英国文学史及选读知识要点I

Part I The Anglo-Saxon Period(449-1066)

I Background

449 the Teutons ( the Jutes, the Anglos, the Saxons)

II Literature

The literature of this period falls into two divisions—pagan and Christian

Two Anglo-saxon Christian poets:

Caedmon （凯德蒙，公元7世纪盎各鲁－萨克逊基督教诗人）who lived in the latter half of the 7th century and who wrote a poetic Paraphrase of the Bible.

Cynewulf（基涅武甫,盎各鲁――萨克逊诗人，生活在公元9世纪，其古英语诗稿于10世纪被发现，有《埃琳娜》,《使徒们的命运》，《基督升天》和《朱莉安娜》）, the author of poems on religious subjects

III The Song of Beowulf( Beowulf, 公元7-8世纪之交开始流传于民间的同名史诗中的主人公，曾与水怪，火龙搏斗)

Status: England’s national epic

Written at the beginning of the tenth century

Composed much earlier

Length:3182

The whole song is essentially pagan in spirit and matter.

Features : alliteration; metaphors; understatement

Subject matter

Part II The Anglo-Norman Period (1066—1350)

I historical background: The Norman Conquest

II. The Literature

The literature which they brought to England is remarkable for its bright, romantic tales of love and adventure.

III. Romance

1. Romance was the prevailing form of literature in feudal England.

2. Definition and features(理解)

IV. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

a late-14th century middle-English outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table.

It was a verse romance of 2530 lines, considered as the best of Arthurian romances.

Part III Geoffrey Chaucer(1340?-1400)

I Major works

The Romaunt of the Rose《玫瑰传奇》is a translation from a French poem.

His masterpiece: The Canterbury Tales

II Contributions

1. Chaucer—the forerunner of Renaissanc e

2. Chaucer –a master of realism

3 Chaucer—“father of English poetry”

①In contradistinction to the alliterative verse of the Anglo-Saxon poetry, Chaucer chose the metrical form which laid the foundation of the English tonic-syllabic verse.

②He introduced from France the rhymed couplet (two successive lines of verse equal in length and with thyme) of iambic pentameter which is to be called later the heroic couplet

III the Canterbury tales

1. status

The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer's masterpiece and one of the monumental works in English literature

2. It contains

(1) a general prologue (over 800 lines)

(2) 24 tales

(3) separate prologues and “the links that accompany some of the tales‖

Part IV The Renaissance

I.The Renaissance

Features

① A thirsting curiosity for the classical literature.

②The keen interest in the activities of humanity.

Essence: humanism

II. The 16th century England

III. The Renaissance Literature in England

Figures

1/ Thomas More (1478-1535, 托马斯·莫尔)—the Forerunner of utopian socialism Utopia《乌托邦》(1516)

2/ France Bacon (1561-1626,弗朗西斯·培根）--the scientist, philosopher and essayist 3/ Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542, 托玛斯·维亚特）--a poet, the first to introduce the sonnet into English literature

4/. Edmund Spenser (1552-1599,埃德蒙·斯宾塞)，a great poet

The Faerie Queene《仙后》（1590）

5/ Christopher Marlowe(1564-1593)—the greatest pioneer of English drama Contributions:

He reformed the genre of drama in England and perfected the language and verse of dramatic works.

He made blank verse the principal vehicle of expression in drama

6/ Prose writers

John Lily(1553-1606，约翰·黎利) Eupheus（尤弗伊斯）gives the term of euphuism

Thomas Loge (1558-1625，托马斯·洛奇)

Thomas Deloney (1543-1600,托马斯·德罗尼）

Thomas Nashe（1567-1601，托马斯·纳西）

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

I. status: the greatest of all English authors; one of those rare geniuses of mankind; landmark in the history of world culture; one of the first founders of realism; a masterhand at realistic portrayal of human characters and relations

the greatest dramatist in human history and the supreme poet of the English language—he wrote poems and plays

II works

①Poems

sonnets: 154

2 narrative poems

Venus and Adonis 《维纳斯和阿多尼斯》

The Rape of Lucrece《鲁克莉斯受辱记》

②plays(38)

tragedies

Romeo and Juliet

4 great tragedies (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth )

comedies

Mid- Summer’ Night’s Dream

histories

III.Selected reading

①Hamlet

②Sonnet 18

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

I title：Philosopher, scientist(the inventor of scientific method); Statesman Jurist(法学家）; essayist

II. works

Bacon’s works may be divided into three classes:

a. the philosophical works:

Advancement of Learning (1605, in English)

Novum Organum (1620, in Latin)

De Augmentis (1623, in latin)

b. the literary works:

Essays( 1597,1612, 1625)

c. the professional works:

Maxism of the Law

Reading on the Statute of Uses 用益权法

Part V The 17th Century The period of Revolution and Restoration

I. Social Background

1. The 17th century was one of the most tempestuous[动荡的] periods in

English history.

2.In 1642, the civil war (English revolution/ Puritan revolution) broke out

between Charles I and the parliament.

