英国文学史及选读复习资料整理.doc

Old English Period
— Anglo-Saxon Period
(450-1066)
1.The History
• From 55 BC to 410 AD, the Romans conquered the land and transplanted its civilization.

2.The Literature
Two divisions:
Pagan & Christian
Pagan
The Seafarer水手; The Fight at Finnisburg芬尼斯郡之战; The Wanderer流浪者; Waldhere瓦登希尔; The Battle of Maldom马尔登战役
Widsith(威德西斯); The complaint of Deor迪奥的抱怨
• The wife’s Lament妻子的哀歌; Ruin 毁灭are good examples.

Beowulf, England’s national epic.
Writing features
not a Christian but a pagan poem of all advanced pagan civilization,
The use of the strong stress and the predominance of consonants are very notable in this poem. Each line is divided into two halves, and each half has two heavy stresses
The use of alliteration is another notable feature and makes the stresses more emphatic.
There are a lot of metaphors and understatements in this poem

Anglo-Norman Period
(1066-1350)
The literature
• The Growth of the Arthurian Legends
• The legends of King Arthur and his knights had existed as an oral tradition since the time of the Celts.
• John Wycliffe (1320-1384)
• the first man who attempted to translate the Bible from sonorous Latin into English.
• Chanson de Roland 罗兰之歌
William Langland
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)
Chaucer’s contribution to English Literature and Language
n the “father of English poetry”
n the first most significant poet in English literary history to write in Middle English
n the “heroic couplet”
n did much in making the dialect of London the foundation for the modern English language

Popular Ballads 大众民谣
代表人物：Bishop Thomas Percy 托马斯.帕希主教
 代表作：Robin Hood and Allin-a-Dale 罗宾汉和阿林代尔

The Renaissance
The Pre-Elizabathan Period (1400-1557)
Thomas More 托马斯.莫尔 Utopia 乌托邦

The Elizabethan Age
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
• The Shepheardes Calendar ； The Faerie Queene

Philip Sidney
• Arcadia ；Astrophel and Stella

Christopher Marlowe blank verse
• Tamburlaine the Great； The Jew of Malta； The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
•
William Shakespeare
n The most popular and the most widely respected writer in all English literature
Comedies :
n A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Twelfth Night.
Tragedies:
n Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth.
Sonnet:
a “physical” poet ；154 in number
1-126 addresses to a young man 127-152 to a mysterious “Dark Lady 153-154 are translation or adaptations of some Greek epigram.

Of studies
In what sense does reading make a full man?
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for abilities. But the general counsels, and the plots and marshaling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. Studies perfect nature, and is perfected by experience. There is no stond or impediment in the wit but may be wrought out by fit studies. Studies can train (shape) a person’s character and make up a person’s deficiencies. Every defect of the mind may have a special receipt

The 17th Century
A Brief Introduction of the 17th century
n The contradictions between the feudal system and bourgeoisie
n James I：1603-1625 political and religious tyranny
n Charles I: 1625-1649
n Oliver Cromwell : commonwealth protector: 1653-1658
n Charles II: 1660-1688 the Restoration
n James II：1685-1688
n William of Oranges: 1688-1702 “Glorious Revolution”
n The Bill of Rights 权利法案：1689
John Donne
代表作：The Flea
Metaphysical Poetry
Holy Sonnet 10
Song
A Valediction:
Forbidding Mourning 别离辞：节哀

John Milton
n the early phase of reading and lyric writing
n the middle phase of service in the Puritan Revolution and the pamphleteering for it
n the last --- the greatest --- phase of epic writing
Paradise Lost
--- the great epic
Paradise Regained； Samson Agonistes

John Bunyan
The Pilgrim’s Progress（ essay）

The 18th-century Literature
The Rise of English Novels
The historical background
| Comparing with the 17th century, the 18th century is a period for peaceful development.
| The constitutional monarchy has been set up by parliament in 1688.
| England grew from a second rate country to a powerful naval country in this century.
| With the ascent of the bourgeoisie cultural life had undergone remarkable changes.
| The rise of the English novel.
代表作：
Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe
Jonathan Swift
The Battle of the Books; 《书籍之战》
The Tale of a Tub; 《一只桶的故事》
The Drapier’s Letter; 《布商来信》
A Modest Proposal; 《一个温和的建议》
Journal to Stella; 《给斯黛拉的日记》
Gulliver’s Travel. 《格列夫游记》
Satirical features
n Swift offered an opportunity of self-scrutiny.（自我审视）
n The Lilliputians （小人国居民）and their institutions were all about people and their institutions of England.
n The Brobdingnagians were incredible Utopians.
n The scientists and philosophers represented the extremes of futile theorizing and speculations in all areas of activity such as science, politics, and economics with their instinct-killing tendencies.
n The picture of the Yahoos made a clear statement about man and his nature.

