英语文学杰作教案

1、Lecture 1 British literature has a relatively short history, comparing to Chinese literature, which is about 3,000 years old, if we count it from Shijing (诗经)(BC 1100-600). From Beowulf, British literature has about 700-800 year long history, but the contents or coverage is very rich or wide. No one

2、 can study it thoroughly even if he puts all his life on it. So I would like to say I know only a little about British literature. But I do know that there are three kinds of writing on literature:A. Forming a theory creatively, expressing ones view about the origin of literature. Those writers use

3、the history of literature as their notes and the facts to support their theory. The creativity is important, but the coverage is not wide enough. We would say that is criticism rather than history. The History of British Literature written by Frenchman Taine is an outstanding one of this kind and so

4、 is白话文学史written by胡适之.B. The second type is the author would say or hint his criticism while describing authors and works. The famous Cambridge British Literature is this kind. Criticism can help readers understand but readers must know a lot before they can accept the criticism, otherwise, they cou

5、ld not understand what the criticisms are about. Besides, criticisms may not be absolute principles. Though it may be very authoritative, it should be used best as reference.C. The third kind is textbooks. They focus on facts, not criticisms. Readers are those who like literature. And our way is the

6、 third. Of course there are some other kinds which are not so important such as 偏重于文学史的政治经济的背景，尤其是根据唯物史观来衡量文学的那一宗派，偶尔中肯，时而牵强，甚至沦为偏颇的宣传，那是不足取的. We are not going to talk about them here.The 15th Century (1400-1585)I. Teaching Purpose: to let students know more about the father of English literature-Ge

7、offrey Chaucer and Thomas MoreII. Important and difficult points: General Prologues and UtopiaIII. Teaching method: Two students making oral presentation; Explaining with discussionIV. Assignments: two students of each class will be assigned to make an oral presentationV. Teaching contents:At the fi

8、rst half of this century England was in war. The One Hundred Years War ended in the fifties but the War of Roses began at almost the same time. Yorkshires symbol was white rose and Lancastershires was red. In 1485 Henry Tudor (Duke of Lancaster) beat his opponent, became Henry VII, married the forme

9、r king Edwards wife. After that England began to have a very peaceful and prosperous life and laymen also began to get education, which was proved by the words “literal laymen” in religious documents. And all these paved the road for the Renaissance. This is also a barren time for literature. We can

10、 only find some writers who imitated Chaucer and those writers can be divided into two groups: the English and the Scottish. Two really important writers are Sir Thomas Molory and William Caxton. The former wrote Le Morte dArthur consisting of 21 books, which included all the stories about King Arth

11、ur, telling the birth and death of almost everybody concerned. One of the two editions kept was printed by Caxton in 1485, which was the year the War of Roses ended. The latter was famous because he set up the first printing house in Great Britain, which promoted the development of literature very m

12、uch. He himself also wrote and translated something.Dramas and Ballads in the Middle AgePreview: p.p. 56-58; 71-83Plays are watched and ballads are sung by people and none are for people to read. Thus the above-mentioned literary works were for the middle and upper class, not for the common people b

13、ecause they were illiterate. In two hundred years after Chaucer written literature did not develop much but drama and ballad developed quite fast because education was far from developed. The oldest play is called liturgical drama (仪式剧). It originated from Mass (弥撒) in churches. It was imitation of

14、certain rituals. After some time miracle plays (奇迹剧) appeared because people got tired of the liturgical dramas. Because this kind of play sometimes can make people laugh Pope Innocent III (英诺森三世) ordered that it should be no plays in churches in 1210. Till the end of the 13th century plays were out

15、 of churches completely. Interestingly this made plays developed even faster. Miracle plays were about the stories in the Bible. Still after some time miracle plays could not satisfy peoples need and a new kind of play replaced them gradually. The new kind is called morality play (道德剧). Morality pla

16、ys were no longer stories from the Bible. They personified abstract ideas and the noted one is called The Summoning of Everyman. One kind of lyric (抒情诗) is the popular ballad. Ballads are in the form of ballad stanza (民歌体), which consists of four lines with the first and the third lines having four

