature: the church‘s monopoly of literature
?Romance: popular in the Middle Ages
?Characteristic of the early feudal age, reflecting the spirit of chivalry
?love, chivalry, and religion
?the matter of Britain—the Arthurian legend
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
?a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, in 4 fyttes
?Arthur‘s New Year feast and Gawain‘s appointment with the Green Knight
?Gawain‘s journey to seek the Green Knight
?Gawain‘s stay in the castle
?Gawain‘s meeting with the the Green Knight
The Order of Garter
?Motto on the order: ―shame upon him who thinks evil upon it‖
The ideal of feudal knighthood
?dedication to the church,
?the virtues of great courage, of fidelity to his promise, and of physical chastity and purity.
Poetic features
?A mixture of Anglo-Saxon and French poetry
?Anglo-Saxon element: alliteration
?French element: bob and wheel
?Bob短叠句：a single line of two syllables
?Wheel叠句: a set of rhyming short lines concluding the stanza of a poem
?Excerpt from Canterbury Tales —the description of the Nun (p. 34-35): What can you know about her look and personality?
William the Conqueror and his dominions
The legend of King Arthur and his round table knights
Lecture 4
Chaucer and His The Canterbury Tales
The Age of Chaucer (1350-1400)
?The Hundred Years‘ War (1337-1453): a series of wars fought between the English kings and the French kings for the French throne, with the result of an awakening of national consciousness in England
?The peasant uprising in 1383
?John Wycliff: the man who translated the Bible from Latin into standard English, thus fixing a national standard for English prose
?William Langland:The Vision of Piers Plowman
Chaucer’s Life:
?Born into a wine merchant family, grew up in London;
?A great variety of occupations: a commoner familiar with the lives of various classes
?wide scope of learning in Latin, French and Italian, well influenced by Italian Renaissance writers.
?buried in the Poet‘s Corner in Westminster Abbey
Literary career—three stages
?The 1st stage: under the influence of French literature and romance
?The 2nd stage: under the influence of Italian literature, especially Boccacio‘s The Decameron.
?The 3rd stage: a style of his own—The Canterbury Tales.
The Canterbury Tales
?Structure: a general prologue and twenty four tales are that connected by ―links‖
?The general prologue: 30 pilgrims including the poet telling stories during their pilgrimage journey from the Tabbard Inn near London to St. Thomas Beckett‘s tomb at Canterbury.
?Unfinished: original plan of 120 tales; only 24 were finished
Significance of The Canterbury Tales
?A comprehensive picture of Chaucer‘s time: the pilgrims represent almost the whole range of 14th century society
?Dramatic structure: the personality of each character, his private life and habits, his mood and social status are revealed in the prologue and the story he tells
?Chaucer‘s humor: gentle satire and mild irony
?Contribution to the English language: the London dialect of Chaucer‘s day
The characterization of the Prioress
?A member of the upper class
?Her language—vulgarity hidden by her ridiculous affectation;
?table manners—greedy;
?bearing—affected and pretentious;
?fake sentimentality—cold-hearted and selfish;
?appearance—inappropriate for a nun and full of vanity
Geoffrey Chaucer—the founder of English poetry
?What man art thou,‘ quoth he
?That looks as thou wouldst find a hare;
For ever on the ground I see thee stare.‘
Lecture 5
Renaissance and Spencer
The New Monarchy
?The Hundred Years‘ War with France (1337-1453)
?The War of Roses— the House of Lancaster vs. the House of York (1455-1485) with the result of the establishment of Tudor dynasty by Henry VII
?The discovery of America and the new sea routes —commercial expansion and economical development
?Religious reformation by Henry VIII: a political movement in a religious guise, and the establishment of the Anglican Church
Queen Elizabeth: the Golden Age
?A policy of tolerance to maintain a balance of power—long period of peace and prosperity
?The defeat of the Spanish Amarda —the supreme naval power
?the enclosure movement —the formation of two opposing classes
?Renaissance —the flourish of art and literature
Humanism
?The ideal of Renaissance—the rediscovery of Greek and Latin culture, in essence an expression of the general dissatisfaction at the Catholic and feudal ideas
?The interest in the welfare of human beings, emphasis on the happiness of this life instead of the after one
?In religion: reformation of the church
?In art and literature: songs in praise of the man and of the pursuit of happiness in this life
The flourishing literature
?Poetry—Edmund Spencer, Shakespeare
?Drama—Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare
?Prose—Francis Bacon
Edmund Spencer—the poet’s poet
Life: Born into a poor merchant family
?A solid education under the influence of humanism in Renaissance
?The Shephaearde’s Calender, a pastoral poem
?The Faerie Queen, an unfinished allegorical romance
?Died in poverty and buried beside Chaucer in Westminster Abbey
Major work—The Faerie Queen
?A long poem of 12 books dedicated to the Queen Elizabeth, which he finished only 6.
Faerie Queen
?An allegory of nationalism, humanism, and Puritanism; The Faerie Queen, Gloria, represents Glory and Queen Elizabeth
?The idea of the ―gentleman‖—the central character Arthur, a virtuous man who knows how to govern himself, and thus is qualified to govern others.
?The Queens knights each represents a virtue such as Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice and Courtesy, altogether symbolizing England
The excerpt in textbook
?Taken from Book I about the adventures of the Knight of the Red Cross, or of Holiness
?Allegorical figures: Lucifera (Princess of Pride), and her six counselors (Idleness, Gluttony, Lechery, Avarice, Envy, Wrath), together representing the seven deadly sins Christianity teaches people to guard against
The War of Roses The Tudor Dynasty Henry VII and his Queen
Henry VIII, Queen Mary and Elisabeth I Commercial expansion Defeat of the Spanish Armada Enclosure movement Spencer‘s monument in Westminster Abbey
Lecture 6
Drama and Marlowe
The flourishing of drama
?The rapid development of cities and towns in the 16th century; London—the centre of English Drama
?The structure of London theatre : a place both the rich and the poor went
?the playwrights: ―university wits‖
Christopher Marlowe
Life: the son of a shoemaker in London,
?education in Cambridge, a wide knowledge of astronomy, geography, medical science, history and especially poetry;
?the playwright career since the age of 23; an atheist
?sudden death.
Works:
?Tamburlaine,
?The Jew of Malta,
?Doctor Faustus
Doctor Faustus
?Originally a German legend colored by Marlowe‘s humanism
Characters:
?Doctor Faustus: a brilliant scholar with an insatiable thirst for knowledge
?Mephistopheles: the devil‘s agent who acc ording to the contract would fulfill any of Faustus wishes for 24 years at the price of his soul.
The contract:
?A tour in the universe on a dragon‘s back, mischief on the Pope, the conjuring of Alexander the Great in a king‘s court, marriage with Helen of Troy
?Faustus‘ endless spiritual struggle with a Good and a Bad Angel
?The painful expectation of the coming of the devil.
Selected reading from ―Doctor Faustus‖
?Act I Scene I
Literary features of Doctor Faustus
?The blank verse (rhymeless iambic pentameter) made by him the principal instrument of English drama
?―Marlowe‘s mighty lines‖ in his epical verse.
Social significance of Marlowe’s plays
?the spirits of the rising bourgeoisie, its eager appetite for power won by military might, knowledge or money;
?the praise of individuality freed from restraints of medieval, and the conviction of the boundless possibility of human efforts in conquering the universe
?Individualism that often brings ruin to the world and sometimes to themselves.
London theatre Playwrights Mephistopheles offering help to Faustus
Tamburlaine
?Tamburlaine represents the Renaissance desire for infinite power and authority.
