英国文学史期末复习重点

英国文学史

Part one: Early and Medieval English Literature

Chapter 1 The Making of England

1. The early inhabitants in the island now we call England were Britons, a tribe of Gelts.

2. In 55 B.C., Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar.

The Roman occupation lasted for about 400 years.

It was also during the Roman role that Christianity was introduced to Britain.

And in 410 A.D., all the Roman troops went back to the continent and never returned.

3.The English Conquest

At the same time Britain was invaded by swarms of pirates(海盗). They were three tribes from Northern Europe: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.

And by the 7th century these small kingdoms were combined into a United Kingdom called England, or, the land of Angles.

And the three dialects spoken by them naturally grew into a single language called Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.

4. The Social Condition of the Anglo-Saxon

Therefore, the Anglo-Saxon period witnessed a transition from tribal society to feudalism.

5. Anglo-Saxon Religious Belief and Its Influence

The Anglo-Saxons were Christianized in the seventh century.

Chapter 2 Beowulf

1. Anglo-Saxon Poetry

But there is one long poem of over 3,000 lines. It is Beowulf, the national epic of the English people. Grendel is a monster described in Beowulf.

3. Analysis of Its Content

Beowulf is a folk lengend brought to England by Anglo-Saxons from their continental homes. It had been passed from mouth to mouth for hundreds of years before it was written down in the tenth century.

4. Features of Beowulf

The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use of alliteration, metaphors and understatements.

Chapter 3 Feudal England

1) The Norman Conquest

2. The Norman Conquest

The French-speaking Normans under Duke William came in 1066. After defeating the English at Hastings, William was crowned as King of England.

The Norman Conquest marks the establishment of feudalism in England.

3. The Influence of the Norman Conquest on the English Language

By the end of the fourteenth century, when Normans and English intermingled, English was

once more the dominant speech in the country.

3) The Romance

1. The Content of the Romance

The most prevailing kind of literature in feudal England was the romance.

4. Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur

The adventures of the Knights of the Round Table at Arthur’s court

Chapter 5 The English Ballads

2. The Ballads

The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad. A ballad is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.

Of paramount importance are the ballads of Robin Hood.

3. The Robin Hood Ballads

Chapter 6 Chaucer

1. Life

Geoffrey Chaucer, the founder/father of English poetry.

3.Troilus and Criseyde

Troilus and Criseyde is Chaucer’s longest complete poem and his greatest artistic achievement. But the poet shows some sympathy for her, hitting that her fault springs from weakness rather than baseness of character.

4. The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer’s masterpiece and one of the monumental works in English literature.

6. His Language

Chaucer’s language, now called Middle English, is vivid and exact.

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 meter(the “the heroic couplet”)to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse.

The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in making

dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.

Part Two: The English Renaissance

Chapter 1 Old England in Transition

1. The New Monarchy

The century and a half following the death of Chaucer was full of great changes.

And Henry 7, taking advantage of this situation, founded the Tudor dynasty, a centralized monarchy of a totally new type, which met the needs of the rising bourgeoisie and so won its support.

2. The Reformation

Protestantism

The bloody religious persecution came to a stop after the church settlement of Queen Elizabeth.

3. The English Bible

William Tyndall

Then appeared the Authorized Version, which was made in 1611 under the auspicesof James I and so was sometimes called the King James Bible.

The result is a monument of English language and English literature.

The standard modern English has been fixed and confirmed.

4. The Enclosure Movement

5. The Commercial Expansion

Chapter 2 More

1. Life

Thomas More

2. Utopia

Utopia is More’s masterpiece, written in the form of a conversation between More and Hythlody, a returned voyager.

The name “Utopia” comes from two Greek words meaning “no place”.

3. Utopia, Book One

Book One of Utopia is a picture of contemporary England with forcible exposure of the poverty among the laboring classes.

4. Utopia, Book Two

In Book Two we have a sketch of an ideal commonwealth in some unknown ocean, where property is held in common and there is no poverty.

Chapter 3 The Flowering of English Literature

3. Edmund Spenser

1) Life

The Poet’s Poet of the period was Edmund Spenser.

In 1579 he wrote The Shepher’s Calendar, a pastoral poem in twelve books, one for each month of the year.

