英国文学史期末复习重点

1、英国文学史Part one: Early and Medieval English LiteratureChapter 1 The Making of England1. 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 Ro

2、man 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.

3、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

4、 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 Beowulf1. Anglo-Saxon Poetry But there is one long poem of over 3,000 lines. It is Beowulf, the national epic of the

5、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

6、Beowulf The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use of alliteration, metaphors and understatements.Chapter 3 Feudal England1) The Norman Conquest2. The Norman Conquest The French-speaking Normans under Duke William came in 1066. After defeating the English at Hastings, William was crow

7、ned 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 Rom

8、ance1. The Content of the Romance The most prevailing kind of literature in feudal England was the romance.4. Malorys Le Morte DArthur The adventures of the Knights of the Round Table at Arthurs courtChapter 5 The English Ballads2. The Ballads The most important department of English folk literature

9、 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 BalladsChapter 6 Chaucer1. Life Geoffrey Chaucer, the founder/father of English poetry.3. Troilus and Criseyde

10、Troilus and Criseyde is Chaucers 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 Chaucers masterpiece and one of the m

11、onumental works in English literature.6. His Language Chaucers language, now called Middle English, is vivid and exact. Chaucers 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 ia

12、mbic 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 RenaissanceChapt

13、er 1 Old England in Transition1. 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 a

14、nd 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 auspices of James I and so was sometimes c

15、alled 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 Movement5. The Commercial ExpansionChapter 2 More1. Life Thomas More2. Utopia Utopia is Mores masterpiece, written in the form of

16、 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

17、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 Literature3. Edmund Spenser1) Life The Poets Poet of the period was Edmund Spenser.In 1579 he wrote The Shephers Calendar, a pastoral poem in t

18、welve books, one for each month of the year.2) The Faerie Queene (masterpiece) Spensers 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 Stanza4. Francis Bacon (father/founder of English essay) the found

19、er 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 Drama7. The Playwrights There was a group of so-called “university wits” (Lyly, Peele, Marlowe, Greene, Lodge and Nash).Chapter 5 Marlowe1. Life

20、 The most gifted of the “university wits” was Christopher Marlowe.2. Work Marlowes best includes three of his plays, Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus.3. Doctor Faustus Marlowes masterpiece is The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.5. Marlowes Literary Achievement Marlowe was the grea

21、test 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 Shakespeare1. Life William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon. After his death, two of his above-mentioned fello

22、w-actors, Herminge and Condell, collected and published Shakespeares plays in 1623. To this edition, which has been known as the First Folio.4. The Great Comedies A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It and Twelfth Night have been called Shakespeares “great comedies”.6. The

23、Great Tragedies Shakespeare created his great tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.7. Hamlet the son of the Renaissance9. The Poems1) Venus and Adonis2) The Rape of Lucrece3) Shakespeares Sonnets10. Features of Shakespeares Drama Shakespeare and the Authorized Version of the English Bib

24、le 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 RevolutionChapter 1 The English Revolution and the Restoration5. The Bourgeois Dictatorship and the Re

25、storationin 1688 Glorious Revolution6. 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

26、extravagant enjoyment of the fruits of labour.Chapter 2 Milton1. Life and WorkParadise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.2. Paradise Lost1) Paradise Lost Paradise Lost is Miltons masterpiece. blank verse.Chapter 3 Bunyan1. LifeThe Pilgrims Progress was published in 1678.2. The Pilgrims Pr

27、ogress1) The Pilgrims Progress is a religious allegory. Chapter 4 Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets a school of poets called “Metaphysical” by Samuel Johnson. by mysticism in content and fantasticality in form John Donne, the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry.Chapter 6 Restoration Lit

28、erature2. John DrydenThe 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 CenturyChapter 1 The Enlightenment and Classicism in English Literature1. The E

29、nlightenment and 18th Century England2) 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

30、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 Steele1. Steele and The Tatler Ric

31、hard SreeleIn 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 The Spectator The general purpo

32、se is “to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.”They ushered in the dawn of modern English novel.Chapter 3 Pope1. 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

33、 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 Swift3. Bickersta f f Almanac (1708)Swift wrote his greatest work Gullivers Travels in Ireland.Chap

34、ter 5 Defoe and the Rise of the English Novel1. The Rise of the English Novel the realistic novel: Defoe, Swift, Richardson and Fielding Swifts world-famous novel Gullivers Travels Defoes Robinson Crusoe (the forerunner of the English realistic novel) Richardson: Pamela, Clarissa and Sir Charles Gra

