英美文学背诵精华篇.doc

Name/CN Name
Writer's Features
Writings / CN Writings
Writing's Features
English Literature
The Renaissance Period
1. age: 1500-1660
2. background: stimulated by the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek classic; England's Golden Age, especially in literature; the Church of England broke away from the Catholic Church
3. features:
(1)New poetical forms introduced, e.g. blank verse and sonnet;
(2) the English drama based itself on the models of Roman and Greek classics and the precedents from Italy and Spain
(3)the universal tend of humanism in emphasizing man's dignity and his worldly happiness
Edmund Spenser
埃德蒙.斯賓賽
1. The poet's poet;
2. Perfect melody; a rare sense of beauty; a splendid imagination; a lofty moral purity and seriousness; a dedicated idealism
The Faerie Queen
仙后
(The Shepheades Calender牧人日记;Epithalamion新婚喜歌)
An allegory; "a historical poem" to present the example of a perfect gentleman; a hero represent one of the 12 virtues; fierce warres and faithful loves
Christopher Marlowe
克里斯扥夫.馬洛
（Blank verse
University wit）
1. perfected blank verse and turned it into the principal medium of English drama
2. created a series of images of the Renaissance hero for English drama
Dr Fauctus
浮士德博士
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love多情的牧羊人致情人
1. symbolic of a humanist in the Renaissance; based on the German legend of a magician aspiring for knowledge and finally meeting his tragic end as a result of selling his soul to the Devil
William Shakespeare
威廉.莎士比亞
The greatest playwright and the most popular sonnet writer; a creation of characters; skillful plot construction; irony; a good use of a language; skilled in various poetic forms; of three quatrains and a couplet(三节四行诗加一节偶句); national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity—“The King’s government must be carried on” (在一个强大英明的君主统治下的国家，统一是非常必要的)

(Each hero has his weekness of nature: Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind; Othello’s inner weakness is made use of by the outside evil force; the old king Lear who is unwilling to totally give up his power makes himself suffer from treachery and infidelity; and Macbeth’s lust for power stirs up his ambition and leads him to incessant crimes.)

literature should be a combination of beauty, kindness and truth, and should reflect nature and reality
Sonnets
十四行詩
The Merchant of Venice
威尼斯商人
Hamlet
哈姆雷特
(Venus and Adonis维纳斯和安东尼斯; The Rape of Lucrece鲁克丽斯受辱记;romantic tragicomedies浪漫悲喜剧;Romeo and Juliet;
Shakespeare's greatest tragedies are : Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth)
1. 154 poems; English form
2. The traditional theme of the play is to praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty, and to expose the insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew. Many people today tend to regard the play as a satire of the Christians' hypocrisy and their false standards of friendship and love, their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice against Jews (Shylock).
3. A man of contemplation rather than action; has the qualities of a “blood-and-thunder” thriller and a philosophical exploration of life and death
Francis Bacon
弗蘭西斯.培根
a well known philosopher scientist and essayist; lays the foundation of modern science; his "Essays" is an important landmark in the development of English prose
brevity\compactness\powerfulness
Of Studies
论学习
It analyzes what studies chiefly serve for, the different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies, and how studies exert influence over human charater
John Donne
約翰.鄧恩
the leading figure(代表人物) of the "metaphysical school(玄学派); his poems can be divided into two groups: the secular and the religious; sermons; The songs and Sonnets
a seemingly unfocused diversity of experiences and attitudes and a free range of feelings and moods; dynamic rather than static
The Sun Rising
太阳升起
Death, Be Not Proud
死神，莫骄横（Holy Sonnets）
1. dramatizing and illustrating the state of being in love
2. a bold challenge to the proud Death
John Milton
約翰.彌爾頓
A versatile writer; fight for freedom in all aspects as a Christian humanist
Paradise Lost
失樂園
Satan, after being defeated in his rebel against God, tempts Adam and Eve to eat the apples from the Forbidden Tree, and causes the Fall of Man
The Neoclassical Period
1. age: 1660-1798
2. background: The English society of the neoclassical period was a turbulent one. Fast development of England as a nation; the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason
3. features:
(1)a furtherance of the Renaissance – the Enlightenment Movement, advocated universal education
(2)reason, "eternal truth", "eternal justice", "eternal equality" was what human society should seek for; advocated universal education
(3)reviving the interest in old classical works (neoclassicism)
(4)keep to order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy
(5)had specific rules for almost every genre of literature
John Bunyan
約翰.班楊
As a stout Puritan, he had made a conscientious study of the Bible and firmly believed in salvation through spiritual struggle
Concrete and living language\carefully observed and vividly presented detail
The Pilgrim’s Progress
天路历程
(Symbolizes human world, for "All the cometh is vanity"; everything and anything in this world is "vanity", have no value and no meaning; but this town "lay" in the way to the Celestial City, meaning pilgrims had to resist the temptations there when they made their way through)
Is the most successful religious allegory in the English language; its purpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation through constant struggles with their own weakness and all kinds of social evils
Alexander Pope
亞歷山大.蒲伯
Strongly advocated neoclassicism, emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rules of order, reason, logic, restrained emotion, good taste and decorum
Satiric\concise\smooth\graceful\well-balanced style
On Criticism
論批評
a comprehensive study of the theories of literary criticism; a typical didactic one; written in the form of heroic couplets, it's plain in style and it is easy to read.
Daniel Defoe
丹尼爾.笛弗
A very good story-teller; his sentences are sometimes short, crisp and plain, and sometimes long and rambling, which leave on the reader an impression of casual narration
Smooth\easy\colloquial\mostly vernacular
Robinson Crusoe
鲁宾逊漂流记
Adventure on a deserted island; depicts a hero grows from an inexperienced youth onto a shrewd and hardened man; a song of courage, wisdom, struggle against the hostile natural environment