Lecture 7 Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Life
?Born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon, son of a trader, who once was the local alderman
?Education of six years in local grammar school, yet quitted for the family decline
?Life in London since 1586 or 1587, then the career as an actor and then a playwright
?Retirement in 1611, died on April 23, in 1616
Position of literary history:
―… Soul of the Age!
The applause! Delight! The wonder of our stage!
Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show
To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, but for all times!‖
-------- quotes from Ben Johnson
Periods of Shakespeare’s dramatic composition:
?The first period (1590-1594)—an apprentice‘s experiments
?The second period (1595-1600)—maturity in play-writing
?The third period (1601-1607)—the period of ―great tragedies‖ and ―dark comedies‖
?The fourth period (1608-1612)—the period of romantic drama
The first period (1590-1594)—apprenticeship
?The historical play: Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3, Richard III;
?Comedy: The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tw o Gentlemen of Verona, Love’s Labor’s Lost;
?The revenge tragedy: Titus Andronicus
?The romantic tragedy: Romeo and Juliet
?Two narrative poems: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece
Features of this period:
?the mark of youth, with astonishing versatility and wonderful talent;
?the reliance on fine speech and situation instead of character;
?the attempt at blank verse (poetry in unrhymed iambic pentameter) under the influence of Marlowe The second period (1595-1600)—growth and development
?6 comedies: A Midsumme r Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night;
?5 historical plays: Richard II, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Henry V, King John;
?A Roman tragedy: Julius Caesar
?Poem: Sonnets
Features of this period:
?advance in every way on the basis of the achievements of the first period, in knowledge, in wisdom, in political insight, in dramatic skill, in creative power, in characterization, and in versification
?the position was secured as a mature and highly successful dramatist and poet
The third period (1601-1607) –gloom and depression
?5 tragedies:Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Tim on of Athens
?3 comedies: Troilus and Cressida, All’s Well That Ends Well,Measure for Measure
?2 Roman tragedies:Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus
Features of this period:
?the aggravated tragic note influence by the social background and the author‘s mood
?―dark‖ comedies filled with somber pictures of the world
The fourth period (1608-1612) –restored serenity
?4 romances or ―reconciliation plays‖: Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, Tempest
?1 historical play: Henry VIII
Features of this period
?The tone of calm and reconciliation has been associated with the change of life and mood in the later years of Shakespeare
Achievements
?Shakespeare represented the trend of history Humanism
?Characterization Originality Shakespeare as a great poet
?Shakespeare as master of the English language
Shakespeare‘s statue in the Poe t’s Corner
Sonnets
?Sonnet: a poem of 14 lines, usu. in iambic pentameter with various rhyming schemes
?Shakespeare‘s sonnets: altogether 154 sonnets
?Metrical form of Shakespeare‘s sonnets: consisting of three quatrains with a rhyming scheme abab cdcd efef and ends with a couplet rhyming gg
Selected reading Sonnet 18
?Theme: the beauty of youth and the immortality of art (poetry)
The Merchant of V enice
?The story
?Main characters: Bassanio, Antonio, Shylock, Portia (one of Shakespeare‘s ideal women)
?The characterization of Portia and Shylock
?Theme: humanism defeating evil, racial discrimination, new woman in Renaissance
Selected reading Hamlet
?Story: Hamlet‘s revenge on his uncle Claudius
?Theme: the praise of the noble quality of Prince Hamlet as a representative of humanist thinker and his disillusionment with the corrupt and degenerated society in which he lived
Selected reading: ―To be, or not to be‖
?The monologue of Hamlet pondering the question of LIFE and DEATH
?Theme:
the unbearable sufferings in life and the unknown mystery of death;
the dilemma between life and death
Discussion
?What is your opinion on this question in Hamlet‘s monologue:
―Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the blows in cruel life, or to fight against the troubl es by ending it, i.e. by committing suicide?‖
?How do you define the importance of life or death?
Shakespeare‘s house in Strafford-on-Avon The Globe Theatre
Lecture 7
Bacon and Metaphysical poets
Francis Bacon
Life:
?The chief figure in the English prose whose essays began the long tradition of the English essay in the history of English literature
?Born in a noble family, great ups and downs in his political career: Queen‘s favorite courtier, King‘s Lord Chancellor, prisoner in the London Tower
?An e ssayist, scientist, and philosopher, ―the promoter of English materialism‖
―Of Studies‖
?Style: conciseness, brevity, simplicity and forcefulness
?Emphasis: th e importance of knowledge and experience;
?the scientific way of study
Metaphysical poetry:
?A school of highly intellectual poetry marked by bold and ingenious conceits, incongruous imagery, complexity of thought, frequent use of paradox, and often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression
?The main themes are love, death, and religion
John Donne (1572-1631)
?The founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry
A V alediction: Forbidding Mourning
?The title: a farewell, don‘t be sad at my leaving. （别离辞：节哀）
?The poet: John Donne, the representative of metaphysical poets
?Appreciation of the poem
?A Chinese poem of similar theme
Stanza 1 Images: Parting lovers—body and soul of a dying man
Stanza 2 Words: profanation: n.亵渎laiety: n. 俗人，外行
Images: tear-flood, sigh-tempest, lovers melt into one being
Stanza 3 Words : reckon: v.判断,计算trepidation: n.颤抖sphere: n.球, 球体
Images: Moving of the earth, trepidation of spheres
Stanza 4,5 Words: sublunary: adj.月下的, 地上的element: v. 组成
Images: Dull love—purified love
Stanza 6 Words: breach: n. 缺口; 裂口expansion: n. 扩展，延伸
Images: The separation of the lovers—an expansion of gold
Stanza 7,8,9 Words: compass: n.圆规roam: v. 漫游, 闲逛, 徜徉hearken: vi. 倾听
obliquely: adj. 倾斜的
Images: Separating lovers—twin legs of a compass
Theme and feature
?A manifestation of the sublime love between the poet and his lover when parting
?Bold images and extravagant imagination
无题李商隐（唐）
相见时难别亦难，东风无力百花残。
春蚕到死丝方尽，蜡炬成灰泪始干。
晓镜但愁云鬓改，夜吟应觉月光寒。
蓬山此去无多路，青鸟殷勤为探看。
The Cavalier Poetry
?The Cavaliers were royalists whose poetry was marked by courtliness, urbanity, and polish
?Lyrical poets dealing chiefly with the theme of love and the theme of ―carpe diem‖
?Influenced by the metaphysical poets，a bitter consciousness of the transistoriness of human glory and joy
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
?Robert Herrick
?the motif of ―carpe diem‖—―seize the day‖
金缕衣唐杜秋娘
劝君莫惜金缕衣，
劝君惜取少年时。
花开堪折直须折，
莫待无花空折枝。
Lecture 9 English Bourgeois Revolution,
J ohn Milton and John Bunyan
Pre-revolution conflicts:
?The weakening of the tie between Monarchy and Bourgeoisie
?The clash between the king and parliament: conflicts over monopolies in the reign of James I and Charles I
?Puritanism—the religious doctrine of the revolutionary bourgeoisie
The English revolution (1642-1649)
?Two camps: the Parliament and the King
?Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army
?The decapitation of Charles I
?The bourgeoisie dictatorship with Cromwell as Protector of the English Commonwealth
The Restoration
?The restoration of Charles II
?Persecution of revolutionists by Charles II and James II
?the ―Glorious Revolution‖ in 1688
John Milton (1608-1674)
?The works of Milton best show the revolutionary enthusiasm of the bourgeoisie revolution and the bitter hatred for the despotic ruler.
