英国文学考点全景图.doc

Part One: 英国文学考点全景图

Literary terms
Brief description

Ballad （民谣）
(1) Ballad is a story in poetic form to be sung or recited.
(2) Ballads were passed down from generation to generation.
(3) Robin Hood is a famous ballad singing the goods of Robin Hood. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 19th century English ballad.

Epic （史诗）
(1) Epic, in poetry, refers to a long work dealing with the actions of gods and heroes.
(2) Beowulf is the greatest national epic of the Anglo-Saxons, John Milton wrote three great epics: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.

Romance
（罗曼史/骑士文学)
(1) Romance is a popular literary form in the medieval England.
(2) It sings knightly adventures or other heroic deeds.
(3)Chivalry (such as bravery, honor, generosity, loyalty and kindness to the weak and poor) is the spirit of romance.

Alliteration

(押头韵)
(1) Alliteration means a repetition of the initial sounds of several words in a line or group.
(2) Alliteration is a traditional poetic device in English literature.
(3) Robert Frost’s poem Acquainted with the Night is a case in point：“I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet ”.

Name of the Writer
Works
Brief Description

unknown

Beowulf
《贝奥武甫》
(1) Beowulf, a typical example of Old English poetry, is regarded as the greatest national epic of the Anglo-Saxons.
(2)The epic describes the heroic deeds of a Scandinavian hero, Beowulf, in fighting against the monster Grendel, his revengeful mother, and a fire-breathing dragon. (3)The poem conveys a hope that the righteous will triumph over the evil.
Geoffrey Chaucer (乔叟)
(1) He is regarded as the father of English poetry.
(2) The Canterbury Tales is his masterpiece.
3)He presents, for the first time in English literature, a prehensive realistic picture of the medieval English society and creates a whole ...
of life.
(5) Chaucer introduced from France rhymed stanzas of various types (heroic couplet) into English poetry to replace the Old English alliterative verse.
(6) It was Chaucer who made London dialect the foundation for modern English speech.
(7) His characterization is vivid.

The Canterbury Tales 《坎特伯雷故事集》

Troilus and Criseyde
《特罗勒斯和科丽西德》

Rose
《玫瑰罗曼史》

The House of Fame 《声誉之堂》
(1) The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer’s monumental success.
(2) It is a collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury.
(3) It was influenced by Boccaccio’s (薄伽丘) Decameron (《十日谈》).
(4) In the poem, Chaucer presents, for the first time in English literature, ... medieval English society and creates a whole gallery of vivid characters from all works of life.
(5) The poem shows Chaucer’s humanism and anticipates a new era to e.

William Langland
(威廉·兰格伦)

Piers Plowman
《农夫皮尔斯》
(1) Piers Plowman is a poem that gives a picture of the life in feudal England.
(2) It is a protest against the then social injustice.

Literary Terms
Brief Description

Renaissance (文艺复兴)

(3) The real mainstream of the English Renaissance is the Elizabethan drama with William Shakespeare being the leading dramatist.
(1) The word “Renaissance” means “rebirth”. It meant the reintroduction into Western Europe of the full cultural heritage of Greece and Rome.
(2) The essence of the Renaissance is humanism. Attitudes and feelings which had been characteristic of the 14th and 15th centuries persisted well down into the era of Humanism and Reformation.

Humanism (人文主义)
1) Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.
(2) It emphasized the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life. Humanists voiced their beliefs that man was the center of the universe and man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of the present life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders.

Spenserian stanza (斯宾塞诗节)

(3) Spenser’s The Faerie Queene was written in this kind of stanza.
(1) Spenserian stanza in the creation of Edmund Spenser.
(2) It refers to a stanza of nine lines, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last line in iambic hexameter(六音步), rhyming ababbcbcc.
Conceit (奇特的比喻)

(2) Conceit is extensively employed in John Donne’s poetry.
(1) Conceit is a far-fetched simile or metaphor, a literary conceit occurs when the speaker pares two highly dissimilar things.
Metaphysical poetry (玄学派诗歌)

(3) The diction is simple as pared with that of the Elizabethan or the Neoclassical periods, and echos the words and cadences of mon speech. (4) The imagery is drawn from actual life.
(1) Metaphysical poetry is monly used to name the work of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne.
(2) With the rebellious spirit, the metaphysical poets tried to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry.