Henry Fielding
Tom Johnson
Social significance
The writer shows his strong hatred for all the hypocrisy and treachery in the society of his age and his sympathy for the courageous young rebels in their righteous struggle
The 18th-century Literature (II)
The Age of Enlightenment in England
The rapid development of social life
• On the economic scene, the country became increasingly affluent.
• On the political scene, a fragile of balance between the monarch and the middle class existed.
• On the religious scene, deism came into existence
代表
Thomas Gray
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
l a masterpiece of lyric
l Theme: a sentimental meditation upon life and death, esp. of the common rural people, whose life, though simple and crude, has been full of real happiness and meaning
l Poetic pattern: quatrains of iambic pentameter lines rhyming ABAB
l Mood: melancholy, calm, meditative
l Style: neoclassic
---vivid visual painting,
---musical/rhythmic,
---controlled and restrained,
---polished language
Section 1 It sets the scene for the poet’s visit to the churchyard. It is enveloped in gloom and grief, which is archetypal of graveyard, poets’ fascination with night, graves, and death. The tone is echoed by the last part of the poem
l Section 2 It tells about the people entombed there and recalls their life experiences. When the “rude forefathers of the hamlet” lived. They got up early at the twittering of swallows, or a rooster’s wake-up call or a hunter’s horn, enjoyed family bliss with wife and kids in the evening, or were happily busy with farm work in the fields, but now that they lie in their “narrow cells”, their “useful toil” and “homely joys” happen no more. The tone is one of melancholy and regret for the dead.
l Section 3 It warns the rich and powerful not to despise the poor since all are equal in face of death and the grave levels off all distinction. All nobility, power, and wealth “await alike” the inevitable end and “the paths of glory lead but to the grave”. Nothing could
l ever bring anything back to life.
Section 4
l It expresses, on the one hand, the poet’s regret that their life had not been congenial to the growth and full play of the poor farmers’ native gifts and talents and, on the other, his feeling of “a blessing in disguise” for them in the sense that, because they did not commit any crimes to humankind nor have to play the obsequious social climber against one’s integrity.
Section 5
l It asserts the notion that, even though they lived a less eventful life, there is no reason to forget these farmers.
Section 6
l It portrays the scenario that the poet envisions would happen after his own death. A villager would say of him: he got up early to go uphill to the lawn and lay there meditating under the tree until noon. He would wander in the wood, smiling at one moment, muttering to himself at the next, sad and pale, like one “in hopeless love”. Then for a couple of days he did not show up, and on the third day he was buried in the churchyard.
Section 7
l As he shows sympathy for the poor, he gains the friendship of man and God. He asks the passers-by not to get to know any more about his merits and weaknesses as he waits in his grave for God’s judgment.
l The poem touches the readers to the quick with its notable sadness
Oliver Goldsmith’s
《The Vicar of Wakefield》
• Pre-Romantic Poems (I)
William Blake
The Songs of Experience； THE LAMB ；The Tyger；The Sick Rose
Robert Burns
n 1) Political poems --- The Tree of Liberty;
n 2) Satirical poems --- Holy Willie’s Prayer, Two Dogs
n 3) Lyrics --- My Heart’s in the Highlands, A Red, Red Rose, Auld Lang Syne
Burns’s position and his features
n A great Scottish peasant poet; a national poet of Scotland
n Numerous are Burns’s songs of love and friendship.
n His great success was largely due to his comprehensive knowledge and excellent mastery of the old song traditions.
n His poetry have a musical quality that helps to perpetuate the sentiment
Burns ushered a tendency that prevailed during the high time of Romanticism

The Romantic Period (I)
n “The Lakers”：湖畔诗人
William Wordsworth
Samuel Coleridge
Robert Southey

• William Wordsworth
• Lyrical Ballads；Lines Written in Early Spring；To the Cuckoo ；The Daffodils I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud； My Heart Leaps Up； Intimations of Immortality 不朽颂Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
Comments on Wordsworth
Wordsworth’s poetry is distinguished by simplicity and purity of his language which was spoken by the peasants who convey their feelings and emotions in simple and unelaborated expressions.

