英國文學(xué)筆記

1 A Concise History of British Literature Chapter 1 English Literature of Anglo Saxon Period I Introduction 1 The historical background 1 Before the Germanic invasion 2 During the Germanic invasion a immigration b Christianity c heptarchy d social classes structure hide hundred eoldermen lord thane middle class freemen lower class slave or bondmen theow e social organization clan or tribes f military Organization g Church function spirit civil service education h economy coins trade slavery i feasts and festival Halloween Easter j legal system 2 The Overview of the culture 1 The mixture of pagan and Christian spirit 2 Literature a poetry two types b prose two figures II Beowulf 2 1 A general introduction 2 The content 3 The literary features 1 the use of alliteration 2 the use of metaphors and understatements 3 the mixture of pagan and Christian elements III The Old English Prose 1 What is prose 2 figures 1 The Venerable Bede 2 Alfred the Great Chapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages I Introduction 1 The Historical Background 1 The year 1066 Norman Conquest 2 The social situations soon after the conquest A Norman nobles and serfs B restoration of the church 3 The 11th century 3 A the crusade and knights B dominance of French and Latin 4 The 12th century A the centralized government B kings and the church Henry II and Thomas 5 The 13th century A The legend of Robin Hood B Magna Carta 1215 C the beginning of the Parliament D English and Latin official languages the end 6 The 14th century a the House of Lords and the House of Commons conflict between the Parliament and Kings b the rise of towns c the change of Church d the role of women e the Hundred Years War starting f the development of the trade London g the Black Death h the Peasants Revolt 1381 i The translation of Bible by Wycliff 7 The 15th century 4 a The Peasants Revolt 1453 b The War of Roses between Lancasters and Yorks c the printing press William Caxton d the starting of Tudor Monarchy 1485 2 The Overview of Literature 1 the stories from the Celtic lands of Wales and Brittany great myths of the Middle Ages 2 Geoffrye of Monmouth Historia Regum Britanniae King Authur 3 Wace Le Roman de Brut 4 The romance 5 the second half of the 14th century Langland Gawin poet Chaucer II Sir Gawin and Green Knight 1 a general introduction 2 the plot III William Langland 1 Life 2 Piers the Plowman IV Chaucer 1 Life 5 2 Literary Career three periods 1 French period 2 Italian period 3 master period 3 The Canterbury Tales A The Framework B The General Prologue C The Tale Proper 4 His Contribution 1 He introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types 2 He is the first great poet who wrote in the current English language 3 The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects and Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech V Popular Ballads VI Thomas Malory and English Prose VII The beginning of English Drama 1 Miracle Plays 6 Miracle play or mystery play is a form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church It developed from the 10th to the 16th century reaching its height in the 15th century The simple lyric character of the early texts was enlarged by the addition of dialogue and dramatic action Eventually the performance was moved to the churchyard and the marketplace 2 Morality Plays A morality play is a play enforcing a moral truth or lesson by means of the speech and action of characters which are personified abstractions figures representing vices and virtues qualities of the human mind or abstract conceptions in general 3 Interlude The interlude which grew out of the morality was intended as its name implies to be used more as a filler than as the main part of an entertainment As its best it was short witty simple in plot suited for the diversion of guests at a banquet or for the relaxation of the audience between the divisions of a serious play It was essentially an indoors performance and generally of an aristocratic nature Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance I A Historical Background 7 II The Overview of the Literature 1485 1660 Printing press readership growth of middle class trade education for laypeople centralization of power intellectual life exploration new impetus and direction of literature Humanism study of the literature of classical antiquity and reformed education Literary style modeled on the ancients The effect of humanism the disseminatiogogoible attitude of its classically educated adherents 1 poetry The first tendency by Sidney and Spenser ornate florid highly figured style The second tendency by Donne metaphysical style complexity and ingenuity The third tendency by Johgogotyle The fourth tendency by Milton central Christian and Biblical tradition 2 Drama a the gogoical examples b the drama stands highest in popular estimation Marlowe Shakespeare Jonson 3 Prose 8 a translation of Bible b More c Bacon II English poetry 1 Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard courtly makers 1 Wyatt introducing sonnets 2 Howard introducing sonnets and writing the first blank verse 2 Sir Philip Sidney poet critic prose writer 1 Life a English gentleman b brilliant and fascinating personality c courtier 2 works a Arcadia pastoral romance b Astrophel and Stella 108 sonnet sequence to Penelope Dvereux platonic devotion Petrarchan conceits and original feelings moving to creativeness building of a narrative story theme love originality act of writing c Defense of Poesy an apology for imaginative literature beginning of literary criticism 3 Edmund Spenser 9 1 life Cambridge Sidney s friend Areopagus Ireland Westminster Abbey 2 works a The Shepherds Calendar the budding of English poetry in Renaissance b Amoretti and Epithalamion sonnet sequence c Faerie Queene l The general end A romantic and allegorical epic steps to virtue l 12 books and 12 virtues Holiness temperance justice and courtesy l Two level function part of the story and part of allegory symbolic meaning