Life
?Born in a Puritan middle class family; an excellent student of Cambridge,
?Six years‘ private study at Horton after graduation
?Travel on the continent in France and Italy
?Latin Secretary to the Counc il of Foreign Affairs in Cromwell‘s government, and wrote a series of political pamphlets.
?Total blindness in 1652, persecution and poverty in the Restoration period.
Paradise Lost -------The Story—(taken from the Old Testament)
?the rebellion of Satan against the authority of God
?his defeat and plotting in the Hell,
?the creation of Adam and Eve in the paradise,
?Satan‘s temptation of Eve and the departure of Adam and Eve from Eden
Theme and characterization:
?A revolt against the God‘s authority
?Satan: the real hero, through whose mouth Milton expressed his hatred for the restored monarch.
?God: a selfish despot, cruel and unjust
?Adam and Eve: craving for knowledge, embodiment of the humanist conception of man with all his dignity as the highest of all earthly living beings; the enthusiasm for humanist elements
Style
?Blank verse: the unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter
?Miltonic style: the employment of long and involved sentences, which runs on many lines with a variety of pauses; the frequent use of inversion.
?The use of allusions to other works, especially the classic works
Bunyan and his Pilgrim’s Progress
Life
?The chief Puritan writer of prose
?Born in a poor tinker‘s family, with only a little education, a pious Puritan
?A solder in the Parliamentary army during the Revolutionary
?A village preacher supporting the interest of the lowest class before and since the English Revolution ?Imprisonment in the Restoration for 12 years and the composition of Pilgrim’s Progress
The Pilgrim’s Progress
?A religious allegory
?The spiritual pilgrimage of Christian (City of Destruction, Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, Doubting Castile, Delectable Mountains, and Celestial City)
?A faithful panoramic reflection of Bunyan‘s age
?A satire of the society which is full of vices that violate the teachings of the Christian religion
?Simple and lively prose language
Selected reading—―V anity Fair‖
?A symbolic picture of London at the time, where all things are bought and sold
?The punishment of Christian and Faithful alludes to B unyan‘s arrest and imprisonment for preaching James I and Charles I Cromwell and New Model Army
Charles I beheaded (1649) Glorious Revolution
William III and Mary Satan The fall of Adam and Eve Samson Agonistes
Lecture 11 The Eighteenth century; Jonathan Swift
Historical background
?The leading power of Parliament after ―Glorious Revolution‖,
?Tory and Whig competing in the House of Commons
?England became a powerful naval force and the rapid social and economic development
New features in cultural life
?Political writings
?Newspapers, journals and coffeehouses
?The new morality of moderation, tolerance and common sense, an age of reason for the bourgeoisie to consolidate its rule
?Science and technology
?The French influence—classicism: the imitation of Greek and Latin authors and the application of rules from G & L works
Characteristics of classicism
?Emphasis on reason rather than emotion, form rather than content
?Didactic and satirical writings
?Closed couplet the only verse form for serious work
?Focus on the city life and the mid and upper class
?Hostile to anything ―romantic‖
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
?Born in Dublin, Ireland, of English parents, and his father died before he was born, unhappy childhood
?A private secretary of Sir William Temple in England
?Political career from 1704 to 1713
?Dean of St. Patrick‘s Cathedral in Dublin since 1713
Major works
?Two satires: A Tale of the Tub, The Battle of the Books
?Pamphlets on the cruel exploitation of the Irish people by English government:
?The Drapier’s Letters, A Modest Proposal
?Gulliver’s Travels, the four voyage of the hero to strange places
―A Modest Proposal‖
Theme
?What is Swift‘s proposal in this article?
?Do you think his propos al absurd, or even cruel? What‘s your response after reading it for the first time?
?Is Swift serious to make the proposal? What is his real purpose?
?A suggestion to the Irish people that the best way to end their misery should be to produce children and sell them at market as a delicious dish for the rich
?A bitter satire on the policy of the English government towards the Irish people
Details
?How did the children of poor people in Ireland become a burden to their parents or country? (pp.255, 257)
?What statistical numbers does Swift use to prove his proposal is viable? What effect is achieved by these numbers? (pp.257-258)
?According to Swift, what advantages does his proposal have? (pp. 261-262)
?Are there any other solution to the problem of Ireland? Are they better than Swift‘s solution? (pp. 263)
Analysis : Irish people‘s miserable living conditions under the cruel exploitation of domestic and English ruling class.
?There were no effective solution to the Ireland problem except for empty talks
?Swift‘s extreme disappointment, cynicism and bitter satire
Discussion: What faults does Johnson find in Shakespeare‘s plays? Do you agree with him? Coffeehouses in 18th-century England New discoveries in science and technology Lecture 10 Alexander Pope & Samuel Johnson
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Major works
?Essay on Criticism (1711) established him as a master of poetry in the form of heroic couplet
?The Rape of the Lock(1714), a mock epic satirizing the triviality and silliness of the high society
?Translation of Homer‘s epic poems Iliad and Odyssey
?Edition of Shakespeare
?The Dunciad, a brilliant piece of satire
An Essay on Man
?It embodies the 18th century concepts of the universe and man‘s place in it.
Selected reading
?―Know Then Thyself‖
?What is man‘s proper place in the universe?
?After reading this poem, what do you find out about human nature?
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
?The son of a poor bookseller, forced to leave Oxford by poverty after one year‘s study.
?Early years struggling in poverty and obscurity, writing all sorts of works, including poem, biography, drama, romance, critic; also the editor for several periodicals.
?The ―great cham of literature‖ founded the famous Literary Club with members of fame in art and literature, etc.
?Died in 1784 and buried in Westminster Abbey
Johnson’s Literary Club
?From left: Boswell, Johnson, Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick, Edmund Burke, Pasquale Paoli, Charles Burney.
Major work—Johnson’s Dictionary
?Published in 1755, an epoch in the study of English language, which took 8 years for him to finish, and filled with his personality and prejudices.
?It marked the end of English writers‘ reliance on the patronage of nobleman for support. And ―Letter to the Right Honorable The Earl of Chesterfield‖ was the writers‘ declaration of independence.
Selected reading THE PREFACE TO SHAKESPEARE
?What are the faults that Johnson finds in Shakespeare‘s works?
?What literary principles does Johnson use in his criticism?
Rules of classicism
?Didactic writings as moral instruction for the readers
?Three dramatic unities
?Refinement, elegance and decorum
?Restraint, reason and reserve
?Clarity and conciseness in expression
Lecture 12 Fielding and his ―Tom Jones‖
Henry Fielding -----Life and achievements
?A playwright, novelist and district law magistrate.
?The founder of English realistic novel and sets up the theory of realism in literary creation. ―the prose Homer of human nature‖
?The method of telling the story directly by the author
?Satire in his novels to educate the readers
Warming up questions
?Who are the main characters in the novel? And how are they related to each other?
?What story does Fielding tell in the novel?
Characters in Tom Jones
?Tom: a handsome young man, frank and open, kind, disinterested and devoid of malice, but quick-tempered, who lives by impulse, not by reason
?Master Blifil: in sharp contrast with Tom, selfish hypocritical, and malicious, a villain whose inner nature is wholly corrupted
?Sophia: courageous, wise, with firm determin ation insisting her rights and happiness, Fielding‘s ideal of an English girl
?Mr. Allworthy: a benevolent gentleman
?Mr. Western: Sophia‘s father, a country landlord
Story and organization
?Part I: Tom‘s childhood in Mr. Allworthy‘s country house, and his love for Sophia; young Bilfil‘s viciousness and plots; Tom‘s being banished from the house
?Part II: adventures on the way to London; Sophia‘s flee from the enforced marriage to find Tom; the other people‘s following Sophia
?Part III: Tom‘s searching for Sophia in London and his love adventures; the revelation of Blifil‘s true color and Tom‘s parentage.
