英美文学期末Summary-1-of-English-Literature.doc

(完整版)英美文学期末Summary 1 of English Literature
English Literature
Summary One
Part One： Old and Medieval English Literature 中古英国文学
• Background Information：
• Three Conquests： the Roman Conquest， the Anglo-Saxon Conquest， the Norman Conquest
• The Period of Old English literature: about the year of 450 ～ the year of 1066 (the year of the Norman conquest of England）

Beowulf《贝尔武甫》：
• Type of literature: the national epic of the Anglo-Saxon and English people, a typical example of Old English poetry
• Stories: fights with monsters
• Characters： Beowulf vs. Grendel
• Significance: reflection of the features of the tribal society of ancient times.
• Language features： the use of alliteration; the use of metaphors and understatements。

The Period of Medieval English Literature: 1066 ~ around the 15th century
• Representative writers: Geoffrey Chaucer， William Langland, John Gower
• Genre: poetry, popular folk literature (romances of knights/chivalry， the Robin Hood Ballads)
• Representative works in this period:
• Gawain and the Green Knight 《高文爵士和绿衣骑士》: the best romance of the period， by John Gower
• Piers the Plowman《农夫皮尔斯》： a long poem of over 7000 lines， written by William Langland

Geoffrey Chaucer 杰弗里· 乔叟（1340 ~ 1400）
• the founder/father of English poetry
• his masterpiece: The Canterbury Tales
• Chaucer’s contribution to English poetry:
• He employed for the first time in English the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter （later to be called the “heroic couplet”)， instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse.
• He is the first great poet who wrote in the current English language。

Part Two: The Renaissance Period（文艺复兴时期）
Background Information:
• The Renaissance marks a transition from the medieval to the modern world.
• Generally it refers to the period between the 14th and mid—17th centuries。
• It was not until the early 16th century that the English Renaissance really began， which was perhaps England’s Golden Age, esp。 in literature。
• Two features：
a thirsting curiosity for classical literature, the keen interest in life and human activities.
• Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.
• The Elizabethan drama is the real main stream of the English Renaissance.
Representative writers and works：
• Thomas More 托马斯·莫尔 （1478～1535)： the most important early Humanist in England
• Utopia《乌托邦》: More’s masterpiece, in which the author anticipates some essential features of an advanced classless society。
Edmund Spenser 埃德蒙· 斯宾塞 (1552～1599）
• one of the greatest English poets in this period， and the first major English writer after
Chaucer
• Though deliberately archaic in style, he gave English poetry a new form called Spenserian stanzas 。
• “the poet’s poet”.
Representative works:
• The Shepherd Calendar《牧羊人日志》
• Epithalamion《贺新婚曲》
• The Faerie Queen《仙后》
• The Faerie Queen: Spenser's masterpiece, an allegorical epic poem。 Planned in 12 books， Spenser speaks of 12 moral virtues， which are represented by 12 knights in their adventures.
Christopher Marlowe克里斯托夫·马洛 （1564~1593）
• dramatist and poet， considered the most important figure in Elizabethan drama before Shakespeare
• perfection of the blank verse with his “mighty lines”
• creation of the Renaissance hero for English drama。
• Representative works:
• EdwardⅡ《爱德华二世》
• Dr. Faustus《浮士德博士》
• Tamburlaine《帖木耳大帝》
• The Jew of Malta《马尔他的犹太人》
• The Passionate Shepherd to His Love《多情牧童致爱人》

William Shakespeare （1564~1616）
• one of the most remarkable playwrights and poets in Renaissance
• 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long poems
• Ben Jonson once said “He was not of an age but of all time”.
Representative works:
• The four great tragedies：
• Hamlet《哈姆雷特》
• Othello《奥赛罗》
• King Lear《李尔王》
• Macbeth《麦克白》

• The four great comedies：
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream《仲夏夜之梦》
• Much Ado About Nothing《无事生非》
• As You Like It《皆大欢喜》
• Twelfth Night《第十二夜》
Hamlet 《哈姆雷特》
• the summit of Shakespeare’s art
• a tragedy of “blood and thunder"。
• the key-note of Hamlet’s character： melancholy

• Hamlet is a scholar, soldier and statesman all combined. His image reflects the versatility of the men of the Renaissance。
• Source: revenge tragedy from medieval Danish legend
• Genre： drama
• Characters: Hamlet， Rosencrantz and Guildenstern， Gertrude， Claudius， Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes
Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets：
• central theme：
life and death, the inevitable decay brought by time, and the immortalization of beauty and love in poetry.
• Sonnet 18: a profound meditation on the destructive power of time and the eternal beauty brought forth by poetry to the one he loves. （p。6)

Francis Bacon弗朗西斯·培根 （1561～1626)
• a well-known philosopher, scientist, the first English essayist， founder of modern experimental science
• His essays is the first example of that genre in English literature, which has been recognized as an important landmark in the development of English prose。
• Representative works:
• The Advancement of Learning《知识的进步》
• Essays《论说文集》
• The Novum Organum《新工具》
Of Studies 《论读书》
• the most popular of Bacon's 58 essays。 Forceful and persuasive， compact and precise， the essay reveals to us Bacon's mature attitude toward learning。