l Many allusions to classical writers l Themes puritanism nationalism humanism and Renaissance Neoclassicism a Christian humanist 3 Spenserian Stanza III English Prose 1 Thomas More 1 Life Renaissance man scholar statesman theorist prose writer diplomat patron of arts a learned Greek at Canterbury College Oxford b studies law at Lincoln Inn c Lord Chancellor 10 d beheaded 2 Utopia the first English science fiction Written in Latin two parts the second place of nowhere A philosophical mariner Raphael Hythloday tells his voyages in which he discovers a land Utopia a The part one is organized as dialogue with mariner depicting his philosophy b The part two is a description of the island kingdom where gold and silver are worn by criminal religious freedom is total and no one owns anything c the nature of the book attackigogo time d the book and the Republic an attempt to describe the Republic in a new way but it possesses an modern character and the resemblance is in externals e it played a key role in the Humanist awakening of the 16th century which moved away from the Medieval otherworldliness towards Renaissance secularism f the Utopia 3 the significance a it was the first champion of national ideas and national languages it created a national prose equally adapted to handling scientific and artistic material 11 b a elegant Latin scholar and the father of English prose he composed works in English translated from Latin into English biography wrote History of Richard III 2 Francis Bacon writer philosopher and statesman 1 life Cambridge humanism in Paris knighted Lord Chancellor bribery focusing on philosophy and literature 2 philosophical ideas advancement of science people servants and interpreters of nature method a child before nature facts and observations experimental 3 Essays 57 a he was a master of numerous and varied styles b his method is to weigh and balance maters indicating the ideal course of action and the practical one pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each but leaving the reader to make the final decisions arguments IV English Drama 1 A general survey 1 Everyman marks the beginning of modern drama 2 two influences a the classics classical in form and English in content b native or popular drama 12 3 the University Wits 2 Christopher Marlowe greatest playwright before Shakespeare and most gifted of the Wits 1 Life first igogoical poetry then in drama 2 Major works a Tamburlaine b The Jew of Malta c The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus 3 The significance of his plays V William Shakespeare 1 Life 1 1564 Stratford on Avon 2 Grammar School 3 Queen visit to Castle 4 marriage to Anne Hathaway 5 London the Globe Theatre small part and proprietor 6 the 1st Folio Quarto 7 Retired son Hamnet H 1616 2 Dramatic career 3 Major plays men centered 1 Romeo and Juliet tragic love and fate 13 2 The Merchant of Venice Good over evil Anti Semitism 3 Henry IV National unity Falstaff 4 Julius Caesar Republicanism vs dictatorship 5 Hamlet Revenge Good evil 6 Othello Diabolic character jealousy gap between appearance and reality 7 King Lear Filial ingratitude 8 Macbeth Ambition vs fate 9 Antony and Cleopatra Passion vs reason 10 The Tempest 14 Reconciliation reality and illusion 3 Non dramatic poetry 1 Venus and Adonis The Rape of Lucrece 2 Sonnets a theme fair true kind b two major parts a handsome young man of noble birth a lady in dark complexion c the form three quatrains and a couplet d the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg VI Ben Jonson 1 life poet dramatist a Latin and Greek scholar the literary king Sons of Ben 2 contribution 1 the idea of humour 2 an advocate of classical drama and a forerunner of classicism in English literature 3 Major plays 1 Everyone in His Humour humour three unities 2 Volpone the Fox Chapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century 15 I A Historical Background II The Overview of the Literature 1640 1688 1 The revolution period 1 The metaphysical poets 2 The Cavalier poets 3 Milton the literary and philosophical heritage of the Renaissance merged with Protestant political and moral conviction 2 The restoration period 1 The restoration of Charles II ushered in a literature characterized by reason moderation good taste deft management and simplicity school of Ben Jonson 2 The ideals of impartial investigation and scientific experimentation promoted by the newly founded Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge 1662 were influential igogoe as an instrument of rational communication 3 The great philosophical and political treatises of the time emphasize rationalism 4 The restoration drama 5 The Age of Dryden III John Milton 16 1 Life educated at Cambridge visiting the continent involved into the revolution persecuted writing epics 2 Literary career 1 The 1st period was up to 1641 during which time he is to be seen chiefly as a son of the humanists and Elizabethans although his Puritanism is not absent L Allegre and IL Pens eroso 1632 are his early masterpieces in which we find Milton a true offspring of the Renaissance a scholar of exquisite taste and rare culture Next came Comus a masque The greatest of early creations was Lycidas a pastoral elegy on the death of a college mate Edward King 2 The second period is from 1641 to 1654 when the Puritan was in such complete ascendancy that he wrote almost no poetry In 1641 he began a long period of pamphleteering for the puritan cause For some 15 years the Puritan in him alone ruled his writing He sacrificed his poetic ambition to the call of the liberty for which Puritans were fighting 3 The third period is from 1655 to 1671 when humanist and Puritan have been fused into an exalted entity This period is the greatest in his literary life epics and some famous sonnets The three long poems are the fruit of the long contest within Milton of Renaissance tradition and his Puritan faith They form the greatest accomplishments of any English poet except Shakespeare In Milton alone it