17、meters (音步) and the second and the fourth lines having three meters and alternative rhymes (隔行压韵) abcb. Sometimes there are refrains (复唱) at the end. Ballad has an important place in literature because in the Middle Age people in upper class enjoyed romance and common people liked to sing ballads. T

18、he contents and style are plain and natural, giving much influence on the later generation, especially in 18th century. There was a so-called the ballad revival(民谣复兴), which was the forerunner of the Romantic movement.The Renaissance and the Reformation(1485-1558) The Renaissance began in the 14th c

19、entury in Italy. The two representatives are Petrarch and Boccaccio. The Reformation was led by Martin Luther in Germany. The two events influenced British literature very much but it was hard to say when the influence began. For our convenience we just set it from 1485, the year Henry VII began to

20、rule the country, to 1558, the year Elisabeth I began to rule the country. In this period there were three kings and a queen: Henry VII, Henry VIII (the second son of Henry VII, Edward VI (the son of Henry VIIIs third wife), Mary (elder sister of Edward by Henry VIIIs first wife), Elizabeth I (Marys

21、 younger sister by Henry VIIIs second wife). Because Henry VIII wanted to marry his sister-in-law, his elder brothers widow and the Pope didnt give him the permission he began the Church of England and killed many who didnt want to convert. When Mary became the queen she promoted Catholic Church and

22、 killed many who were in the Church of England thus got a name “Bloody Mary”. Only when Elizabeth I became the queen people began to have real freedom for religion.1. Geoffrey ChaucerFor him was lever (=for he would rather) have at his beds headTwenty bookes, clothed in black and red,Of Aristotle an

23、d his philosophy,Than robes rich, or fiddle, or psaltry (=harp). But all that he might of his friendes hent (=take),On bookes and on learning he it spent. Of study took he most care and heed (=attention).No one word spake he more than was need;And that was said in form and reverence,And short and qu

24、ick, and full of high sentence (=meaning).Sounding(=resounding强有力的) in moral virtue was his speech,And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach.2. The Wife of Bath To show Chaucers keen observation and his unsurpassed talent for characterization, it is enough to mention the famous Wife of Bath. She i

25、s the owner of a cloth factory, light-hearted, merry, somewhat vulgar, and exceedingly talkative. Somebody in the party starts her to talking about her husband, and she then relates the whole story of her married life. She has married five husbands and she expects one or two more. In one way or anot

26、her, she says, she had always been able to master her husband and to rule the house. Sometimes she managed it by making her husband jealous, sometimes she managed it because the husband was old and she young and pretty. There was but one husband whom she could not easily master. He treated her badly

27、. But she got the better of her husband by provoking him to beat her and then pretending to be dead. By this trick she succeeded in getting all the property into her hand. For all she did she justifies herself by quoting texts from the Bible in the most extraordinary way and with the most extraordin

28、ary comments. Thus we may see a very vivid sketch of a woman of the middle class, and a colourful picture of the domestic life of that class in Chaucers day.The Fourth LectureElizabethan PeriodI. Teaching Purpose: Students are required to get knowledge of William Shakespeare and his worksII. Importa

29、nt and difficult points: Sonnets and HamletIII. Teaching method: Two students making oral presentation; Explaining IV. Assignments: two students of each class will be assigned to make a oral presentation on ShakespeareV. Teaching contents:This time was rich in plays. Why? Remember plays were driven

30、out of churches? After churches plays were put on carriages which could go from one place to another. When travelling the fences of carriages would be up so the actors and actresses could put what they had and needed on the carriages. When it was time to give performances they put the fences down in

31、 order to make a pretty large stage and people would watch around the carriages. Later plays began to be shown in inns which had the shape of the letter U. In 1574 the government decreed that there should be no plays in inns because they were noisy for those who did not want to watch. So in 1577 the