Tom Jones: accomplishments
?Considered as Fielding‘s master piece, with the fame of being the best constructed novel in English literature
?A comprehensive, all-embracing picture of the life of 18th century England,
?Understanding of human psychology and criticism of social evils
?Full-blooded characters,
?Brilliant, witty and highly artistic language
Selected reading (Chapter II)
?Taken from the opening chapters of Tom Jones
?What does Chapter II tell us about Tom Jones?
?What kind of person is Mr. Allworthy? Why do you think so?
?What kind of person is Mrs. Wilkins? What techniques does Fielding use to reveal her character? Characterization
Mr. Allworthy: true benevolence and natural behavior.
Mrs. Wilkins: vain and hypocritical pretensions in virtue and lack of compassion for the innocent baby; prudish and affected in manners, severe and self-righteous in morals, servile to those who are above her and cruel to those who are below her
?Fielding‘s intention to instruct through smile and laughter, his comic approach to satire human vanity and falsehood
Homework Reading: The School of Scandal
?Group presentation: the appreciation of three poems
?A Red, Red Rose The Tyger London
Lecture 13 Sheridan, Burns and Blake
?Richard Sheridan, the most important English playwright of the 18th century
School for Scandal
?A great comedy of manners （风尚喜剧）and Sheridan‘s masterpiece
?It exposes the immorality, hypocrisy, money-hunting, and scandal-mongering of the idle classes in 18th century England
?Regarded as the best English comedy since Shakespeare.
Major characters and plot
?Joseph Surface: the elder brother, a mean hypocrite
?Charles Surface: the younger brother, reckless and extravagant, yet open-hearted, full of sympathy for the poor
?Maria: a rich heiress who loves Charles
?Lady Sneer: a scandalmonger
?Mr. Snake: Lady Sneer‘s follower
?Sir Peter Teazle: Maria‘s guardian
?Lady Teazle: she has an affair with Joseph
?Sir Oliver Surface: uncle of Joseph and Charles
Lady Sneer and Mr. Snake
Robert Burns -------Life and accomplishments
?The national poet of Scotland
?a ploughman poet
?Poems and songs written in the Scottish dialect and in the tradition of Scottish folk songs
?Love lyrics, songs and poems about patriotic and political themes
?A Red, Red Rose
上邪
上邪！
我欲与君相知，长命无绝衰。
山无陵，江水为竭，
冬雷震震，夏雨雪，
天地合，乃敢与君绝！
William Blake
Life:
?The son of a London hosier, with no formal education, interested in literature
?At 14 an apprentice to an engraver, and himself became a talented engraver with his own style.
?A poet against the classical traditions of the 18th century and admired the fresh spirit of Elizabethan poetry.
?Sympathetic with the American and French Revolutions.
Major works in poetry
?Songs of Innocence (1789):
?poems written for children, depicting the happy condition for a child before it knows anything about the pains of existence.
?Songs of Experience (1794):
?a more mature work, the pictures of neediness and the suffering of the miserable, the will to freedom, and ―some blind hand‖ crushing the life of man
?The contrast between Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
Major work in prose---------The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790):
?A prophetic satire in prose, expression of Blake‘s spirit of revolt against oppression, liberty against the authority of bourgeois society
?Sanctity of natural impulse and the ―voice of honest indignation‖.
―Tiger‖
?The conventional idea: nature, like a work of art, must in some way contain a reflection of its creator.
?The tiger: strikingly beautiful yet also horrific in its capacity for violence; the symbolic center for an investigation into the presence of evil in the world.
?The moral questions: what does the undeniable existence of evil and violence in the world tell us about the nature of God, and what does it mean to live in a world where a being can at once contain both beauty and horror?
―London‖
?Setting: the urban city London with its suffocating atmosphere
?Perspective: the speaker wanders through the streets of London and comments on his observations.
?The speaker's subjects--men, infants, chimney-sweeper, soldier, harlot
?Institutions vs. victims
Lecture 14 The Age of Romanticism
The Romantic Period
?A new trend in literature in the 19th century in England, an age of poetic revival
?The historical background of Industrial Revolution and French Revolution
?Discontent with the development of capitalism
?Two groups of romanticists
?escapist romanticists: Wordsworth and Coleridge
?active romanticists: Byron, Shelly and Keats
?Great attention to the spiritual and emotional life of man and the important role of nature. Features of Romantic Movement comparing with those of Classicism
Early romantic poets
?The representative poet of the early romanticism
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
?A representative of early romanticism, a lake poet
?Sympathetic to the French Revolutionary in early years, and turned conservative when old
?The friendship with Coleridge and the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798
?His poetry of nature, which has a moral value and philosophical significance, the embodiment of the Divine Spirit
Lyrical Ballads
?The manifesto of the English Romantic Movement in poetry
?―Preface to Lyrical Ballad”: a declaration of romanticism, expresses his theory of poetry, which is contrary to the theory of neo-classicism
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
Analysis
?The inspiration for the poem may have been a walk he took with his sister Dorothy around Lake Ullswater
?The memory of the daffodils etched in the poet‘s mind and soul to be cherished for ever
Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834)
Major works
?The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798): the combination of the natural and the supernatural, the ordinary and the extraordinary makes it one of the masterpieces of Romantic poetry
?Kubla Khan (1797): a dream poem
Active romantic poets:
George Byron (1788-1824) -------- Major works
?Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
?Don Juan
Byronic heroes: rebellious in character, defying conventional morality and evenfate, but moody and sometimes misanthrope
Percy Shelley
?Born of noble blood, expelled from Oxford University for his atheist pamphlet and renounced by his father
?Political speeches and activities in Ireland
?Expelled from England by his enemies and settled down in Italy with his wife Mary Shelly
?Friendship with Byron and early death in an accident
Major works
?1813 the allegorical poem Queen Mab
?1819 the lyric Ode to the West Wind
?1820 the lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound
Ode to the West Wind
?A political lyric that most represents Shelly‘s feelings and thoughts at the year 1819, a mixture of death and rebirth
?The symbolic meaning of the west wind: the destroyer and preserver, which will destroy the old world and herald in a new one
John Keats
Major works
?Long poem: Endymion
?Short poems: praise of beauty as the general theme
?―Ode on a Grecian Urn‖
?―Ode to a Nightingale‖
?―To Autumn‖
Kubla Khan
?Romantic and mysterious atmosphere and the poet‘s rich imagination
Lecture 15 The Victorian Age
Dickens and Thackeray
The Victorian Age (1832-1901)
●Queen Victoria‘s reign for more than sixty years
●The accomplishment of England‘s industrialization, the workshop of the world as well as its financial and political center
●Flourish of literature especially the novel with a galaxy of brilliant novelists
Three Stages of Victorian Age
●1832-1848: a time of social unrest , growing conflicts between the bourgeois class and the working people, Chartist Movement
●1848-1870: a period of economic prosperity and religious controversy, the publication of Darwin‘s The Origin of Species, also a period of complacency, stability and optimism;
●1870-1901: ―the empire on which the sun never sets‖, a period of decay of Victorian values Features of Victorian novels:
The rise of novel as a dominant literary genre during the Victorian Age
?Reflection of the complexity of human relations in a capitalist society
?Better construction with plot developed by ―linear causation‖
?First published in serial form before fully published in a single book
?Tainted by the spirit of Puritanism of Victorian age
?Moral purposes to edify readers and to bring about reforms
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
●The greatest representative of English realistic novelists
Life
●Happy childhood immersed in reading and fancying
●Stricken by poverty for the father‘s debts and later thrown into the debtor‘s prison; horrible experience in the blacking factory
●A lawyer‘s clerk, a Parliamentary reporter for newspapers, a novelist, periodical editor, an amateur actor
●Sudden death in 1870 due to long-term hard work
Dickens’s novels—
the first period (1836-1841)
●1836 Sketches by Boz
●1836-1837 The Pickwick Papers
●1837-1838 Oliver Twist
●1838-1839 Nicholas Nickleby
●1840-1841 The Old Curiosity Shop
●1841 Barnaby Rudge
The Second Period (1842-1850)
●1842 American Notes
●1843-1845 Martin Chuzzlewit
●1843 A Christmas Carol
●1844 The Chimes
●1845 The Cricket on the Hearth
●1846-1848 Dombey and Son
●1849-1850 David Copperfield
The third period (1852-1870)
●1852-1853 Bleak House
●1854 Hard Times
●1855-1857 Little Dorrit
●1859 A Tale of Two Cities
●1860-1861 Great Expectations
●1864-1865 Our Mutual Friend
●1870 Edwin Drood (unfinished)
Accomplishments
●Character-portrayal
●Humor and satire
●Dickens has often been compared to Shakespeare for creative force and range of invention.
