劉炳善英國文學(xué)簡史筆記免費(fèi)

1、英 國 文 學(xué) 簡 史 完 全 版A Concise History of British LiteratureChapter 1 English Literature of Anglo-Saxon Period1. The historical background(1) Before the Germanic invasion(2) During the Germanic invasiona. immigration;b. Christianity;c. heptarchy.d. social classes structure: hide-hundred; eolderme n(lord

2、) - thane - middleclass (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.j. The Overview

3、of the culture(1) The mixture of pagan and Christian spirit. Literature: a. poetry: two types; b. prose: two figures.1. A general introduction.2. The content.3. The literary features.(1) the use of alliteration the use of metaphors and understatements(3) the mixture of pagan and Christian elementsOl

4、d English Proseis prose?(1) The Venerable Bede(2) Alfred the GreatChapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages1. 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 1

5、1th century.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 ParliamentD. English and Latin: off

6、icial languages (the end)(6) The 14th century.a. the House of Lords and the House of Commons conflict between theParliament 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.

7、 the Peasants' Revo- 1381.i. The translation of Bible by Wycli任 The 15th century.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 Celti

8、c lands of Wales and Brittan廠 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. Gawin and Green Knight.1. a general introduction.2. the plot

9、.Langland.1. Life2. Piers the Plowman1. Life2. Literary Career: three periods(1) French period Italian period (3) master period3. The Canterbury TalesA. 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) H

10、e 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 Englishspeech.V. Popular Ballads.Malory and English Prosebeginning of English Drama.1

11、. Miracle Plays.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 th

12、e 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 abstractionsfigures representing

13、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, su

14、ited 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 Historical BackgroundII. The Overview of th

15、e Literature (1485-1660)Printing press- readership- growth of middle class trade-education forlaypeople-centralization of power-intellectual life-exploration-new impetusand direction of literature.Humanism-study of the literature of classical antiquity and reformededucation.Literary style-modeled on

16、 the ancients.The effect of humanism-the dissemination of the cultivated, clear, and sensible attitude of its classically educated adherents.1. poetryThe first tendency by Sidney and Spenser:? ornate, florid, highly figured style.The second tendency by Donne: metaphysical style complexity andingenui

17、ty.The third tendency by Johnson: reactionClassically pure and restrained style.The fourth tendency by Milton: central Christian and Biblical tradition.2. Dramaa. the native tradition and classical examples.b. the drama stands highest in popular estimation: Marlowe- Shakespeare-Jonson.3. Prosea. tra

18、nslation of Bible;b. More;c. Bacon.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 Sidneypoet, critic, prose writer(1) Life:a. English gentleman;b. brilliant and fascinating per

19、sonality;c. courtier. worksa. Arcadia: pastoral romance;b. Astrophel and Stella (108) : sonnet sequence to PenelopeDvereuxplatonic devotion.Petrarchan conceits and original feelings-moving to creativenessbuilding?of a narrative story; theme-love originality-act of writing.c. Defense of Poesy: an apo

20、logy for imaginative literature- beginning? of literary criticism.3. Edmund Spenser(1) life: Cambridge - Sidney's friend - "Areopagus' Ireland - Westminster Abbey. worksa. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry in Renaissance.b. Amoretti and Epithalamion: sonnet sequencec

21、. Faerie Queene:l The general endA 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 (symbolicmeaning)l Many allusions to classical writers.l Themes: puritanism, nationalis

22、m, humanism and RenaissanceNeoclassicism a Christian humanist.(3) Spenserian Stanza.Prose1. Thomas More(1) Life: aRenaissance man , scholar, statesman, theorist, prose writer, diplomat, patron of artsa. learned Greek at Canterbury College, Oxford;b. studies law at Lincoln Inn;c. Lord Chancellor;d. b

23、eheaded. 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

24、 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: attacking the chief political and social evils of histime.d. the book and the Republic: an attempt to describe the Republic in a new way,

25、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 whichmoved away from the Medieval otherworldliness towards Renaissancesecularism.f. the Utopia (3) the significance.a. it was the first champion of national

26、ideas and national languages; it created a national prose, equally adapted to handling scientific and artistic material.b. a elegant Latin scholar and the father of English prose: he composed works in English, translated from Latin into English biography, wrote History ofRichard III.2) Francis Bacon

27、: writer, philosopher and statesman(1) life: Cambridge - humanism in Paris knighted - Lord Chancellor 一 bribery - focusing on philosophy and literature. philosophical ideas: advancement of science people:servants? andinterpreters of nature method: a child before nature- facts and observations:experi

28、mental.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)D

29、rama1. 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.(3) the University Wits.2. Christopher Marlowe: greatest playwright before Shakespeare and mostgifted of the Wits.(1) Life:

30、 first interested in classical poetry then in drama.(2) Major worksa. Tamburlaine;b. The Jew of Malta;c. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.(3) The significance of his plays.V. William Shakespeare1. Life(1) 1564, Stratford-on-Avon;(2) Grammar School;(3) Queen visit to Castle;(4) marriage to Anne

31、 Hathaway;(5) London, the Globe Theatre: small part and proprietor;(6) the 1st Folio, Quarto; Retired, son Hamnet; H. 1616.2. Dramatic career3. Major plays-men-centered.(1) Romeo and Juliettragic love and fate(2) The Merchant of Venice.Good over evil.Anti-Semitism.(3) Henry IV.National unity.Falstaf

32、f.(4) Julius CaesarRepublicanism vs. dictatorship.(5) HamletRevengeGood/evil.(6) OthelloDiabolic characterjealousygap between appearance and reality.(7) King LearFilial ingratitude(8) MacbethAmbition vs. fate.(9) Antony and Cleopatra.Passion vs. reason(10) The TempestReconciliation; reality and illu

33、sion.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 darkcomplexion.c. the form: three quatrains and a couplet.d. the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.Jonson1. life: poet, dram

34、atist, a Latin and Greek scholar, the(Sons of “l(fā)iteralBen)(1) the idea of "humour . an advocate of classical drama and? a forerunner of classicism in Englishliterature.3. Major plays(1) Everyone in His Humour "humour ; three unities.(2) Volpone the FoxChapter 4 English Literature of the 17

35、th Century Historical BackgroundOverview of the Literature (1640-1688)1. The revolution period(1) The metaphysical poets; The Cavalier poets.(3) Milton: the literary and philosophical heritage of the Renaissance merged with Protestant political and moral conviction2. The restoration period.(1) The r

36、estoration 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

37、 Knowledge (1662) were influential in the development of clear and simple prose as an instrument of rational communication.(3) The great philosophical and political treatises of the time emphasize rationalism. The restoration drama.(5) The Age of Dryden.Milton(1) Life: educated at Cambridge- visitin

38、g the continentinvolved into therevolutionpersecuted- writing epics.(2) Literary career.(3) 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 earl

39、y 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.(4) The second period is from 1641 to 1654,

40、 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 we

41、re fighting.(5) 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

42、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 humanism and Puritanism merged in magnificence.3. Major Works(1) Paradise Losta. the plot.b. c

43、haracters.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 tw

44、o 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

45、. 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.Bunyan1. life:(1) puritan age;(2) poor family;(3) parliamentary army;(4) Ba

46、ptist society, preacher;(5 ) prison, writing the book.2. The Pilgrim Progress(1) The allegory in dream form.(2) the plot. the theme.V. Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets.1. Metaphysical PoetsThe term “ metaphysical poetry is commonly used tthdewignatef the 17th century writers who wrote under the

47、 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 favou

48、red in poetry for a more colloquial language and tone, a tightness of expression and the single-minded working out of a theme or argument.2. Cavalier PoetsThe other group prevailing in this period was that of Cavalier poets. They were oftencourtiers who stood on the side of the king, and called them

49、selves" sorThe Cavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elegant, amorous and gay, but often superficial. Most of their verses were short songs, pretty madrigals, love fanciescharacterized by lightness of heart and of morals. Cavalier poems have the limpidity of theElizabethan lyric witho

50、ut its imaginative flights. They are lighter and neater but less freshthan the Elizabethan's.Dryden.1. Life:(1) the representative of classicism in the Restoration. poet, dramatist, critic, prose writer, satirist.(3) changeable in attitude.(4) Literary career four decades.(5) Poet Laureate2. His

51、 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 numerous prefaces to his poems.Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18

52、th Century1. The Historical Background.2. The literary overview.(1) The Enlightenment. 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 romant

53、ic 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,

54、 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 and eighteenth centuries of classical standards of order, balance, and harmo

55、ny in literature. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major exponents of the neo-classical school.(4) Satiric literature.(5) Sentimentalism(a general description1. Alexander Pope(1) Life:family;health;himself by reading and translating;of Addison, Steele and Swift.(2) three groups of poems:Essay on

56、Criticism (manifesto of neo-classicism ;f. The Rape of Lock;of two epics.(3) His contribution: heroic couplet finish, elegance, wit, pointedness; .(4) weakness: lack of imagination.2. Addison and Steele(1) Richard Steele: poet, playwright, essayist, publisher of newspaper. Joseph Addison: studies at

57、 Oxford, secretary of state, created a literary periodicalaSpectator (with Steele, 1711(3) Spectator Club.(4) The significance of their essays.a. Their writings in“ The Tatler , and " The Spectator “ provide a new codfor 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 o