• George Gordon Byron
• Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage；Don Juan；She Walks in Beauty
• What is Byronic hero?
• Byron’s chief contribution to English poetry.
• Such a hero is a proud, rebellious figure of noble origin. Passionate and powerful, he is right to all the wrongs in a corrupted society, and he would fight single--handedly against all the misdoings.
• Thus this figure is a rebellious individual against outworn social systems and conventions
• Byronic heroes
• heroic of noble birth
• passionate
• rebellious
• individual
• Summery
• This is a love poem about a beautiful woman and all of her features. Throughout the poem, Byron explains the depth of this woman’s beauty. Even in the darkness of death and mourning, her beauty shines through. Her innocence shows her pureness in heart and in love. The two forces involved in Byron’s poems are darkness and light --- at work in the woman’s beauty and also the two areas of her beauty --- the internal and the external
• The theme
• This poem shows that mourning does not necessarily imply melancholy or extreme sadness.
• Rhetorics
• Byron uses many antonyms to describe this woman --- face, eye, hair, cheek, brow, etc. to portray a perfect balance within her.
• He often uses opposites like darkness and light to create this balance.
• A simile was shown in line one which stated: “She walks in beauty, like the night”, which is also the basis of the poem.
• Rhyme and meter
• The poem follows a basic iambic tetrameter, with an “ababab cdcdcd efefef” rhyme.
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Comments on Shelley
• 1. Shelley is one of the first poets in Europe who sang for the working people. His political lyrics are among the best of their kind in the whole sphere of European romantic poetry. And he is also one of the leading Romantic poets, an intense and original lyrical poet in the English language.
• 2. Shelley loved the people and hated their oppressors and exploiters. He called on the people to overthrow the rule of tyranny and injustice and prophesied a happy and free life for mankind.
• 3. One of the first poets in Europe who sang for the working people. His political lyrics are among the best of their kind in the whole sphere of European romantic poetry.

v 4. He stood for this social and political ideal all his life.
v 5. He and Byron are justifiably (justly, rightly) regarded as the two great poets of the revolutionary romanticism in England.
v 6. Byron, his best friend, said of Shelley “the best and least selfish man I ever knew”. l
v 7. Wordsworth said, “Shelley is one of the best artists of us all”.
v Ode to the West Wind
v Stanza 1
v It describes the power of the west wind and its double role as both destroyer(ll.2-5) and preserver(ll.6-12).
v Line 14 sums up the wind’s two basic characteristics, which also constitute the thematic focus of the poem
v Stanza 2
v It focuses on the adumbration of the wind’s power driving clouds before it and bringing storms with it (ll.15-23) with lightning, rain, fire and hail (ll. 23-28).
v It also describes its destructive aspect of “closing night” enveloping all under its dome of a vast tomb (ll. 24-25).
v Stanza 3
v It talks about the wind’s impact upon the sea, its first touching on the calm of the Mediterranean (ll. 29-36), and then on the turbulence of the Atlantic (ll.36-42).
v The Mediterranean sleeps in serenity in the summer but is waken up by the wind to see the quivering of the shadows of ancient palaces and towers (ll. 29-35) and the Atlantic cleaving asunder into gigantic chasms (ll. 35-38).
v Even the vegetation at the bottom of the sea “grow gray with fear./tremble and despoil themselves”.
v Stanza 4
v It expresses the poet’s emotional response to the west wind.
v The poet says to the wind (ll.43-47) that he wishes to be spirited away like the leaves, to dance like the clouds, to breathe like the waves, and enjoy a share of the wind’s strength like the storm though with a lesser degree of freedom of movement.
v The poet takes a nostalgic backward glance at his free, uncontrollable boyhood when he could fly like a swift could like the wind, and even outstrip it in speed (ll.47-51), and wishes for the wind to lift him up like a leaf or wave or a cloud (l. 54). But it is only a figment of his imagination.
v He has to face “the horns of life” that he has fallen upon, chained and weighed down, and no longer “tameless, swift, and proud” like the wind (ll.54-56).
v Stanza 5

n It expresses both the poet’s request for the wind to help spread the words of his poem “among mankind” and wake it up from its deep stupor (ll. 66-69) and his prophecy that spring will come in the wake of winter (ll.69-70).
n The poem ends upon a note of confidence and hope.
n John Keats one of the greatest English poets and a major figure in the Romantic movement
n Ode on a Grecian Urn The Eve of St. Agnes To a Nightingale
Walter Scott He is the creator and a great master of the historical novel
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice；Sense and Sensibility；Mansfield Park；Emma；Northanger Abbey；Persuasion

Critical Realism Victorian Period
Charles Dickens
Features of