―He and Shakespeare are the two unique popular classics that England has given to the world, and they are alike in being remembere d not for one masterpiece but for a creative world‖.
William Thackeray (1811-1863)
Features of his literary works
●Focus on the lives of people of the upper and middle classes
●Cynical attitude to human nature and detached stance to social reforms
●Preference of satire to affectation, without any romantic illusions
V anity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
●The title was taken from Bunyan‘s Pilgrim’s Progress.
●The Victorian egoistic, hypocritical, and money-grabbing aristocratic and commercial society is a vanity fair, where everything is sold in terms of money
●Subtitle: not only shows Thackeray‘s cynical views of life but also declares that the epoch in which capitalists, or aristocrats, posed themselves as heroes is over.
The Vanity Fair in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress
●―A fair, wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity…. Therefore at this fair are all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not. ―
Lecture 16
The Bront? Sisters and
Wuthering Heights
The Bront?Sisters
?Charlotte: Jane Eyre
?Emily: Wuthering Heights
?Anne: Agnes Grey
Influences
?Strong emotions inherited from parents;
?the moorland,
?Influence from Romantic poets
?Based on Charlotte‘s own experience
?A criticism of the bourgeois system of education
?The position of woman in society, Jane‘s struggle for spiritual liberty
Emily Bront? (1818-1848)
Wuthering Heights
?Heathcliff: tempestuous and revengeful
?Catherine Earnshaw
?Hindley Earnshaw
Thrushcross Grange
?Edgar Linton
?Isabella Linton
Main characters
?Lockwood: narrator of the story, a gentleman visiting Yorkshire moor
?Ellen (Nelly) Dean: housekeeper to the Earnshaw family, witness of the destiny of Wuthering Heights‘ owners
?Heathcliff: an orphan brought to the Heights from the street of Liverpool by Mr. Earnshaw
?Hindley: Earnshaw‘s son
?Catherine: Earnshaw‘s daughter, who loves Heathcliff
?Edgar Linton: owner of the Thrushcross Grange, and Catherine‘s husband
Story
?The doomed love affair between the fiercely passionate Catherine and Heathcliff
?Heathclif f‘s revenge on all who have wronged him, which leads to his own defeat and destruction in the end
Selected reading
?Catherine‘s confession about her engagement with Edgar and her passionate love with Heathcliff
?Heathcliff‘s running away from Wuthering Hei ghts
Character analysis
?Catherine: torn between her wild passion for Heathcliff and her social ambition; free-spirited, beautiful, spoiled, and often arrogant; she brings misery to both of the men who love her
?Nelly Dean: A sensible, intelligent, and compassionate woman
Yorkshire moorland
Lecture 17
Thomas Hardy and his
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Life and works:
?The last important novelist of the Victorian age.
?Born in Dorsetshire, a county in the south of England, which he used as the setting of his novels by the name of Wessex.
?Principal works: the Wessex Novels, the most famous ones are Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1896)
?Due to malicious criticism Hardy turned to poetry writing from 1896.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles-
story and characters
?Tess Durbeyfield: The novel's protagonist, a beautiful, loyal young woman living with her impoverished family in the village of Marlott.
?Alec d‘Urbervilles: son of a wealthy merchant named Simon Stokes; a manipulative, sinister young man who does everything he can to seduce the inexperienced Tess
?Angel Clare: An intelligent young man who has decided to become a farmer to preserve his intellectual freedom from the pressures of city life
?Marian: a milkmaid and Tess‘s fr iend
Themes
1. The injustice of existence
?According to Hardy‘s pessimistic view of life, mankind is subjected to the rule of some hostile mysterious Fate, which brings misfortune into human.
?The last sentence of the novel: ―Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals had ended his sport with Tess‖.
Themes
2. Changing ideas of social class in Victorian England
?Social class was evaluated by money instead of blood when England was making its slow and painful transition from an old-fashioned, agricultural nation to a modern, industrial one.
Themes
3. Male domination over female
?Alec‘s abuse of Tess—the root of her misery and tragedy; Angel‘s abandonment—a selfish betrayal as cruel and selfish as Alec‘s abuse
?Hardy‘s deep sense of moral sympathy for England's lower classes, particularly for rural women, victimized by the self-righteous rigidity of English social morality.
Selected reading: Chapter 42
?Tess is working in harsh conditions on the Flintcomb Ash farm
?The faithfulness of Tess‘s love towar d her husband
Questions
?Discuss the character of Tess. Do you think she is merely a helpless victim full of weakness?
?Who is (are) responsible for Tess‘s tragedy?