32、 first theatre appeared in London and because it was the first it was only called the Theatre. Since the places, carriages and inns, could have no curtains plays at that time had the following features:1. There was no scenery and there must be explanations in the play. Take Hamlet for example: (Hora

33、tio 霍拉旭看到鬼魂出现时说:看,披着红袍的曙光,踏着那边东山之上的露珠走了过来.写了黎明的景色.又如马克白中的班柯说:天上可到节俭,蜡烛全灭了).2. The audience were all standing so there must be something interesting in order to attract them to watch till the end of plays. That is why there were some fighting, play in plays, music, songs and clowns.3. Since audience

34、was from the lower class the language should be vulgar and there was also language about sex.4. The place was big and there were no amplifying apparatus so plays were written in the form of poetry in order that actors and actresses could read aloud rather than speak in a normal way. In that case aud

35、ience could hear clearly. Forerunners of Shakespearethe University Wits (大学才子) were active during the period of 1585-1595. The leading one was Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) whose three masterpieces are Tamburlain the Great (贴木耳,求权势), The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (求知识), The Jew of Malta (

36、求金钱). Others are Robert Greene, George Peele, Thomas Lodge, Thomas Nashe, who wrote a novel called The Unfortunate Traveller (不幸的旅行者,为第一部流浪汉小说,为Defoe的先河), Thomas Kyd, who wrote a play called The Spanish Tragedy and influenced Shakespeares writing of Hamlet, John Lyly, who wrote Euphues (人名,也是书名) con

37、taining a lot of word plays so that later we have the word Euphuism (绚丽文体)Shakespeare (1564.4.23-1616.4.23) When he was about 30 years old some of the University Wits died and some stopped writing. There were no opponents for him so his plays played the dominant role. Plays were not considered liter

38、ary works at that time. When one finished a play he sold it to a performance company and the play became the companys asset. Some people printed it without permission in order to make money so companies also began to print it. Because of this we do not know exactly the years in which some of his pla

39、ys were finished. The first time for most of his plays collected and printed by one of his friend was the year of 1623. Researchers have different opinions on the kinds of his plays and the periods of his writing career. There are three kinds of plays written by him: comedies, tragedies, historical

40、plays or four kinds with legendary plays added. There are three periods of his writing career: early (1590-1600), middle (1601-1608), late (1609-1612) or four: early (1590-1596), maturing (1597-1603), rich (1604-1609) and late (1610-1612). Generally speaking, the artistic features in his early time

41、were the showing-off of the language with many puns, rhyming and couplets; the strong rebels like any young people; the intention for the unity of the country in politics; the ideas of getting rid of the bounds of the feudalism and religion and the pursuing for individual freedom and happy life in m

42、orality. He was hopeful for the future and optimistic of life and all these were shown in his historical plays. The comedies in this period showed that life was good, evils and contradictions were rare and occasional and could be overcome. In the second period he confined his temperament and put emp

43、hasis on dramatic effects. Dialogues can fit plots better. A scene usually came out very naturally. His talents developed to the top. Iambic pentameters can not be used to express what he wanted to express. Simple and grammatical sentences were behind him so he broke the rules of grammar and made ma

44、ny witty sentences, such as “But me no buts”. He gradually realized the social contradictions were far deeper and sharper than he believed years ago. He felt the world was not fair. Truth, virtue, beauty and dignity were stamped. He wrote mainly tragedies. His tragedies showed social problems, natio

45、nal problems, philosophical problems, moral problems, financial problems, life problems and family problems. The third period referred to the time when he came back home (1610) from London. By this time his life was very much experienced by seeing the death of relatives and friends, by seeing the bi

46、g change in the show business, by the ebb and flow of the officials. His outlook of life changed much, heat to cold (狂热变成冷淡), anger to forgiveness (愤慨变成宽恕), extreme to serene (偏激变成安详). Then he wrote several legendary plays believing that something supernatural would solve the problems. The following