2) The Faerie Queene(masterpiece)

Spenser’s greatest work, The Faerie Queene(published in 1589-1596), is a long poem planned in 12 books, of which he finished only 6.

iambic feet Spenserian Stanza

4. Francis Bacon (father/founder of English essay)

the founder of English English materialist philosophy

Bacon is also famous for his Essays. When it included 58 essays.

Bacon is the first English essayist.

Chapter 4 Drama

7. The Playwrights

There was a group of so-called “university wits”(Lyly, Peele, Marlowe, Greene, Lodge and Nash).

1. Life

The most gifted of the “university wits” was Christopher Marlowe.

2. Work

Marlowe’s best includes three of his plays, Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus.

3. Doctor Faustus

Marl owe’s mas terpiece is The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.

5. Marlowe’s Literary Achievement

Marlowe was the greatest of the pioneers of English drama.

It is Marlowe who first made blank verse (rhymeless iambic pentameter) the principal instrument of English drama.

Chapter 6 Shakespeare

1. Life

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon.

After his death, two of his above-mentioned fellow-actors, Herminge and Condell, collected and published Shakespeare’s plays in 1623. To this edition, which has been known as the First Folio.

4. The Great Comedies

A Midsummer Night’s Dream,The Merchant of Venice,As You Like It and Twelfth Night have been called Shakespeare’s “great comedies”.

6. The Great Tragedies

Shakespeare created his great tragedies, Hamlet,Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.

7. Hamlet

the son of the Renaissance

9. The Poems

1) Venus and Adonis

2)The Rape of Lucrece

3) Shakespeare’s Sonnets

10. Features of Shakespeare’s Drama

Shakespeare and the Authorized Version of the English Bible are the two greatest treasuries of the English language.

Shakespeare has been universally acknowledged to be the summit of the English Renaissance.

Part Three: The Period of the English Bourgeois Revolution

Chapter 1 The English Revolution and the Restoration

5. The Bourgeois Dictatorship and the Restoration

in1688 Glorious Revolution

6. The Religious Cloak of the English Revolution

Puritanism was the religious doctrine of the revolutionary bourgeoisie during the English Revolution. It preached thrift, sobriety, hard work and unceasing labour in whatever calling one happened to be, but with no extravagant enjoyment of the fruits of labour.

1.Life and Work

Paradise Lost,Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.

2. Paradise Lost

1) Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is Milton’s masterpiece.

blank verse.

Chapter 3 Bunyan

1. Life

The Pilgrim’s Progress was published in 1678.

2. The Pilgrim’s Progress

1)The Pilgrim’s Progress is a religious allegory.

Chapter 4 Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets

a school of poets called “Metaphysical” by Samuel Johnson.

bymysticism in content and fantasticality in form

John Donne, the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry.

Chapter 6 Restoration Literature

2. John Dryden

The most distinguished literary figure of the Restoration Period was John Dryden.

Dryden was the forerunner of the English classical school of literature in the next century.

Part Four: The Eighteenth Century

Chapter 1 The Enlightenment and Classicism in English Literature

1. The Enlightenment and 18th Century England

2) The Enlightenment in Europe

The 18th century marked the beginning of an intellectual movement in Europe, known as the Enlightenment, which was, on the whole, an expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism.

3) The English Enlighterners

The representatives of the Enlightenment in English literature were Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, the essayists, and Alexander Pope, the poet.

Chapter 2 Addison and Steele

1. Steele and The Tatler

Richard Sreele

In 1709, he started a paper, The Tatler, to enlighten, as well as to entertain, his fellow coffeehouse-goers.

His appeal was made to “coffeehouses,”that is to say, to the middle classes, for whose enlightenment he stood up.

“Issac Bickerstaff”

2. Addison and TheSpectator

The general purpose is “to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.”

They ushered in the dawn of modern English novel.

Chapter 3 Pope

1. Life

Alexander Pope, the most important English poet in the first half of the 18th century.

3. Workmanship and Limitation

Pope was an outstanding enlightener and the greatest English poet of the classical school in the first half of the 18th century.

Pope is the most important representative of the English classical poery.

But he lacker the lyrical gift.

Chapter 4 Swift

3. Bickersta f f Almanac (1708)

Swift wrote his greatest work Gulliver’s Travels in Ireland.