3. The restoration (1660)

4.The glorious revolution(1688)

II. Puritan and Puritanism

III. Literature of the 17th century

1.The revolution period

General Characteristics

①The Revolution Period was one of confusion in literature due to the breaking

up of the old ideals. The Puritans believed in simplicity of life. They disapproved of the sonnets and the love poetry written in the previous period.

②The Puritan influence in general tended to suppress literary art. Yet this hard,

stern sect produced a great poet, John Milton, and a great prose writer, John Bunyan.

③Literature in the Puritan Age expressed sadness. Even its brightest hours

were followed by gloom and pessimism.

④John Milton, whose work would glorify any age and people, and in his work

the indomitable（不屈服的）revolutionary spirit found its noblest expression.

For this reason, this period is also called Age of Milton．

⑤The main literary form of the period was poetry. Besides Milton, there were

two other groups of poets, the Metaphysical Poets and the Cavalier Poets.

2. Literature of the Restoration

general characteristics

① a sudden breaking away from old standards

②Restoration literature is deeply influenced by French classical taste. It is a period of French influence.

rimed couplets-blank verse

The unities

A more regular construction

The presentations of types rather than individuals

③restoration comedies

Restoration created a literature of its own that was often witty and clever, but on the whole immoral and cynical. The most popular genre was that of comedy whose chief aim was to entertain the licentious aristocrats. The comedies are coarse in language and their view of the relations between men and women is immoral and dishonest.

④John Dryden (1631-1670)

critic, poet, and playwright

the most distinguished literary figure of the time

(一)John Donne (1573-1631)

I ①The founder of the Metaphysical School and very influential upon modern writers

②a preacher famous for his magnificent sermons at his time

III Major Works

Early works: Songs and Sonnets

( written before 1600, 55 love poems)

The Flea 《跳蚤》

Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star

Woman’s Constancy 《女人的忠贞》

A Valediction : of Weeping《别离辞：哭泣》

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning《别离辞：节哀》

late works: Religious poems and sermons

(二) John Milton(1608-1674)

I status ①A great puritan poet

②his work would glorify any age or people, and in him the indomitable puritan spirit finds the noblest expression.

II Milton’s Works

Three literary periods:

①early period: poems written in Cambridge and at Horton

②middle-aged period: prose pamphlets

Areopagitica(Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed

Printing,1644 )

Eikonoklaste s ( Image Breaker, 1649)

Defense for the English People (1650)

③the period of his old age :great poems

Paradise Lost (1658-1664)

Paradise Regained (1671)

Samson Agonistes (1671)

III Paradise Lost

①status:

?the only great epic since Beowulf

?one of the greatest poems of the English language

②Theme

The theme is ― the fall of man,‖ i.e. man's disobedience and the loss of paradise , with its cause –Satan .

(三) John Bunyan1628—1688

I status

?He received spiritual independence from the Reformation

?the chief Puritan writer of prose

?He gave us the only great allegory ——The Pilgrim’s Progress

II The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)

①It is about Christian’s journey from his hometown ―the city of Destruction‖ to the ―Celestial City‖, and his experi ences and adventures on his journey.

It depicts the pilgrimage of a human soul in search of Salvation.

②It was written in the form of allegory and dream.

③Christian’s journey in 10 stages (scenes)

Slough of Despond

The House of Interpreter

The Hill of Difficulty

House Beautiful

Valley of Humiliation

The valley of the Shadow of Death

Vanity Fair

Doubting Castle

The Delectable Mountains

Celestial City

④vanity fair

?Vanity Fair is one of the most remarkable passages of The Pilgrim’s Progress

?―Vanity‖means ―emptiness‖ or ―worthless‖, hence

?the fair is an allegory of worldliness & the corruption of the religious life through the attractions of the world

?the great critical realist of the 19th century, W. M. Thackeray, employed ―Vanity Fair‖ as the title for his masterpiece that gives a comprehensive satirical picture of the aristocratic bourgeois society of 19th century England

Part VI The 18th century The Age of Enlightenment in England

（the age of reason)

I. Historical background

The Enlightenment

Version 1: p 165-166

II. Literature

1. Neoclassicism

writers

John Dryden(1631-1700)

Alexander Pope(1660-1744)

散文《论批评》An Essay on Criticism

讽刺史诗《夺发记》The Rape of the Lock

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

《英文大词典》A Dictionary of the English Language

2. Essays

?Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

?Richard Steele (1667-1745)

The Tatler

The Spectator

3.modern English novel

Writers

Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) Robinson Crusoe

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling

T. G. Smollet (1721-1771) satirical novels

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) Pamela

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) The Vicar of Wakefield

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) Gulliver's Travels

Lawrence Sterne (1713-1768) Sentimental Journey

Robinson Crusoe was one of the forerunners of the English 18th century realistic novel. But it was Henry fielding and Tobias George Smollet who became the real founders of the genre of the bourgeois realistic novel in England and Europe.