英国文学史及选读 复习要点总结概要
《英国文学史及选读》第一册复习要点 1. Beowulf: national epic of the English people; Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatements (此处可能会有填空,选择等小题 2. Romance (名词解释 3. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”: a famous roman about King Arthur’ s story 4. Ballad(名词解释 5. Character of Robin Hood 6. Geoffrey Chaucer: founder of English poetry; The Canterbury Tales (main contents; 124 stories planned, only 24 finished; written in Middle English; significance; form: heroic couplet 7. Heroic couplet (名词解释 8. Renaissance(名词解释 9.Thomas More—— Utopia 10. Sonnet(名词解释 11. Blank verse(名词解释12. Edmund Spenser “The Faerie Queene” 13. Francis Bacon “essays” esp. “Of Studies” (推荐阅读,学习写正式语体的英文文章的好参照,本文用词正式优雅,多排比句和长句,语言造诣非常高,里面很多话都可以引用做格言警句,非常值得一读 14. William Shakespeare四大悲剧比较重要,此外就是罗密欧与朱立叶了,这些剧的主题,背景,情节,人物形象都要熟悉,当然他最重要的是 Hamlet 这是肯定的。他的sonnet 也很重要,最重要属 sonnet18。 (其戏剧中著名对白和几首有名的十四行诗可能会出选读 15. John Milton 三大史诗非常重要,特别是 Paradise Lost 和 Samson Agonistes。对于 Paradise Lost 需要知道它是 blank verse写成的,故事情节来自 Old Testament,另外要知道此书 theme 和 Satan 的形象。
《英国文学选读》课程简介
《英国文学选读》课程基本信息 课程发展的历史沿革 南京大学英国文学教学和研究历史悠久，基础厚实。 早在80年代，范存忠先生出版了《英国文学史提纲》，陈嘉先生编写的英文版《英国文学史》和《英国文学选读》获国家教委全国高等学校优秀教材奖。 王守仁教授主编的《英美小说》1995年获全国高校外国文学教学研究会首届优秀教材 奖。 王守仁教授主编的《英国文学选读》由北京高等教育出版社于2001年出版，列入面向21世纪课程教材、普通高等教育九五国家级重点教材”并作为英语专业系列教材”之一， 获2002年全国普通高等学校优秀教材一等奖。该教材修订版已列入普通高等教育十五国家 级教材规划选题” 2001年王守仁教授主持的英国文学网络课程作为教育部新世纪网络课程建设工程”项 目正式立项，获经费12万元。 2003年4月，英国文学网络课程在北京通过专家组质量认证。 f ---------------- 探教学内容 英国文学课程精选英国文学史上重要作家的名篇，包括莎士比亚、培根、华兹华斯、狄 更斯、哈代、艾略特、乔伊斯、劳伦斯等经典作家的名著以及当代作家的作品，题材涵盖小说、诗歌、戏剧和散文，教学内容全面系统，较好地体现了专业课程的基础性、先进性和前沿性。英国文学课程确立以文学作品为中心，采用读写议相结合的教学方式，注重培养学生的分析能力、思辩能力和语言表达能力，体现了素质教育的特点。通过对本课程的学习，学 生可以在教师的指导下阅读英语文学作品原著，理解英国文学与文化，提高文学批评鉴赏能 力和英语水平。 €--------------- la 探教学条件 英国文学课程以王守仁教授主编的《英国文学选读》为基本教材，充分发挥网络技术的 优势，基于课堂与网络，实行开放式教学。南京大学具备运行机制良好的硬件环境，开发的英国文学网络课件已从2002年春季学期起投入使用。英国文学网络课件以Web页面的形式 呈现教学内容，通过ASP技术，动态生成学习单元，每单元包括作者简介、背景介绍、作品赏析、作品选读和注释以及作家的相关网址，同时还配有相关评论、图片和名言。课件具有
大三_英国文学史(绝对标准中文版)
英国文学源远流长，经历了长期、复杂的发展演变过程。在这个过程中，文学本体以外的各种现实的、历史的、政治的、文化的力量对文学发生着影响，文学内部遵循自身规律，历经盎格鲁-撒克逊、文艺复兴、新古典主义、浪漫主义、现实主义、现代主义等不同历史阶段。下面对英国文学的发展过程作一概述。 一、中世纪文学（约5世纪-1485） 英国最初的文学同其他国家最初的文学一样，不是书面的，而是口头的。故事与传说口头流传，并在讲述中不断得到加工、扩展，最后才有写本。公元5世纪中叶，盎格鲁、撒克逊、朱特三个日耳曼部落开始从丹麦以及现在的荷兰一带地区迁入不列颠。盎格鲁-撒克逊时代给我们留下的古英语文学作品中，最重要的一部是《贝奥武甫》（Beowulf），它被认为是英国的民族史诗。《贝奥武甫》讲述主人公贝尔武甫斩妖除魔、与火龙搏斗的故事，具有神话传奇色彩。这部作品取材于日耳曼民间传说，随盎格鲁-撒克逊人入侵传入今天的英国，现在我们所看到的诗是8世纪初由英格兰诗人写定的，当时，不列颠正处于从中世纪异教社会向以基督教文化为主导的新型社会过渡的时期。因此，《贝奥武甫》也反映了7、8世纪不列颠的生活风貌，呈现出新旧生活方式的混合，兼有氏族时期的英雄主义和封建时期的理想，体现了非基督教日耳曼文化和基督教文化两种不同的传统。 公元1066年，居住在法国北部的诺曼底人在威廉公爵率领下越过英吉利海峡，征服英格兰。诺曼底人占领英格兰后，封建等级制度得以加强和完备，法国文化占据主导地位，法语成为宫廷和上层贵族社会的语言。这一时期风行一时的文学形式是浪漫传奇，流传最广的是关于亚瑟王和圆桌骑士的故事。《高文爵士和绿衣骑士》（Sir Gawain and the Green Knight，1375-1400）以亚瑟王和他的骑士为题材，歌颂勇敢、忠贞、美德，是中古英语传奇最精美的作品之一。传奇文学专门描写高贵的骑士所经历的冒险生活和浪漫爱情，是英国封建社会发展到成熟阶段一种社会理想的体现。 14世纪以后，英国资本主义工商业发展较快，市民阶级兴起，英语逐渐恢复了它的声誉，社会各阶层普遍使用英语，为优秀英语文学作品的产生提供了条件。杰弗利·乔叟（Geoffrey Chaucer， 1343-1400）的出现标志着以本土文学为主流的英国书面文学历史的开始。《坎特伯雷故事》（The Canterbury Tales）以一群香客从伦敦出发去坎特伯雷朝圣为线索，通过对香客的生动描绘和他们沿途讲述的故事，勾勒出一幅中世纪英国社会千姿百态生活风貌的图画。乔叟首创英雄诗行，即五步抑扬格双韵体，对英诗韵律作出了很大贡献，被誉为"英国诗歌之父".乔叟的文笔精练优美，流畅自然，他的创作实践将英语提升到一个较高的文学水平，推动了英语作为英国统一的民族语言的进程。 二、文艺复兴时期文学（15世纪后期-17世纪初） 相对于欧洲其他国家来说，英国的文艺复兴起始较晚，通常认为是在15世纪末。文艺复兴时期形成的思想体系被称为人文主义，它主张以人为本，反对中世纪以神为中心的世界观，提倡积极进取、享受现世欢乐的生活理想。托马斯·莫尔（Thomas More， 1478-1535）是英国最主要的早期人文主义者，他的《乌托邦》（Utopia）批评了当时的英国和欧洲社会，设计了一个社会平等、财产公有、人们和谐相处的理想国。Utopia现已成为空想主义的代名词，但乌托邦是作者对当时社会状况进行严肃思考的结果。《乌托邦》开创了英国哲理幻想小说传统的先河，这一传统从培根的《新大西岛》（The New Atlantis）、斯威夫特的《格列佛游记》（Gulliver's Travels）、勃特勒的《埃瑞璜》（Erewhon）一直延续到20世纪
英国文学史及作品选读
英国文学史及作品选读 （模拟试题二） Ⅰ. Multiple Choice（1′×20=20分） 1．______can be justly termed England’s national epic. A. The Canterbury Tales B. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight C. The Song of Beowulf D. The Romance of the Rose 2. Among of the following dramas, which is one of Shakespeare’s four tragedies? A.Macbeth B.As You Like it C. Twelfth Night D. The Merchant of Venice 3. _______ is called as “ father of English novels” A. William Shakespeare B. Christopher Marlowe C. Daniel Defoe D.John Donne 4. It was ____who made blank verse the principal vehicle of expression in drama. A. Thomas Wyatt B. William Shakespeare C. Edmund Spenser D. Christopher Marlowe 5. Absoulute monarchy in England reached its summit during the reign of ____, especially Britain’s sea power was established. A.James I B. Henry VIII C. Queen Elizabeth D. Charles I 6. Hamlet, the most popular of Shakespeare's plays for readers and theater audiences, tells about the story of Hamlet, Prince of _______, and son of the dead king, who seeks revenge for his father’s death. A. England B. Norway C. Scotland D. Denmark 7. Which comment on John Donne is wrong? A. He is the leading figure of metaphysical poetry. B. His poetry is characterized by mysticism and peculiar conceit. C. John Donne’s poetry is characterized regularity among irregularity D. He never shows positive attitude towards love. 8. Robinson Crosue can be termed as____. A. a self-dependent person B. a person with colonial mind C. an adventuous person D. all of the above 9. Robert Burns is the representative of _____. A. Sentimentalism B. Pre-Romanticism C. Romanticism D. English Renaissance 10. William Blake’s ____ paint a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone. A.Poetical Sketches B. The Book of Thel C. Songs of Experience D. Songs of Innocence 11. The notorious “Peterloo Massacre” happened in _____. A. English Romantic period B. English Renaissance C. period of Restoration D. Neo-classical period 12. Lyrical Ballads are made by ____. A. Wordsworth and Shelley B. Wordsworth and Southey C. Wordsworth and Coleridge D. Shelley and Byron 13. According to____, poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which originates in emotion and recollected in tranquillity.
