英美文学选读自学考试笔记PDF.pdf

文艺复兴时期文学: 1.文艺复兴的时间界定: It refers to the period between the 14-th and mid-17th centuries 2文艺复兴的理论基础:人文主义兴起 A.核心: humanism is the essence of Renaissance. It sprang from the endeavor to restore a medieval reverence for the antique authors. B.基础: It was based on such a conception that man is the measure of all things. 3.文艺复兴的文化背景: A.场所: English schools and Universities were established in place of the old monasteries. B.印刷术的引进: William Caxton introduced printing into England. C.翻译的时代的出现: With the introduction of printing, and age of the translation came into being. 4.文学形式: A.诗歌 A)早期特点: The first period of the English Renaissance was one of the imitation and assimilation. B)早期作家及作品: a. Spensers The Shepheardes Calendar showed the pastoral convention. b.In “The passionate Shepherd to His Love“, Marlowe spoke that it would be very difficult for us to connect it with the voice in his tragedies. c.Poetry and Poetic drama were the most outstanding literary forms and carried on by Shakespeare and Ben Johnson. B.戏剧: A)特点: The Elizabethan drama is the real mainstream of the English Renaissance. B)作家: The most famous dramatists are Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Johnson. William Shakespeare A.创作生涯及作品 a. Apprenticeship period b.Highly individualized period c.The greatest tragedies and dark comedies period d.Romantic tragicomedies period. B.作品主题: a.Shakespeares history plays are mainly written under the principle that national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity. b.In his romantic comedies, Shakespeare takes and optimistic attitude toward love and youth, and the romantic elements are brought in full play. c.The tragedies, the play, though a tragedy, is permeated with optimistic spirit. 1/36 C.四大悲剧: A.The common feature: Shakespeares greatest tragedies are : Hamlet,Othello,King liear, and Macbeth. They have some characteristic in common. Each portrays some noble hero, who faces the injustice of human life and is caught in a difficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation. B.The realistic spirits: Along with the portrayal of the weakness or bias of the hero, we see the sharp conflicts between the individual and the evil force in the society, which shows that Shakespeare is a great realist in the true sense. D.艺术成就 A.The characters a.Shakespeares major characters are neither merely individual one or type ones. b.By applying a psycho-analytical approach,Shakespeare succeeds in exploring the characters inner mind. c.Shakespeare also portrays his characters in pairs. Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to his characters. B.Construction a.Shakespeares plays are well-know for their adroit plot construction. He borrows them from some old plays or storybooks, or from ancient Greek and Roman sources. b.He would shorten the time and intensity the story. There are usually several threads running through the play. B.language and style a.Irony is a good means of dramatic presentation. Disguise is also a important device to create dramatic irony, usually with woman disguised as man. b.He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary and idiom. His influence on later writers is immeasurable. Almost all English writers after him have been influenced by him either in artistic point of view,in literary form or in language John Milton A.创作 Miltons literary achievements can be divided into three groups. a.The early works Miltons appears as the inheritor of all that was best in Elizabethan literature. Lycidas is a typical example. B.The middle works. His powerful pamphlets written during this period make him the greatest prose writer of this age. Areopagitica is probably his most memorable prose work. c.The last great poems 2/36 Milton wrote his three major poetical works: Paradist lost, paradist regained, and Samson Agonisters. B.代表作 Paradist lost A.)The theme and structure: Paradist lost is a long epic divided into 12 books. The theme is the “Fall of Man” B.)The humanistic spirits a.Working through the tradition of a christian humanism, Milton wrote paradise lost, intending to expose the ways of Satan and to “justify the ways of God to man” b.At the center of the conflict between human love and spiritual duty lies Miltons fundamental concern with freedom and choice. c.The freedom of the will is the keystone of Miltons creed. 新古典时期文学 The neoclassical period 1.