John Donne 约翰·邓恩 (1572～1631）
• the leading figure of the “metaphysical poetry"
• Donne’s images are linked with new resources such as law, psychology and philosophy which endow his poetry with learning and wit， and which provide certain intellectual difficulties。
Donne’s representative works:
• The Elegies and Satires《挽歌与讽刺诗》
• The Songs and Sonnets《歌谣与十四行诗》
• A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning《别离辞·节哀》
• Death， Be Not Proud《死神,你莫骄横》：
• “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for you thou art not so；
…
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”

John Milton约翰· 密尔顿 (1608~1674）
• one of the greatest poets in the history of English literature
• Milton’s literary achievements can be divided into three groups： the early poetic works， the middle prose pamphlets and the last grand epics。
• The freedom of the will is the keystone of Milton’s creed。 He fought for freedom in all aspects in his lifetime as a Christian humanist.
Milton’s representative works:
• Lycidas《列西达斯》
• Areopagitica《论出版自由》
• Paradise Lost《失乐园》
• Paradise Regained《复乐园》
• Samson Agonistes《力士参孙》
• Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio《为英国人民声辩》
• Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio Secunda《再为英国人民声辩》
Paradise Lost
• Milton’s masterpiece, the only generally acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf
• It’s a long poem divided into 12 books, written in blank verse。
• The story is taken from the Old Testament。
• The theme: the “Fall of Man，” i。e。 man’s disobedience and the loss of Paradise, with its prime cause-——Satan。

Part Three： The Neoclassical Period 新古典主义时期
• Background Information:
• The neoclassical period is the one in English literature between the return of the Stuarts to the English throne in 1660 and the full assertion of Romanticism which came with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798。
• The Enlightenment Movement in the neoclassical period: In the field of literature， The Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works. This tendency is known as neoclassicism。
• In the early period of neoclassicism English poetry flourished in the classical style, climaxing with John Dryden， Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson。 Besides the elegant poetic structure and diction， the neoclassical poetry was also noted for its seriousness and earnestness in tone and constant didacticism.

• The mid-eighteenth century was predominated by a newly rising literary form--—the modern English novel, which is the most significant phenomenon in the history of the development of English literature in the 18th century。
• Contrary to the traditional romance of aristocrats， it gives a realistic presentation of life of the common people. Among the pioneers were Daniel Defoe， Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding.

• The appearance and development of sentimentalist poetry (represented by the “Graveyard School”) marks the midway in the transition from classicism to its opposite, romanticism， in English poetry.

• In the theatrical world, Richard Brinsley Sheridan was the leading figure among a host of playwrights。 The witty and satirical prose written by Jonathan Swift are especially worth studying, his A Modest Proposal being generally regarded as the best model of satire， not only of the period but also in the whole English literary history。

John Bunyan 约翰·班扬 （1628～1688)
• a stout Puritan writer, who firmly believed in salvation through spiritual struggle and whose style was modeled after that of the English Bible
• Representative works：
• The Pilgrim’s Progress《天路历程》： Bunyan’s masterpiece， written in the form of an allegory。
• “Vanity Fair”: an excerpt from Part 1 of The Pilgrim’s Progress

Alexander Pope 亚历山大·蒲伯（1688~1744）
• the greatest poet of the Neoclassical period, one of the first to introduce rationalism to England

• Working painstakingly on his poems， he developed a satiric， concise， smooth， graceful and well-balanced style， and finally brought to its last perfection the heroic couplet。
Pope’s representative works：
• The Rape of the Lock《鬈发遇劫记》
• The Dunciad《愚人志》
• Moral Esays《道德论》
• Pastorals《田园诗集》
• An Essay on Criticism《论批评》
• An Essay on Criticism is a didactic poem of 744 lines written in heroic couplets, which sums up the art of poetry as upheld and practised by the ancients like Aristotle, Horace, etc. and the 18th century European classicists.

Daniel Defoe 丹尼尔·笛福 (1660～1731)
• the first important novelist in the history of English literature
• His first novel Robinson Crusoe was an immediate success, which gave praise to the hard-working, sturdy middle class。
• His language is smooth, easy， colloquial and mostly vernacular. it is common English at its best.
•
Jonathan Swift 乔纳森·斯威夫特（1667~1745 )
• one of the greatest masters of English prose, a master satirist
• His prose is simple, direct and precise. He defined a good style as “proper words in proper places。
• Besides， he was a popular clergyman in his day, a leader in the Irish resistance to the English oppression。 Even today Swift is still respected as a national hero in Ireland.
Swift’s representative works:
• Gulliver’s Travels《格列佛游记》：Yahoos
• A Tale of a Tub《一个木桶的故事》
• The Battle of Books《书的战争》
• The Drapier’s Letters《布商的信》
• A Modest Proposal《一个温和的建议》
•
Henry Fielding 亨利·菲尔丁 (1707~1754）
• “Father of the English Novel，" for his contribution to the establishment of the form of the modern novel。
• the first to give the modern novel its structure and style。
• His best novel The History of Tom Jones， a Foundling《汤姆·琼斯》 brings him the name of the “Prose Homer.”

Samuel Johnson 塞弥尔· 琼斯（1709～1784)
• the last great neoclassicist enlightener in the later eighteenth century
• the author of the first English dictionary by an Englishman——-A Dictionary of the English Language《英语大词典》
• A versatile/erudite writer， he was particularly fond of moralizing and didacticism.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan理查德·布林斯利·谢里丹（1751～1816)
• the only important English dramatist of the eighteenth century
• His plays， especially The Rivals 《情敌》and The School for Scandal 《造谣学校》are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy.

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