Chapter 5 Defoe and the Rise of the English Novel

1. The Rise of the English Novel

the realistic novel: Defoe, Swift, Richardson and Fielding

Swift’s world-famous novel Gulliver’s Travel s

Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe(the forerunner of the English realistic novel)

Richardson: Pamela,Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison

Fielding was the real founder of the realistic novel in England.

The novel of this period … spoke the truth about life with an uncompromising courage.” The novelists of this period understood that “the job of a novelist was to tell the truth about life as he saw it.”(Ibid.) This explains the achievement of the English novel in the 18th century.

4. Robinson Crusoe

1) Today Defoe is chiefly remembered as the author of Robinson Crusoe, his masterpiece. Chapter 6 Richardson

Samuel Richardson

Pamela was, in fact, the first English psycho-analytical novel.

After Pamela, Richardson wrote two other novels: Clarissa Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison.

Clarissa is the best of Richardson’s novel.

Chapter 7 Fielding (the father of English novel)

1. Life

His first novel Joseph Andrews was published in 1742.

His Jonathan Wild appeared in 1743. It is a powerful political satire.

In 1749, he finished his great novel Tom Jones.

Amelia was his last novel. It is inferior to Tom Jones, but has merits of its own.

3. Joseph Andrews

4. Tom Jones

1) The Story

Fielding’s greatest work is The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.

6. Summary

2) Fielding as the Founder of the English Realistic Novel

As a novelist, Fielding is very great. He is the founder of the English realistic novel and sets up the theory of realism in literary creation.

He has been rightly called the “father of t he English novel.”

Chapter 10 Johnson

1. Life

Samuel Johnson, lexicographer, critic and poet.

2. Johnson’s Dictionary

In 1755 his Dictionary was published.

His Dictionary also marked the end of English writers’ reliance on the patronage of noblemen for support.

Chapter 13 Sentimentalism and Pre-Romanticism in Poetry

1. Life

Thomas Gray

2. Pre-Romanticism

In the latter half of the 18th century, a new literary movement arose in Europe, called the Romantic Revival.

Pre-Romanticism was ushered in by Percy, Macpherson and Chatterton, and represented by Blake and Burns.

Chapter 14 Blake

1. Life

William Blake

2. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

4. Blake’s Position in English Literature

For these reasons, Blake is called a Pre-Romantic or a forerunner of the Romantic poetry of the 19th century.

Chapter 15 Burns

1. Life

His Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect were printed. (masterpiece)

The Scots Musical Museum and Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs

2. The Poetry of Burns

1) Burns is remembered mainly for his songs written in the Scottish dialect on a variety of subjects.

3. Features of Burns’ Poetry

Burns is the national poet of Scotland.

Part Five: Romanticism in England

Chapter 1 The Romantic Period

the Industrial Revolution the French Revolution

Amid these social conflicts romanticism arose as a new literary trend. It prevailed in England during the period 1798-1832.

These were the elder generation of romanticists, sometimes called escapist romanticists, including Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey, who have also been called the Lake Poets.

Active romanticists represented by Byron, Shelley and Keats.

The general feature of the works of the romanticists is a dissatisfaction with the bourgeois society, which finds expression in a revolt against or an escape from the prosaic, sordid daily life, the “prison of the actual” under capitalism.

Poetry, of course, is the best medium to express all these sentiments.

The only great novelist in this period was Walter Scott.

Scott marked the transition from romanticism to the period of realism which followed it. Chapter 2 Wordsworth

Coleridge

In 1798they jointly published the Lyrical Ballads.

The publication of the Lyrical Ballads marked the break with the conventional poetical tradition of the 18th century, i.e., with classicism, and the beginning of Romantic revival in England.

The Preface of the Lyrical Ballads served as the manifesto of the English Romantic Movement in poetry.

Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey have often been mentioned as the “Lake Poets” because they lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England.

His deep love for nature runs through such short lyrics as Lines Written in Early Spring,To the Cuckoo, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, My Heart Leaps Up, Intimations of Immortality and Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey. The last is called his “lyrical hymn of thanks to nature”.

Wordsworth’s poetry is distinguished by the simplicity and purity of his language.

Chapter 3 Coleridge and Southey

1. Coleridge

Coleridge’s best poems, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Chapter 4 Byron

1. Life

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

He finished Childe Harold, wrote his masterpiece Don Juan.

2. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

This long poem contains four cantos. It is written in the Soenserian stanza.

3. Don Juan

Byron remains one of the most popular English poets both at home and abroad.

Chapter 5 Shelley

4. Promethus Unbound

Shelley’s masterpiece is Promethus Unbound, a lyrical drama in 4 acts.

6. Lyrics on Nature and Love

Ode to the West Wind

Chapter 6 Keats

2. Long Poems

Keats wrote five long poems: Endymion, Isabella, TheEveof St. Agnes, Lamia and Hyperion. 5) The unfinished long epic Hyperion has been regarded as Keat’s greatest achievement in poetry.

3. Short Poems

1) His leading principle is: “Beauty in truth, truth in beauty.”

3) Ode to Autumn, Ode on Melancholy, Ode on a Grecian Urn and Ode to a Nightingale

Chapter 10 Scott

2. His Historical Novels

Scott has been universally regarded as the founder and great master of the historical novel. According to the subjet-matter, the group on the history of Scotland, the group on English history and the group on the history of European countries.

In fact, Scott’s literary career marks the transition from romanticism to realism in English

literature of the 19th century.

Part Six: English Critical Realism

Chapter 2 Dickens

Charles Dickens critical realism

Dickens:Pickwick Papers, American Notes,Martin Chuzzlewit and Oliver Twist

4) Dickens has often been compared 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 remembered not for one masterpiece but for creative world.”

David Copperfield

Chapter 3 Thackeray

2. Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero

Vanity Fair is Thackeray’s masterpiece. characters: AmeliaSedley and Rebecca(Becky)Sharp Thackeray can be placed on the same level as Dickens, as one of the greatest critical realists of 19th-century Europe.

Chapter 4 Some Women Novelists

1. Jane Austen (1775-1817)

She herself compared her work to a fine engraving made upon a little piece of ivory only two inches square.

Jane Austen wrote 6 novels: Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion.

2. The Bronte Sisters

Charlotte’s maiden attempt at prose writing, the novel Professor, was rejected by the publisher,

but her next novel Jane Eyre, appearing in 1847, brought her fame and placed her in the ranks of the foremost English realistic writers. Emily’s novel Wuthering Heights appeared in 1847. Anne:Agnes Grey

4. George Eliot

Mary Ann Evans

three remarkable novels: Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner

3) Silas Marner:Critical realism was the main current of English literature in the middle of the

19th century.

Part Seven: Prose-Writers and Poets of the Mid and Late 19th Century Chapter 1 Carlyle

theVictorian Age

Chapter 3 Tennyson

the Victorian Age prose especially the novel

1. Tennyson’s Life and Career

Alfred Tennyson, the most important poet of the Victorian Age.

In the same year (1850) he was appointed poet laureate in succession to Wordsworth.

Chapter 7 Literary Trends at the End of the Century

1. Naturalism

Naturalism is a literary trend prevailing in Europe, especially in France and Germany, in the second half of the 19th century.

2. Neo-Romanticism

Stevenson was a representative of neo-romanticism in English literature.

Treasure Island (masterpiece)

3. Aestheticism

Aestheticism began to prevail in Europe at the middle of the 19th century. The theory of “art for art’s sake” was first put forward by the French poet Theophile Gautier.

The two most important representatives of aestheticists in English literature are Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde.

2) Oscar Wilde dramatist

Lady Windermere’s Fan,1893; A Woman of No Importance,1894; An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest,1895

The Importance of Being Earnest is his masterpiece in drama.

Part Eight: Twentieth Century English Literature

(Modernism)

Chapter 2 English Novel of Early 20th Century

3. Henry James

He is regarded as the forerunner of the “stream of consciousness” literature in the 20th century. Chapter 3 Hardy

1. Life and Work

Among his famous novels, Tess of the D’Urbervillies and Jude the Obscure.

2. Tess of the D’Urbervillies

characters: Tess, Alec D’Urbervillies and Angel Clare

Chapter 6 Bernard Shaw

Chapter 8 Modernism in Poetry

1. Imagism

Ezra Pound

The two most important English poets of the first half of 20th century are W.B.Yeats and T.S.Eliot.

2. W.B.Yeats

The Wild Swans at Coole, Michael Robartes and the Dancer, The Tower and The Winding Stair T.S.E liot has referred to Yeats as “the greatest poet of our age-certainly the greatest in this (i.e. English) language.”