浅谈比较文学论文范文
浅谈比较文学论文范文 摘要：“语言”和“文学”这两个术语是韦斯坦因视为决定学科独立与否的关键性词汇，“语言”和“文学”将比较文学集成为立体浑成的有机体，既有历时的发展脉络，也有共时的彼此观照，呈现出稳定中的变化、变化中的稳定色彩。 关键词：比较文学;语言 一、“文学”之维和“语言”一样 “文学”/“文学性”也是韦斯坦因确立比较文学研究对象的重要一环。在完成了什么算是“比较的”文学的回答之后，对于什么样的文学可以进入比较文学研究，韦斯坦因也作了深入细致的探讨。在韦斯坦因看来，“文学”/“文学性”也和“语言”一样，有着丰饶的立体构成和深邃的理论价值，它既指文学和比较文学研究的对象范畴，也指研究对象所具有的美学价值和学术价值。在其重要理论著作《比较文学与文学理论》中，韦斯坦因对“文学”作了言简意赅的探讨:在英语和法语中，“文学”一词原来是“学 问”learning或者“博学”eruditi on的意思。例如，伏尔泰谈到夏普兰时，就说他有“渊博的学问”une littérature immense。直到18 世纪，研究的焦点才从主观的人转到了客观的作品上。但即便在这一较晚的发展阶段，文学所包括的还是所有出版物，不管它们在实质上是什么类型的作品在英、法、德诸语言中，“文学”常常用来指那些非文学的作品。 在 18 世纪，非功利的作品常常被称为“诗”poesy或诗类。直到 19 世纪，才将实用性作品与非实用性作品作了系统的区分。只有当这种区分获得了普遍性的时候，“文学”才获得其真正的含义。正如西蒙?格诺在《七星百科辞典》的序言中告诉我们的，“在搞技术的人们逐渐把他们的专业提到科学这一高度”的时代，“文学是与功能性地使用书面语言完全不同的写作方式”。但我们不应忘记，直到世纪之交，诺贝尔文学奖还多次授予那些杰出的自然科学家和哲学家呢。由上，韦斯坦因总结，文学可分为“科学的”和“美学的”两部分里面也有像科幻小说这种属于两可的情况，但是，因为有诸如历史小说、散文、日记、自传等杂交类型的出现，这一领域往往不能划出准确的界限。他说:“从理论上讲，如果希望充分考虑文学研究，就应当限制研究非文学现象，而集中探讨文学现象。但在实际研究中，不可避免地要把研究的范围扩展到文学界限之外。” 韦斯坦因主张一种“收”与“放”两相结合的“文学”研究。所谓“收”，是指他对“文学”范围的考察和规范，他所强调的立基于文学基础上的比较研究，他的“文学”研究所指，乃为出色的语言艺术品和文学性相结合的作品，而非一切文字作品，韦斯坦因和韦勒克一样，强调文学艺术品的美学价值，他说:“文学研究如果降格成为材料的堆砌，它就丧失了尊严，因为不再判断其美学价值了。”所以他认为，研究莎士比亚戏剧的历史渊源，应该是英国文学史家和批评家关注的题目;研究《高老头》中金钱的作用，则是传奇学者和经济史学家感兴趣的题目。此外，他将尼采定位为“诗人”，认为他可以进入文
(完整word版)吴伟仁--英国文学史及选读--名词解释
①Beowulf: The national heroic epic of the English people. It has over 3,000 lines. It describes the battles between the two monsters and Beowulf, who won the battle finally and dead for the fatal wound. The poem ends with the funeral of the hero. The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use if alliteration. Other features of it are the use of metaphors(暗喻) and of understatements(含蓄). ②Alliteration: In alliterative verse, certain accented(重音) words in a line begin with the same consonant sound(辅音). There are generally 4accents in a line, 3 of which show alliteration, as can be seen from the above quotation. ③Romance: The most prevailing(流行的) kind of literature in feudal England was the Romance. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse(诗篇), sometimes in prose(散文), describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, usually a knight, as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournament(竞赛), or fighting for his lord in battle and the swearing of oaths. ④Epic: An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significantly to a culture or nation. The first epics are known as primacy, or original epics. ⑤Ballad: The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad which is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas(诗节), with the second and fourth lines rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various in kind, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters and class struggle. The paramount(卓越的) important ballad is Robin Hood(《绿林好汉》). ⑥Geoffrey Chaucer杰弗里.乔叟: He was an English author, poet, philosopher and diplomat. He is the founder of English poetry. He obtained a good knowledge of Latin, French and Italian. His best remembered narrative is the Canterbury Tales(《坎特伯雷故事集》), which the Prologue(序言) supplies a miniature(缩影) of the English society of Chaucer’s time. That is why Chaucer has been called “the founder of English realism”. Chaucer affirms men and women’s right to pursue their happiness on earth and opposes(反对) the dogma of asceticism(禁欲主义) preached(鼓吹) by the church. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man’s energy, intellect, quick wit and love of life. Chaucer’s contribution to English poetry lies chiefly in the fact that he introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic(抑扬格) meter(the “heroic couplet”) to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. ⑦【William Langland威廉.朗兰: Piers the Plowman《农夫皮尔斯》】
《英国文学史及选读》课程教学大纲
《英国文学史及选读》课程教学大纲 一．课程基本情况： 1．编号：01015065, 01015096 (翻译方向)； 02015055,02015106 (教育方向) 2．层次与学制：本科, 四年制 3．总学时：68 4．学期与周学时：第五，六学期；周学时: 2 5．学分：2 6．执笔人：夏丹 二、课程性质与任务： 本课程为英语（翻译，教育方向）专业必修课。 该门课程在英语专业人才培养中旨在使学生从英国历史、语言、文化发展的角度，掌握英国文学各个时期的主要文学、文化思潮，文学流派，主要作家及其代表作，同时帮助学生对英国文学的发展有深刻的了解和认识，并通过介绍一些最基本的文化理论和批评方法，对部分在思想上艺术上有代表性，有影响的作家及作品进行分析、导读，增强学生对英国文学的形成和发展的理解，提高他们对文学作品的鉴赏能力和文学修养。 三、课程的基本要求 1．课程的要求：学完本课程，学生应该掌握如下能力： ①对于英国文学史有整体性的把握； ②掌握分析和鉴赏文学作品的能力； ③独立完成千字左右的文学作品评析的英文论文； ④掌握文学概念和相关文学流派的专业知识。 2．质量标准：在第五学期完成英国文学史中从中古时期到启蒙时期的文学流派及相关作家，完成两篇以上的英文作品分析论文；第六学期完成从浪漫主义时期到现代主义文学相关内容的学习，并整体把握整个英国文学史的脉络，完成三篇以上的英文作品分析论文。同时检验学生是否了解、认识英国文学各个时期的主要文化、文学流派、主要作家及其代表作品，了解英国文学的发展历史，并能够用最基本的文化理论和批评方法，理解、分析文学作品，提高文学鉴赏力、语言表达能力，提高文学修养。 四、课程内容与学时分配 第五学期： 第一章序言 (2 学时) 使学生对英国文学史和主要流派具有提纲挈领的认识。 第二章中古世纪时期（2学时） 使学生掌握英国文学的起源及其形式和主要代表作品 第三章杰弗里?乔叟 (2学时)
英国文学史及选读复习9 summary of the Elizabethan age II
Summary of the Age of Elizabeth (II) 1.Shakespeare’s successors. a.Ben Jonson 1573?—1637 His life: son of an educated gentleman who was thrown into prison by Queen Mary, whose property was confiscated. From his mother he received certain strong characteristics. His father died before he was born. His mother married a bricklayer. He may have studied in Cambridge for a short time, but his stepfather soon sent him to learn the bricklayer’s trade. He ran away from this, and went with the English army to fight Spaniards in the Low Countries. There he fought a duel with one of the enemy’s soldiers. He killed the man. Then he became an actor and reviser of old plays. He killed an actor in a duel and only escaped hanging by pleading “benefit of clergy”, but he lost all his poor goods and was branded for life on his left thumb. Jonson’s masques won him royal favor, was made poet laureate. With his great learning, ability and commanding position as poet laureate, he set himself squarely against his contemporaries and the romantic tendency of the age. He fought bravely for two things---- to restore the classic form of the drama and to keep the stage from its downward course. Apparently he failed. Nevertheless his influence lived and grew more powerful till, aided largely by French influence, it resulted in the so-called classicism of the eighteenth century. His work is in strong contrast with that of Shakespeare. Alone he fought against the romantic tendency of the age, and to restore the classic standards. Thus the whole action of his drama usually covers only a few hours, or a single day. He never takes liberties with historical facts, as Shakespeare does, but is accurate to the smallest detail. His dramas abound in classical learning, are carefully and logically constructed, and comedy and tragedy are kept apart, instead of crowding each other as they do in Shakespeare and in life. In