35、ndison 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 a

36、chievement of the English novel in the 18th century.4. Robinson Crusoe1) Today Defoe is chiefly remembered as the author of Robinson Crusoe, his masterpiece.Chapter 6 Richardson Samuel RichardsonPamela was, in fact, the first English psycho-analytical novel. After Pamela, Richardson wrote two other

37、novels: Clarissa Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison. Clarissa is the best of Richardsons novel.Chapter 7 Fielding (the father of English novel)1. LifeHis 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 gr

38、eat novel Tom Jones. Amelia was his last novel. It is inferior to Tom Jones, but has merits of its own.3. Joseph Andrews4. Tom Jones1) The Story Fieldings greatest work is The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.6. Summary2) Fielding as the Founder of the English Realistic Novel As a novelist, Fieldin

39、g 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 the English novel.”Chapter 10 Johnson1. Life Samuel Johnson, lexicographer, critic and poet.2. Johnsons Dictionary In 1755 his Dictionar

40、y 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 Poetry1. Life Thomas Gray2. Pre-Romanticism In the latter half of the 18th century, a new literary movement arose in Europe, calle

41、d the Romantic Revival. Pre-Romanticism was ushered in by Percy, Macpherson and Chatterton, and represented by Blake and Burns.Chapter 14 Blake1. Life William Blake2. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience4. Blakes Position in English LiteratureFor these reasons, Blake is called a Pre-Romantic o

42、r a forerunner of the Romantic poetry of the 19th century.Chapter 15 Burns1. Life His Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect were printed. (masterpiece) The Scots Musical Museum and Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs2. The Poetry of Burns1) Burns is remembered mainly for his songs written in

43、 the Scottish dialect on a variety of subjects.3. Features of Burns Poetry Burns is the national poet of Scotland.Part Five: Romanticism in EnglandChapter 1 The Romantic Period the Industrial Revolution the French RevolutionAmid these social conflicts romanticism arose as a new literary trend. It pr

44、evailed 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 featu

45、re 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 on

46、ly 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 1798 they jointly published the Lyrical Ballads. The publication of the Lyrical Ballads marked the break with the conventional

47、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” beca

48、use 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 A

49、bbey. The last is called his “lyrical hymn of thanks to nature”. Wordsworths poetry is distinguished by the simplicity and purity of his language.Chapter 3 Coleridge and Southey 1. Coleridge Coleridges best poems, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.Chapter 4 Byron1. Life Childe Harolds Pilgrimage He fi

50、nished Childe Harold, wrote his masterpiece Don Juan.2. Childe Harolds Pilgrimage This long poem contains four cantos. It is written in the Soenserian stanza.3. Don JuanByron remains one of the most popular English poets both at home and abroad.Chapter 5 Shelley4. Promethus Unbound Shelleys masterpi

51、ece is Promethus Unbound, a lyrical drama in 4 acts.6. Lyrics on Nature and LoveOde to the West WindChapter 6 Keats2. Long PoemsKeats wrote five long poems: Endymion, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, Lamia and Hyperion.5) The unfinished long epic Hyperion has been regarded as Keats greatest achieveme

52、nt in poetry.3. Short Poems1) 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 NightingaleChapter 10 Scott2. His Historical Novels Scott has been universally regarded as the founder and great master of the historical

53、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, Scotts literary career marks the transition from romanticism to realism in English literature of the 19th century.Part Six: English C

54、ritical RealismChapter 2 Dickens Charles Dickens critical realismDickens: Pickwick Papers, American Notes, Martin Chuzzlewit and Oliver Twist4) Dickens has often been compared Shakespeare for creative force and range of invention. “He and Shakespeare are the two unique popular classics that England

55、has given to the world, and they are alike in being remembered not for one masterpiece but for creative world.” David CopperfieldChapter 3 Thackeray 2. Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a HeroVanity Fair is Thackerays masterpiece. characters: Amelia Sedley and Rebecca (Becky) Sharp Thackeray can be place

56、d on the same level as Dickens, as one of the greatest critical realists of 19th-century Europe.Chapter 4 Some Women Novelists1. 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 A

57、bbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion.2. The Bronte Sisters Charlottes 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. Emilys novel Wuthering Heights appeared in 1847. Anne: Agnes Grey4. George Eliot Mary Ann Evans t