时间界定 The neoclassical period is between the return of the stuarts in 1660 and the full assertion of Romanticism which came with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 1660年英国斯图亚特王朝复辟到以华兹华斯和科勒律治1798年出版的抒情歌谣集为创始标志的浪漫主义时期为止的英国文学时代。 2.启蒙运动 A概述 a.特点 启蒙运动是进步的知识分子运动 The 18th-century England is also know as the Age of Englightenment or the Age of Reason. The enlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement b.起源 It flourished in France and swept through the whole Western Europe at the time.兴盛于法国，后席卷整个欧洲 c.性质 The movement was a furtherance of the Renaissence of the 15th and 16th centuries.是15世纪，16世纪文艺复兴的延续与发展 d.目的 Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas.运动的宗旨是用当代哲学与艺术思想的晨光启迪整个世界 B.人文观与文学特点 a. The enlighteners advocated universal education全民教育. They believe that human beings were limited, dualistic, imperfect,人有着局限性,两面性及不完美性 and yet capable of rationality and perfection through education.但人也有能力通过教育来使自己臻于理智,臻于完美. b.Literature at the time, heavily didactic and moralizing, became a very popular means of public education. 3.文学形式 当时的文学作品中充满了说教与道德理念,就已经成为大众教育的良好工具. A.伤感主义文学 3/36 In the last few decades of the 18th century, however, the neoclassical emphasis upon reason, intellect, with and form was rebelled against or challenged by the sentimentalists, and was gradually by Romanticism.侧重于理性与智慧,叛逆的文学形式,并在一定时期被浪漫主义替代. B.新古典主义诗歌 The neoclassical period witnessed the flourish of English poetry in the classical style climaxing with John Dryden, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson. 英国诗歌在德莱顿,蒲柏词典编纂家赛缪尔约翰逊的时代达到巅峰. C.现实主义小说 The mid-century was, however, predominated by a newly rising literary form- the modern English novel, gives a realistic presentation of life of the common English people. D.哥特式小说及其它 英国现代小说着重描写英国普通百姓的生活. Gothic novels-mostly stories of mystery and horror which take place in some haunted or dilapidated Middle Age Castles-were 恐怖神秘的故事,背景多为阴森的中世纪教堂, turned out profusely by both male and female writers.受到许多男妇作家的青睐. Daniel Defoe笛福 A.主要作品 a. The first novel: Robinson Crusoe鲁滨逊漂流记 B.Four other novels: Captain singleton(辛利顿船长), Moll Flanders(莫尔费朗德斯), Colonel Jack(杰克上校) and Roxana(罗克萨那). C. The Pseudo-factual account of Great Plague: A Journal the plague year灾疫之年的日记. B.作表作 a. Robinson Crusoe, an adventure story very much in the spirit of the time, is universally considered his masterpiece. b.Robinson is here a hero, a typical eighteen-century English middle-class man. c.he is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist in describing Robinsons life on the Island, Defoe glorifies human labor and the puritan fortitude. 他的大部份作品都表达了对勤劳,坚强的中产阶级的赞誉,对破落不幸的穷苦的人的同情 Jonathan Swift乔纳森 斯维夫特 A.创作 a.The works to establish his name: A Tale of a Tub(桶的故事) and The battle of the Books(书籍的战斗) established his name as a satirist. b.The Drapiers letters(德拉皮尔的信) He published, under the pseudonym of Drapier, a series of letters. Even today Swift is still respected as a national hero in Ireland. c.The greatest satiric work: He wrote and published his greatest satiric work,Gullivers Travels(格列佛游记). 4/36 B.代表作 a.Gullivers Travels, Jonathans best fictional work. The Book contains four parts: His experience in Lilliput(小人国利立浦特), along in Brobdingnag(大人国布罗卜丁奈格), visit to the Flying Island(飞岛第三卷) and Account of his discoveries in the Houyhnhnm Land（智马国）. In structure, the four parts make a organic whole.有机的整体. (第三卷)飞岛那里的哲学家与工程师将他们所有的时间花在研究许多荒谬的问题上;智马国,在那时,马具有理性以及其它所有的优秀品质,它们是统治阶级. b.Gulliver gives an account of some aspects of Lilliputian life and obviously alludes to the similar radiculous practices or tricks of the English government. Henry Fielding A.戏剧创作 The best know are The coffee-House Politician, The Tragedy of Tragedies, pasquin, and The Historical Register for the year 1736. B.小说创作 a.The history of the Adventures of the Joseph Andrews and of his friend Mr.Abraham Adams, the book quickly turns into a great novel of the open road, a “Comic epic in prose“. b.The History of Jonathan wild the Great, points out the Great Man is no better than a great gangster. c.The history of Tom Jones, a Foundling and The history of Amelia. The former is a masterpiece on the subject of human nature and the latter the story of the unfortunate life of an idealized woman. C.对文学的贡献 About novel: A.The purpose of the novel was not just to amuse, but to instruct. The object of his novel was to present a faithful picture of life, to teach men to know themselves. B.Fielding has been regarded by some as “Father of the English Novel.