3. T.S.Eliot

The Waste Land (1922) is dignifying the emergence of Modernism.

T.S.Eliot was a leader of the modernist movement in English poetry and a great innovator of verse technique. He profoundly influenced 20th-century English poetry between World Wars 1 and 2. Chapter 9 The Psychological Fiction

Modernist fiction put emphasis on the description of the character’s psychological activities, sometimes has been called modern psychological fiction. One of its pioneers is https://www.sodocs.net/doc/b112472560.html,wrence. 1. https://www.sodocs.net/doc/b112472560.html,wrence

Sons and Lovers (1913), the first of Lawrence’s important novel s, is largely autobiographical. This shows the influence of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis,especially that of the “Oedipus complex.”

The Rainbow, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover

3. James Joyce

Ulysses(1922)

June 16, 1904

character: Leopold Bloom

James Joyce was one of the most original novelists of the 20th century.

His masterpiece Ulysses has been called “a modern prose epic”.

His admirers have praised him as “second only to Shakespeare in his mastery of the English language.”

4. Virginia Woolf

“high-brows”the Bloomsbury Group

Virginia Wolf’s first two novels, The Voyage Out and Night and Day.

Jacob’s Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and Orlando

Part Nine: Poets and Novelists Who Wrote both before and after the Second

World War

Chapter 5 E. M. Forster

Edward Morgan Forsterthe Bloomsbury Group

four novels: Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Longest Journey, A Room with a View and Howards End

A Passage to India, published in 1924, is Forster’s masterpiece.

In 1927, Forster published a book on the theory of fiction, Aspects of the Novel.

Chapter 10 William Golding

William Gerald Golding

His first novel Lord of the Flies

Chapter 11 Doris Lessing

Golden Notebook

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。

英国文学史及选读__期末试题及答案

考试课程：英国文学史及选读考核类型：A 卷 考试方式：闭卷出卷教师: XXX 考试专业：英语考试班级：英语xx班 I.Multiple choice (30 points, 1 point for each) select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement. 1._____，a typical example of old English poetry ,is regarded today as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. A.The Canterbury Tales B.The Ballad of Robin Hood C.The Song of Beowulf D.Sir Gawain and the Green Kinght 2._____is the most common foot in English poetry. A.The anapest B.The trochee C.The iamb D.The dactyl 3.The Renaissance is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, which one of the following is NOT such an event? A.The rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture. B.England’s domestic rest C.New discovery in geography and astrology D.The religious reformation and the economic expansion 4._____is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. A.The Pilgrims Progress B.Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners C.The Life and Death of Mr.Badman D.The Holy War 5.Generally, the Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries, its essence is _____. A.science B.philosophy C.arts D.humanism 6.“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”(Shakespeare, Sonnets18)What does“this”refer to ? A.Lover. B.Time. C.Summer. D.Poetry. 7.“O prince, O chief of my throned powers, /That led th’ embattled seraphim to war/Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds/Fearless, endangered Heaven’s perpetual king”In the third line of the above passage quoted from Milton’s Paradise Los t, the phrase“thy conduct”refers to _____conduct. A.God’s B.Satan’s C.Adam’s D.Eve’s

英国文学史期末复习重点

英国文学史 Part one: Early and Medieval English Literature Chapter 1 The Making of England 1. The early inhabitants in the island now we call England were Britons, a tribe of Gelts. 2. In 55 B.C., Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar. The Roman occupation lasted for about 400 years. It was also during the Roman role that Christianity was introduced to Britain. And in 410 A.D., all the Roman troops went back to the continent and never returned. 3. The English Conquest At the same time Britain was invaded by swarms of pirates（海盗）. They were three tribes from Northern Europe: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. And by the 7th century these small kingdoms were combined into a United Kingdom called England, or, the land of Angles. And the three dialects spoken by them naturally grew into a single language called Anglo -Saxon, or Old English. 4. The Social Condition of the Anglo -Saxon Therefore, the Anglo -Saxon period witnessed a transition from tribal society to feudalism. 5. Anglo -Saxon Religious Belief and Its Influence The Anglo -Saxons were Christianized in the seventh century. Chapter 2 Beowulf 1. Anglo -Saxon Poetry But there is one long poem of over 3,000 lines. It is Beowulf, the national epic of the English people. Grendel is a monster described in Beowulf. 3. Analysis of Its Content Beowulf is a folk lengend brought to England by Anglo -Saxons from their continental homes. It had been passed from mouth to mouth for hundreds of years before it was written down in the tenth century. 4. Features of Beowulf The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use of alliteration, metaphors and understatements. Chapter 3 Feudal England 1）T he Norman Conquest 2. The Norman Conquest The French -speaking Normans under Duke William came in 1066. After defeating the English at Hastings, William was crowned as King of England. The Norman Conquest marks the establishment of feudalism in England.