4. Drama

?Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)

She stoops to Conquer

?Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)

the Rivals

the School for Scandal

5. Sentimentalism

Novelists

Samuel Richardson Pamela帕米拉

Laurence Sterne Sentimental Journey

Poets

Thomas Gray (1716-1771) Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) The Deserted Village

George Crabbe (1754-1832) The Village

6 Gothic novel

writers

Horace Walpole (1727-1797)

The Castle of Otranto奥特伦托城堡

Ann Radcliff (1764-1823)

The Mysteries of Udolpho 尤道弗之谜

7. pre-romanticism

the poets

?William Blake (1757-1821)

?Robert Burns (1759-1796)

（一）Daniel Defoe (1661-1731)

works

1.Pamphlet

The Shortest Way with the Dissenters

2. Fiction (picaresque novel)

Robin Crusoe (1719)

Captain Singleton (1720)

Duncan Campbell (1720)

Memoirs of Cavalier (1720)

Colonel Jack (1722)

Moll Flanders (1722)

Journal of the Plague Year (1722)

Account of Jonathan Wild (1725)

The History of the Devil (1726)

（二）Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

I ①A satirist

②The supreme prose master in the first part of the 18th century is Swift. II The works of Swift:

The Battle of the Books书的战争（1704）

A Tale of A Tub一只桶的故事（1704）

The Journal to Stella斯特拉日记（1710-1713）

A Modest Proposal一个温和的建议（1729）

Drapier’s Letters布商的信（1724，1725）

Gulliver’s Travels格列佛游记（1726）

III Gulliver’s Travels

four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver

The first part : Lilliput

The second part: Brobdingnag

The last part: the land of Houyhnhnms

The third part: Laputa

IV A Modest Proposal (1729)

A Modest Proposal is the best and most famous political satire of Swift.

（三）Joseph Addison(1672-1719)

Richard Steele (1672-1729)

1. The Tatler

started by_______

containing: news,gossip,stories and jokes

published ______times a week

_______small pages

run about ______years

2.The Spectator

Published every morning

Containing only familiar essays

form: The spectator was supposed to be edited by a small club run by Mr Spectator, including mainly Sir Roger de Coverley and several others.

Content: comment on books; earnest efforts after reform; Character sketches of sir Roger

3. The purpose

4. the meaning and influence of the T and the S

5. The style of Addison

P 230

6. The literary genre of essay

p228 L7-L13

（四）Henry Fielding(1707-1754)

I chiefly a novelist

then a dramatist

the founder of English realistic novel

― Father of English novel‖

II works

①The History of the Adventure of Joseph Andrews and His Friend Mr. Adams1742《约瑟夫·安德鲁斯》 a parody of Richardson’s Pamela

②Jonathan Wild, the Great 1743《大伟人乔纳森·威尔德传》the story of a rogue

③The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling 1749《弃儿汤姆琼斯的历史》masterpiece

④The History of Amelia 1751《艾米利亚》

（五）Thomas Gray(1716-1771)

Elegy written in a Country Churchyard

①Type: elegy (a somber poem or song that praises or laments the dead)

②Key dates: Gray began writing the poem in 1742, put it aside for a while, and finished it in 1750. He was meticulous: everything he wrote had to be just right. He believed that one imprecise word could ruin an en tire work. Consequently, In ―Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,‖ he labored on until all the words were right

③setting: Churchyard at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire, England. Gray was buried in that churchyard.

④format: four-line stanzas in iambic pentameter.

In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third and the second rhymes with the fourth.

⑤status: one of the greatest poems in the English language.It knits structure, rhyme scheme, imagery and message into a brilliant work that confers on Gray everlasting fame.

⑥school: sentimental poetry

the graveyard school

（六）Oliver Goldsmith(1728-1774)

I ①an Irish Writer

②a representative of Sentimentalism

③One of the most versatile of authors and made distinguished contributions in several literary forms.

II Works

? A novel

The vicar of Wakefield 1761-1762

威克菲尔德的牧师/威克菲牧师传

?comedies

She stoops to Conquer 1773 委曲求全

Good-natured Man 1768 好性情的人

? A series of essays

The Citizen of the World 1762世界公民

?Poems:

The Traveler 1764 旅行者

The Deserted Villiage1770 荒村

（七）Richard Brinsley Sheridan(1751-1816)

I①the most important English playwright of the 18th century.

②His plays, especially The Rivals and The School for Scandal, are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw.

II. Dramas of Sheridan

?The Rivals情敌1775

?The School for Scandal造谣学校1777

The Critic1779

（七）William Blake (1757-1827)

I the most independent and the most original romantic poet The poet of inspiration

The mystic and transcendental poet

The most extraordinary literary genius

II works

1. Poetical Sketches (1783)

a collection of youthful poems.

Joy, laughter, love and harmony are the prevailing notes.

2. Songs of Innocence (1789)

3. Songs of Experience (1794)

III selected reading

（八）Robert Burns（1759-1796）

I①the greatest of Scottish poet

Most of his poems and songs were written in Scotch dialect. Burns had a deep knowledge and an excellent mastery of the old Scotch song tradition.

②a farmer poet.

Burns was a plowman. He came from the people and wrote for the people. He was the people’s poet.

③a pre-romantic poet

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