“ a.He was the First to set out, to write specifically a “comic epic in prose“散文体喜剧史诗 b.The first to give the modern novel its structure and style. c.Fielding adopted “The third-person narration“ d.In planning his stories, he tries to retain the grand epical form of the classical works but at the same time keeps faithful to his realistic presentation of common life as it is.保留古典作品中壮观的史诗风格,同时又忠于对真实生活的现实主义表述 About language: A.Fielding language is easy, unlaboured and familiar, but extremely vivid and vigorous.语言自然流畅,通俗易懂,同时又栩栩如生并富有活力 B.His sentences are always distinguished by logic and rhythm, and his structure carefully planned toward an inevitable ending. 以逻辑性和韵律性见长,小说结尾总是水到渠成,顺理成章. 浪漫主义时期 1.时间界定 English Romanticism is generally said to have begun in 1798 with the publicaiton of wordsworth and coleridges lyrical Ballads 华兹华斯与科勒律治的抒情歌谣集 and to have ended in 1832 with sir Walter Scotts death and the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament. 5/36 2.文化思想背景 A.The ideas of Rousseall（卢梭）: Rousseall published two books that electrified Europe -Du Contract Social（社会契约论）and Emile（爱弥尔）, in which he explored new ideas about Nature, Society and Education. After that , Patriotic clubs societies multiplied in England, all claiming Liberty, Equality and Fraternity（兄弟会）. B.The literary sources: The Romantic Movement Expressed a more or less negative attitude toward the existing social and political conditions that come with industrialization and the growing importance of the bourgeoisie. C.The differences between neoclassicism and Romanticism a.where their predecessors saw man as a social animal, the Romantics saw his essentially as an individual in the solitary state. b.Where the Augustans emphasized those features that men have in common the Romantics emphasized the special qualities of each individuals mind. D. The literary views: a. Romanticism constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit. b.In the theory,It tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience. It also places the individual at the center of art. 3.文学形式 A.诗歌 A)诗人运动 The Romantic period is an age of poetry. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats are the major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution. B)诗歌理论 They explored new theories and innovated new techniques in poetry writing. They saw poetry as a healing energy, the believed that poetry could purify both individual souls and the society. a.wordsworths theory of poetry is calling for simple themes drawn from humble life. He defines the poet as a “man speaking to men,“and poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.“ b.Imagination, defined by Coleridge, is the vial faculty that creates new wholes out of disparate elements. The Romantics not only extol the faculty of imagination, but also elevate the concepts of spontaneity and inspiration, regarding them as something crucial for true poetry. c.The natural world comes to the forefront of the poetic imagination. Nature is not only the major source of poetic imagery, but also provides the dominant subject matter. d. To escape from a world. Wordsworth, Coleridge and southey chose to live by the lakeside so as to escape from the “madding crowd,“ while Byron and Shelley rejected the entire English society by their self-imposed exile. e.Romantics also tend to nationalistic. B.散文 The Romantic period is also a great age of prose. Coleridge, Hazlitt, Lamb, and De Quincey were the leading figures. A)William Hazlitt is a great critic on Shakespeare, Elizabethan drama, and English poetry. His last book is a four-volume life of Napoleon. 6/36 B)Charles Lamb is a lovable essayist. Lambs Essays of Elia is a good work that leads to a delightful interpretaton of the life of London. C) De Quincey is one of the keenest intellects of the age. The great Literary merit of his Confessions of an English Opium Eater lies in his subtle revelation of the potentiality of human dreams. C.小说 A) Austen is of the 18th-century in her moral outlook. Her view of life is a totally realistic one. The major theme of her novels is love and marriage. B) After establishing himself as a writer of romantic historical narrative poetry, Scott switched to novel writing. Waverley, Old Martality, The Heart of Midlothian, Rob Roy, and Ivanhoe are among the most popular ones of his novels. He is the first major historical novelist. C) Gothic novel: a.Nature: Gothic novel, a type of romantic fiction that predominated in the late eighteenth century, was on phase of the Romantic movement. b.Subject matters: Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatural. c.works Works like the Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley are typical Gothic romance. D.