Name of the Writer
Works
Brief Description
Philip Sidney (菲利普·锡尼爵士)
(1) He stands for the spirit of the Elizabethan Age.
(2)In many ways he represents the Renaissance ideal of “ the plete man ”.
Arcadia 《阿卡狄亚》

Astrophel and Stella
《阿斯特罗菲尔与斯特拉》

Defense of Poetry
《为诗歌辩护》
(1) Arcadia is a prose romance filled with lyrics.
(2) It is regarded as a forerunner of the modern world.
Edmund Spenser
(埃德蒙·斯宾塞)
(1) He is acclaimed as “ the poets’ poet ” in English literature.
(2)His poetry is noted for such qualities as a perfect melody, a rare sense of beauty, a splendid imagination, a lofty moral purity and seriousness, and a dedicated idealism. (3)He created the Spenserian stanza.
(4)His masterpiece is The Faerie Queene.
The Faerie Queene
《仙后》

The Shepherd Calendar
《牧羊人日记》

(1) The Faerie Queene is Spenser’s masterpiece, a great poem of its age. (2)The fairy queen in the poem stands for both the Queen Elizabeth and
glory.
(3) In the poem Spenser speaks of 12 virtues of a perfect gentleman.
(4) This allegorical poem is distinguished for its rich content and exquisite style.
(5)The poem is written in the form of the Spenserian Stanza.
(6)The Red-cross Knight in the poem represents the Church of England.
(7)The Shepherd Calendar records and expresses the poet’s laments over the loss of Rosalind.
Thomas More （托马斯·莫尔）
(1) He is the greatest of the English humanist.
(2)He authored Utopia (乌托邦).
Christopher Marlowe (克里斯托弗·马洛)
(1)He is the most gifted of University Wits.
(2.1) Dr. Faustus is a play 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.
(2.2) It celebrates the human passion for knowledge and happiness.
(2.3) It also reveals man’s frustration in realizing the high aspirations in a hostile moral order.
Tamburlaine
《贴木儿大帝》

Dr. Faustus
《浮士德的悲剧》

The Jew of Malta
《马耳他的犹太人》

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
《多情的牧羊人致情人》

(2.4) And the confinement to time is the cruelest fact of man’s condition.
(1.1) Tamburlaine is a play about an ambitious and cruel Tartar conqueror in the 14th century who rose from a shepherd to an overpowering king.
(1.2) It voiced the supreme desire of the man of the Renaissance for infinite power and authority.
(3)The Jew of Malta expresses man’s desire for wealth.
William Shakespeare
(威廉·莎士比亚)
(1) He is the greatest of all Elizabethan dramatist. (2)His literary career falls into four periods. He wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. (3)His sonnets represent the finest poetic crafts manship of Elizabethan poetry.
(4) The themes of sonnets are about love, friendship, the destructive effects of time, the quickness of physical decay, and the loss of beauty, vigor and love.

(5.1)The Merchant of Venice is a play eulogizing the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, idealizing Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty, and exposing the insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew represented by Shylock.
(5.2)But people today tend to regard the play as a satire of the Christian’s hypocrisy and their false standards, their cunning ways of pursing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice against Jews.
(5.3)The allusion “ pound of flesh ” es from this edy.
Richard III《理查德三世》
Henry IV 《亨利四世》
Henry V 《亨利五世》
Henry VI 《亨利六世》
Henry VIII 《亨利八世》
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 《仲夏夜之梦》
The Merchant of Venice《威尼斯商人》
As You Like It
《皆大欢喜》
Twelfth Night
《第十二夜》
Hamlet 《哈姆雷特》
Othello 《奥赛罗》
King Lear 《李尔王》
Macbeth 《麦克白》
Romeo and Juliet
《罗密欧与朱丽叶》
The Tempest 《暴风雨》
Sonnet 18
《十四行诗 18》

(6.1)Sonnet 18 is one of Shakespeare’s most beautiful sonnets. In the poem he has a profound mediation on the destructive power of time and the eternal beauty brought forth by poetry to the one he loves. A nice summer’s day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry can last for ever. Thus Shakespeare has a faith in the permanence of poetry. (6.2)The rhyme of the poem is abab cdcd efef gg.
(1) Hamlet is the greatest tragedy of Shakespeare’s. Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind.
(2) Othello is a tragedy of humanism. Othello’s inner weakness is made use of by the outside evil force.
(3)Macbeth is a tragedy of all ambitious adventures who bee the prey of their ambition. Macbeth’s lust for power stirs up his ambition and drives him to incessant crimes.
(4.1)King Lear is based on an old British legend.
(4.2)The old King Lear is a self- ruler who suffers from t and
Infidelity on account of his irresponsibility and vanity.
(4.3)In King Lear, Shakespeare has not only made a profound analysis of the social crisis in which the evils can be seen everywhere, but also criticized the bourgeois egoism. (4.4)Shakespeare points out that a king or ruler must be responsible for his people.