would seem Puritanism could not extinguish the lover of beauty In these works we find 17 humanism and Puritanism merged in magnificence 3 Major Works 1 Paradise Lost a the plot b characters c theme justify the ways of God to man 2 Paradise Regained 3 Samson Agonistes 4 Features of Milton s works 1 Milton is one of the very few truly great English writers who is also a prominent figure in politics and who is both a great poet and an important prose writer The two most essential things to be remembered about him are his Puritanism and his republicanism 2 Milton wrote many different types of poetry He is especially a great master of blank verse He learned much from Shakespeare and first used blank verse in non dramatic works 3 Milton is a great stylist He is famous for his grand style noted for its dignity and polish which is the result of his life long classical and biblical study 4 Milton has always been admired for his sublimity of thought and majesty of expression 18 IV John Bunyan 1 life 1 puritan age 2 poor family 3 parliamentary army 4 Baptist society preacher 5 prison writing the book 2 The Pilgrim Progress 1 The allegory in dream form 2 the plot 3 the theme V Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets 1 Metaphysical Poets The term metaphysical poetry is commonly used to designate the works of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne Pressured by the harsh uncomfortable and curious age the metaphysical poets sought to shatter myths and replace them with new philosophies new sciences new words and new poetry They tried to break away from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry and favoured in poetry for a more colloquial language and tone a tightness of expression and the single minded working out of a theme or argument 19 2 Cavalier Poets The other group prevailing in this period was that of Cavalier poets They were often courtiers who stood on the side of the king and called themselves sons of Ben Jonson The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry polished and elegant amorous and gay but often superficial Most of their verses were short songs pretty madrigals love fancies characterized by lightness of heart and of morals Cavalier poems have the limpidity of the Elizabethan lyric without its imaginative flights They are lighter and neater but less fresh than the Elizabethan s VI John Dryden 1 Life 1 the representative of classicism in the Restoration 2 poet dramatist critic prose writer satirist 3 changeable in attitude 4 Literary career four decades 5 Poet Laureate 2 His influences 1 He established the heroic couplet as the fashion for satiric didactic and descriptive poetry 2 He developed a direct and concise prose style 3 He developed the art of literary criticism in his essays and in the 20 numerous prefaces to his poems Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th Century I Introduction 1 The Historical Background 2 The literary overview 1 The Enlightenment 2 The rise of English novels When the literary historian seeks to assign to each age its favourite form of literature he finds no difficulty in dealing with our own time As the Middle Ages delighted in long romantic narrative poems the Elizabethans in drama the Englishman of the reigns of Anne and the early Georges in didactic and satirical verse so the public of our day is enamored of the novel Almost all types of literary production continue to appear but whether we judge from the lists of publishers the statistics of public libraries or general conversation we find abundant evidence of the enormous preponderance of this kind of literary entertainment in popular favour 3 Neo classicism a revival in the seventeenth agogo of order balance and harmony in literature John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major expogogochool 4 Satiric literature 21 5 Sentimentalism II Neo classicism a general description 1 Alexander Pope 1 Life a Catholic family b ill health c taught himself by reading and translating d friend of Addison Steele and Swift 2 three groups of poems e An Essay on Criticism magogom f The Rape of Lock g Translation of two epics 3 His contribution h the heroic couplet finish elegance wit pointedness i satire 4 weakness lack of imagination 2 Addison and Steele 1 Richard Steele poet playwright essayist publisher of newspaper 2 Joseph Addison studies at Oxford secretary of state created a literary periodical Spectator with Steele 1711 3 Spectator Club 22 4 The significance of their essays a Their writings in The Tatler and The Spectator provide a new code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie b They give a true picture of the social life of England in the 18th century c In their hands the English essay completely established itself as a literary genre Using it as a form of character sketching and story telling they ushered in the dawn of the modern novel 3 Samuel Johnson poet critic essayist lexicographer editor 1 Life a studies at Oxford b made a living by writing and translating c the great cham of literature 2 works poem The Vanity of Human Wishes London criticism The Lives of great Poets preface 3 The champion of neoclassical ideas III Literature of Satire Jonathan Swift 1 Life 1 born in Ireland 2 studies at Trinity College 3 worked as a secretary 23 4 the chief editor of The Examiner 5 the Dean of St Patrick s in Dublin 2 Works The Battle of Books A Tale of a Tub A Modest Proposal Gulliver s Travels 3 Gulliver s Travels Part I Satire the Whig and the Tories Anglican Church and Catholic Church Part II Satire the legal system condemnation of war Part III Satire ridiculous scientific experiment Part IV Satire mankind IV English Novels of Realistic tradition 1 The Rise of novels 1 Early forms folk tale fables myths epic poetry romances fabliaux novelle imaginative nature of their material imaginative narrative 2 The rise of the novel a picaresque novel in Spain and England 16th century Of or relating to a genre of prose fiction that originated in Spain and depic