戏剧 Shelleys prometheus Unbound and the Cenci, Byrons Manfred and Coleridges Remorse are generally regarded as the best verse plays during this period. 主要作家及作品 William Blake 威廉 布莱克 A.创作 A) The earlier period: a. The first printed work: Poetical Sketches is his first printed work, which is a collection of youthful verse. b. The songs of Innocence: 天真之歌 It is a lovely volume of poem, presenting a happy and innocent world. c. The songs of Experience: 经验之歌 It paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone. Childhood is central to Blakes concern in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, and this concern gives the two books a strong social and historical reference. d.Marriage of Heaven and Hell: 天堂与地狱的结合 Blakes Marriage of Heaven and Hell marks his entry into maturity. In this poem, Blake explores the relationship of the contraries. 7/36 B) The later period: a.In his later period, Blake wrote quite a few prophetic预言性的 books, and showed the poet himself as the spokesman of revolt. b. The major ones are: The book of Urizen尤莱森之书, The Book of Los洛斯之书, The Four Zoas四个左义斯 and Milton弥尔顿. B.艺术成就 A)The strong visual mind:想象力 From childhood, Blake had a strongly visual mind: whatever he imagined, he also saw. B) The language: 他的诗歌富有抒情诗的美丽及深远的内涵. Blake writers his poems in plain and direct language.语言直白朴素 His poems often carry the lyric beauty with immense compression of meaning. C)The Symbolism in wide range is also a distinctive feature of his poetry.象征手法也是他作品的鲜明特征. Willam wordsworth 华兹华斯 A 创作 A)Wordsworth had a long poetic career. His first volumes are Descriptive Sketches, and Evening Walk.描绘素写-傍晚漫步 B)The Lyrical Ballads differs in marked ways from his early poetry, notable the uncompromising simplicity of much of the language, the Lyrical Ballads are among the best of his achievements. C)The Prelude is regarded as Wordsworths greatest work. D)In 1807 Poems in Two Volumes was published.The work contains much of Wordsworths finest. B.作品主题 According to the subjects, Wordsworths short poems can be classified into two group: poems about nature and poem about human life. A)The worshipper of nature Wordsworth is regarded as a “worshipper of nature.大自然的膜拜者”He can penetrate to the heart of things and give the reader the very life of nature. 他能洞悉事物，并将其细致入微的剖析给读者。 To Wordsworth, nature acts as a substitute for imaginative and intellectual engagement. Its nature that gives him“strength and knowledge full of peace.” 对华来说，大自然是人类想像与心智的代替，是大自然赋予他“充满和平的力量与知识” B）The theme of his works: Wordsworth thinks that common life is the only subject of literary interest. The joys and sorrows of the common people are his themes. C 艺术特色 A)The memory of the past: Wordsworth is a poet is memory of the past. To him, life is a cyclical journey. His philosophy of life is presented in his masterpiece The Prelude.序曲 8/36 B)The deliberate simplicity: Wordsworths deliberate simplicity and refusal to decorate the truth of experience produced a kind of pure and profound poetry which no other poet has ever equaled. He maintained that the scenes and events of everyday life and the speech of ordinary people were the raw material of which poetry could and should be made. Percy Bysshe Shelley 波 比 雪莱 A 创作思想及主张 A）The thoughts: a.He held a lifelong aversion to cruelty, injustice, authority,institutional religion. b.He believed that his age was one of the wars of the oppressed against the oppressors. He felf that the existing despotic governments could be overthrown by revolution. c.He realized that the evil was also in mans mind. d.He predicated that only through gradual and suitable reforms of the existing institutions could benevolence善意 be universally established and none of the evils would survive in the “genuine society“. B) The creations: a. Shelley expressed his love for freedom and his hatred toward tyranny. b. one of Shelleys greatest political lyrics in “Men of England.“致英格兰人民 B.代表作品 A） The first long serious work: In 1813 he published his first long serious work, Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem. B) The Lyrics: In “T