one respect his comedies are worthy of careful reading, --- they are intensely realistic, presenting men and women of the time exactly as they were. From a few of Jonson’s scenes we can understand---better than from all the plays of Shakespeare---how men talked and acted during the Age of Elizabeth. His works: His first comedy: Every Man in His Humor is a key to all his dramas. The word “hu mo r” in his age stood for some characteristic whim or quality of society. He gives to his leading character some prominent humor, exaggerates it, as the cartoonist enlarges the most characteristic feature of a face, and so holds it before our attention that all other qualities are lost sight of. It is the first of three satires. Its special aim was to ridicule the humors of the city. The second, Cynthia’s Revels, satirizes the humors of the court; while the third, The Poetaster, the result of a quarrel with his contemporaries, was leveled at the false standards of the poets of the age. Three best known comedies: V olpone= The Fox The Alchemist , The Silent Woman V olpone is a merciless analysis of a man governed by love of money. Alchemist is a study of quackery on one side and of gullibility on the other, founded on the medieval idea of the philosopher’s stone. The Silent Woman is a
吴伟仁的英国文学史及选读
History and Anthology of English Literature Part One The Anglo-Saxon Period Beowulf Questions: 1.The earliest literature falls into two divisions ___________, and_______________. 2.Christianity brings England not only __________ and___________but also the wealth of a new language. 3.Who is Beowulf? And What is Beowulf? 4.How did Beowulf come into being? 5.Who is Grendel? And what is the result of Grendel?s fight with Beowulf? 6.How did the Jutes hold the funeral for him? Key points of this part: The most important work of old English literature is Beowulf------- the national epic of the English people. It is of Germanic heritage, perhaps the greatest Germanic epic and contains evidently pre-Christian elements existing at first in an oral tradition, the poem was passed from mouth to mouth for generations before it was written down. The manuscript preserved today was written in the Wessex tongue about 1000A.D., consisting altogether of 3183 lines. There are three episodes related to the career of Beowulf: 1.the fight with the monster, Grendel. 2.The fight with Grendel?s mother, a still more frightful she-monster. 3.The moral combat with the fire Dragon. The significance lies in the vivid portrayal of a great national hero, who is brave, courageous, selfless, and ever helpful to his people. There are three important features:: 1.Alliteration (words beginning with the same consonant sound). This is characteristic of all old English verse. 2.Metaphors and understatements. There are many compound words used in the poem to serve as indirect metaphors that are sometimes very picturesque. , e.g. “riging-giver”is used for King; “hearth-companions “for his attendant warriors; “Whale?s road” for the sea; “spear-fighter” for soldier etc. And as understatement we can see: “not troublesome”for welcome; “need not praise”for a right to condemn. This quality is often regarded as characteristic of the English people and their language. 3.Mixture of pagan and Christian elements: the observing of omen, cremation, blood-revenge, and the praise of worldly glory.
英国文学史及选读试题及答案
英国文学史及选读试题 Ⅰ. Multiple Choice（1′×20=20分） 1.______ was respected as “father of English poetry” and one of the greatest narrative poets of England. A.William Shakespeare B. Geoffrey Chaucer C. John Milton D.John Donne 2.In terms of influence upon England, ____ brought French civilization and French language to England. A. Anglo-Saxons B. Romans C. Anglo-Normans D. Teutons 3. According to Thomas More, “it was a time when sheep devoured men”. It refers to____. A. Industrialization B. Religious Reformation C. Commercial Expansion D. Enclosure Movement 4. It was ____who introduced sonnet into English literature. A. Thomas Wyatt B. William Shakespeare C. Edmund Spenser D. Philip Sidney 5. Which of the following is NOT Shakespeare’s tragedies? A. Hamlet B. King Lear C. The Merchant of Venice D. Othello 6. In 1649 ____ was beheaded. England became a commonwealth under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell. A.James I B. Henry VIII C. Elizabeth I D. Charles I 7. Which comment on John Donne is wrong? A. He is the leading figure of metaphysical poetry. B. His poetry is characterized by mysticism and peculiar conceit. C. John Donne usually employs traditional and regular poetic form. D. His attitudes toward love are both positive and negative. 8. Friday in The Adventuous of Robinson Crosue can be termed as EXCEPT____. A. a kind-hearted person B. a person with colonial mind C. a smart person D. a friendly person 9. Thomas Gray is the representative of _____. A. Sentimentalism B. Pre-Romanticism C. Romanticism D. English Renaissance 10. William Blake’s ____is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and sufferings. A.Poetical Sketches B. The Book of Thel C. Songs of Experience D. Songs of Innocence 11. ____, the national peasant poet in Scotland, and his poem____ shows his passionate love for his Beloved. A.William Blake, Lodon B. William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud C. Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose D. Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne 12. English Romanticism begins with____ and ends with____. A. the publication of Lyrical Ballads, John Keats’s death B. French Revolution, Walter Scott’s death C. the publication of Lyrical Ballads, Walter Scott’s death D. Industrialization, John Keats’s death 13. ____ are named as Lake Poets and Escapist Romanticists. A. Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats B. Wordsworth, Byron and Shelley C. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley D. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey 14. Which of the following statement is NOT correct? A. Romantic literature is decidely an age of poetry. B. Dramma was fully developed during the Romantic period. C. The general feature is a dissatisfaction with the bourgeoise society. D. Romanticists paid great attention to the spiritual and emotional life of man.Personified nature plays an important role in the pages of their works. 15. ____ was the founder of the novel which deals with unimportant middle class people and of which there are many fine examples in latter English fiction.