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

2014-2015英国文学史及选读期末试题B

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班级_________________学号姓名考试科目英美文学史及作品选读【（1）】B卷闭卷共 5 页 学生答题不得超过此线····································密························封························线································

(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.

英国文学史及选读2017期末复习名词解释中英

名词解释 ENGLISH LITERATURE--DEFINITION OF TERMS 1 were passed down from generation to generation. 3) Robin Hood is a famous ballad singing the goods of Robin Hood. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 19th century English ballad. 2Critical Realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the beginning of fifties.2)The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils.3) Charles Dickens is the most important critical realist. 3With the advent of the 18th century, in England, as in other European countries, there sprang into life a public movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeois against feudalism. The social inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual deeds and requirements of the people. 启蒙主义：启蒙主义是在18世纪在英国发生的。总体上，启蒙主义是当时的资产阶级对封建主义，社会的不平等、死寂、偏见和其他的封建残余的一种反对。通过将科学的各个分支与人民的日常生活和需要联系起来，启蒙主义者们努力将他们变成为人民大众服务的工具 4-of-Consciousness” or “interior monologue”, is one of the modern literary techniques. It is the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce. Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space, and depicted vividly and skillfully the unconscious activity of the mind fast changing and flowing incessantly, particularly the hesitant, misted, distracted and illusory psychology people had when they faced reality. The modern American writer William Faulkner successfully advanced this technique. In his stories, action and plots were less important than the reactions and inner musings of the narrators. Time sequences were often dislocated. The reader feels himself to be a participant in the stories, rather than an observer. A high degree of emotion can be achieved by this technique.

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__复习要点总结

《英国文学史及选读》第二册练习题 I. 浪漫主义时期 I. Each of the statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the brackets. 1. English Romanticism is generally said to have begun with_____in 1798. A. the publication of Lyrical Ballads B. the death of Sir Scott C. the birth of William Wordsworth D. the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament 2. The Romantic Period is first of all an age of_____. A. Novel B. poetry C. drama D. prose 3. Romanticism does not emphasize_____. A. the special qualities of each individual’s mind B. the inner world of the human spirit C. individuality D. the features that men have in common 4._____ is not a Romantic poet. A. William Blake B. Sir Scott C. P. B. Shelley D. Lord Byron 5. _____ is a Romantic novelist but is impressed with neo-classic strains. A. Walter Scott B. Mary Shelley C. Jane Austen D. Ann Radcliff 6. _____ is not characteristic of Will iam Blake’s writing. A. plain and direct language B. compression of meaning C. supernatural quality D. symbolism 7. Wordsworth published Lyrical Ballads in 1789 with _____. A. Byron B. Coleridge C. Shelley D. Keats 8. Wordsworth thinks that _____ is the only subject of literary interest. A. the life of rising bourgeoisie B. aristocratic life C. the life of the royal family D. common life 9. Don Juan is the masterpiece of_____. A. Lord Byron’s B. P. B. Shelley’s C. John Keats’s D. Samuel Coleridge’s 10. _____ is not a novel written by Jane Austen. A. Jane Eyre B. Sense and Sensibility C. Pride and Prejudice D. Emma II. Complete each of the following statements with a proper word or a phrase according to the textbook. 1. In essence, Romanticism designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the_____as the very center of all life and all experience. 2. For the Romantics, _____ is not only the major source of poetic imagery, but also provides the dominant subject matter. 3. Wordsworth is regarded as a “worshipper of _____.” 4. According to the subjects, Wordsworth’s short poems can be classified into two groups: poems about nature and poems about _____. 5. Coleridge’s achieveme nt as poet can be divided into two remarkably diverse groups: _____ and the conversational.