Francis Bacon
(弗朗西斯·培根)
(1) He is a philosopher, a scientist and the first English essayist. (2)He lays the foundation of modern science with his insistence on scientific way of thinking and fresh observation rather than authority as a basis for obtaining knowledge. (3)He is best known for his Essays that is the first example of that genre in English literature.

(3.3)Forceful and persuasive, pact and precise, the assay reveals to us Bacon’s mature attitude towards learning.
Essay 《论说文集》
The Advancement of Learning
《论学问的进步》
Novum Organum ( The New Instrument )
《新工具》
Of Studies 《谈读书》

(3.1)Of Studies is the most popular of Bacon’s essays.
(3.2)It analyzes what studies chiefly serve for, the different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies, and how studies exert influence over human character.
(1.1)The Advancement of Learning is a great tract on education.
(1.2)Here Bacon highly praises knowledge, refuting the objections to learning and outlining the problems with which his plan is to deal. (1.3)Also he answers the charge that learning is against religion.
(2.1)Novum Organum is a successful treatise written in Latin on methodology.
(2.2)The argument is for the use of
inductive method of reasoning in scientific study.

John Donne (约翰·邓恩)
(1) He is the leading figure of the “ metaphysical school ”.
(2) The most striking feature of Donne’s poetry is his frequent use of conceit.
(3)He is a religious poet obsessed with death. (4)The Songs and Sonnets is probably his best-known lyrics. Love is the basic theme. Donne holds that the nature of love is the union of soul and body.
The Sun Rising
《升起的太阳》
The Holy Sonnets
《神圣体十四行诗》
The Songs and Sonnets
《歌谣与十四行诗》
Death, Be Not Proud
《死亡，你别骄傲》或《死神莫骄妄》
The Flea
《跳蚤之歌》
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
《分别：莫忧伤》

the center.
(2.3)In a word, John Donne seems to emphasize the importance of Platonic love. ←
(1.1）The Song and Sonnets is probably his best-known lyrics. (1.2)Love is the basic theme. John Donne holds that the nature of love is the union of soul and body.(2.1)In A Valediction
: Forbidding Mourning Donne resents too much display of emotion when two lovers part. In this poem we are familiarized with Donne’s famous conceit: the two lovers ( he and his wife ) are likened to the two points of a pass. The wife stays at home. She is the Fixed foot and the husband “roams” around,
but never deviates from
John Milton
(约翰·弥尔顿)
(1) As a real revolutionary, a master poet and a great prose writer, Milton holds an important place in the history of English literature. (2)He produced three epics: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.

(3.1)Samson Agonistes is the most perfect example of the verse drama after the Greek style in English. (3.2)In this epic Milton presents to us a picture of how Samson, the Israel’s mighty champion, brings destruction down upon the enemy at the cost of his own life.

Paradise Lost
《失乐园》

Paradise Regained
《复乐园》

Samson Agonistes
《力士参孙》

(3.3)The whole poem strongly suggests Milton’s passionate longing like Samson’s that he too could bring destruction down upon the enemy at the cost of his own life. In this sense, Samson is Milton.
(1.1)Paradise Lost is the greatest of Milton’s epics. (1.2)It is the only generally acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf. (1.3)The story is taken from the Bible. Theme of the epic is man’s disobedience and the loss of Paradise, with its prime cause -- Satan who rebels against God’s authority and tyranny.
(2) Paradise Regained is a long narrative poem telling how man, in the person of Christ, withstands the tempter and is established once more in the divine favor.

John Bunyan (约翰·班扬)
(1) He is a religious novelist whose style was modeled after that of the English Bible.
(2) His language is concrete and vivid.
(3) His masterpiece, The Pilgrim’s Progress, is the most successful religious allegory.

The Pilgrim’s Progress
《天路历程》

(5)Its predominant metaphor is the metaphor of life as a journey.
(6)The most famous scene in the novel is Vanity Fair.
(1) The Pilgrim’s Progress is John Bunyan’s masterpiece. It is the most successful religious allegory.
(2) It tells the experience of a devout Christian the Pilgrim with a neighbor named Faithful in a world full of vice and wickedness.
(3)It is a prose allegory depicting the pilgrimage of a human soul in search for salvation.
(4)The novel is not only about something spiritual but bears much relevance to the time.

Literary Terms
Brief Description

The Enlightenment Movement （启蒙运动）

(5)Famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers like John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, the two pioneers of familiar essays, Jonathan Swift, Richard Bringsley Sheridan, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding and Samuel Johnson,etc.
(1) Enlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement which flourished in France and swept through Western Europe in the 18th cen