47、 is a list of Shakespeares plays in the order of time by which he finished them:1. Henry VI Part I (1589-90, maybe not by himself alone)2. Henry VI Part II (1591)3. Henry VI Part III (1592, maybe not by himself alone), all about the War of Roses4. Richard III (1592-93), about a tyrant5. Richard II (

48、1595), best among the first five6. Titus Andronicus (1593泰特斯安壮尼克斯, maybe not by himself alone), first tragedy, not very good, a bloody tragedy7.Loves Labours Lost (1593空爱一场), influenced by Lyly, the worst play by him8. The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1590-1599 comedy)9. The Comedy of Errors (1589-94),

49、the shortest10. The Taming of the Shrew (1589-94, maybe not by himself alone), a dream11. Romeo and Juliet (1595), not the best but the first one to show his talents12. A Midsummer-nights Dream (1594-95 it is believed to be written for a wedding ceremony of an aristocrat family), the best in his ear

50、ly time13. King John (1596-1597 it is believed to have written in a great hurry, like a topical play时事问题剧)14. The Merchant of Venice (1596-97), sometimes called tragic-comedy15. Henry IV Part I16. Henry IV Part II (1597-98) his best historical plays with the main characters of the prince and Falstaf

51、f17. Henry V (1598 the prince in the last play became a king and the king is an ideal one for Shakespeare)18. Much ado about Nothing (1599无事自扰, husband suspects his wife is not loyal)19. The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599 it is believed that Queen Elizabeth II liked the character Falstaff very much an

52、d asked him to write another play with him in it and he did it in 14 days)20. As You Like it (1598-1600如愿已尝)21. Julius Caesar (1599)22. Hamlet (1601-02 a bloody tragedy of Kyds school). It is the most welcomed one on stage and Shakespeare himself also liked it best because in this play he expressed

53、the most important opinions such as the relationship between fathers and sons, between women and men, drinking problems, significance of suicide, loyalty and friendship and the arts of drama. Shakespeare was good at soliloquy and in it he made a full use of it.23. Twelfth Night (1601) after Christma

54、s the twelfth day is Epiphany(主显节), and this play was clearly written for it24. Troilus and Cressida (1602脱爱勒斯与克丽西达)25. Measure for Measure (1604) got the most criticisms because the plots are strange and the end is far-fetching26. Alls Well that Ends Well (1602-03) not welcomed on stage, the story

55、was taken from the Decameron 27. King Lear (1605-06)28. Othello (1604-05)29. Macbeth (1606), description of criminals phychology30. Antony and Cleopatra (1607-08) just after Caesar31. Timon of Athens (1606-08) not shown very often but the passage about gold is really well-knownso much gold can turn

56、black to white, ugly to beautiful, wrong to right, cheap to rich, old to young, coward to hero that is quite similar to中国晋书中的钱神论: “亲爱如见,字曰孔方,失之则贫弱,得之则富强,无翼而飞,无足而走,解严毅之颜,开发难之口,钱多者处前,钱少者居后,见我家兄,莫不惊视,钱之所佑,无不吉利,何必读书,然后富贵32. Coriolanus (1608-09 tragedy, 考利欧雷诺斯)33. Pericles (1606-07 another tragic-comedy波

57、里克利斯)34. Cymbeline (1610, not a successful one)35. The Winters Tale (1611) 36. The Tempest (1610-11 when his works were published for the first time this play was put at the beginning of the book)37. Henry VIII (1612) on 29th of June 1613 it was shown in the Globe. When the 49th line of Scene 4, Act

58、 One should be read and the king should appear on stage there should be guns and the guns started an enormous fire, which burnt down the theatre. Shakespeare became bankrupt. Besides all these plays he wrote two long poems and 154 sonnets. The first long poem is called Venus and Adonis in sesta rima(六行体); the second is called Lucrece in royal rime. All the sonnets are Shakespearean sonnets. Ben Jonson once said “he was not of an age, but for all time”(他不是属于一个时代的, 他是属于所有的时代的). Carlyle also said in his Heroes and Hero Worship: “Are you Englishmen will