Sir Gawain
【答案】英国文学史及选读unite2课后习题答案.docx
【答案】英国文学史及选读unite2课后习题答案.docxUnit twoAnglo-Norman Period1066~13501.In the year 1066, the Norman defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the battle of_____________Hastings______.The most prevailing kind of literature in feudal England was _the romance_____ _____. It was a long composition , sometimes in _prose _____, some times in _verse _____, describing the life and adventures of _a noble hero______.2.The most popular theme of English literature in the 11~14th century is______.The legend of King Arther and his round table knight3.William Langland's "_the vision of_Piers the Plowman__" is written in the form of aq dream vision.4.What is the influence of the Norman Conquest upon English language and literature?European ideals and customs were introduced into England.Languages mixed.Literature was varied in interest and extensive in range. Romance.5.Make comments on the romance " Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English: Sir Gawayn and te Grene Kny?t) is a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance. It is one of the best known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folklore motifs, the beheading gameand the exchange of winnings. The Green Knight is interpreted by some as a representation of the Green Man of folklore and by others as an allusion to Christ. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel,[1] it draws on Welsh, Irish, and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important poem in the romance genre, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess, and it remains popular to this day in modern English renderings from J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage, and others, as well as through film and stage adaptations.It describes how Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious "Green Knight" who challenges any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheads him with his blow, at which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his head, and reminds Gawain of the appointed time. In his struggles to keep his bargain, Gawain demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honour is called into question by a test involving Lady Bertilak, the lady of the Green Knight's castle.The poem survives in a single manuscript, the Cotton Nero A.x., which also includes three religious narrative poems: Pearl, Purity and Patience. All are thought to have been written by the same unknown author, dubbed the "Pearl Poet" or "Gawain Poet", since all three are written in a North West Midland dialect of Middle English.[2][3]。
第二章：中世纪英语文学
If the epic reflects a heroic age, the romance reflects a chivalric one. Most of the English romances deal with three major themes: a) “the Matter of Britain” — about the Arthurian legend b) “the Matter of France” — about stories concerning Charlemagne and his knights c) “the Matter of Rome” —about tales of antiquity, from the Trojan war to the feats of Alexander the Great
By the end of 14th century, when Normans and English intermingled, English was once more the dominant speech in the country. But by then the English language had already been totally different from Old English, for in the three centuries after 1066 the language had undergone gradual but radical and extensive changes, as not only were borrowed in the course of time thousands of words from French and through French from Latin and also Greek, but many old inflectional forms of native English words had been dropped and formal grammar of the past had become considerably simplified. e.g. Words from Latin: angel/ monk/ pope/ candle English: calf swine (old use or lit, pig) sheep build ask wet French: veal pork mutton construct inquire humid The English language in this transitional stage from Old English to modern English, through some four centuries (from 12th to 15th) of development and change, has generally been known as Middle English.
英语专业英国文学史Sir Gawain and the GreenKnight
Climax
• Gawain meets the Green Knight at the Green Chapel. After faking his first two swings, the Green Knight nicks Gawain on his third swing, only slightly cutting his neck.
The matter of Britain: Arthurian legends, Sir Gawain, Launcelot, Merlin, the quest for the Holy Grail, the death of King Arthur.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Green Knight
Sir Gawain’s main opposition in the story. He is a richly decorated knight, who has green skin and hair.
King Arthur
The king of Camelot. Uncle of Sir Gawain. It is at his celebration feast that the Green Knight challenges the court to a game.
Historical Background
• Churches: political power & religious authority
• Conflicts: serfs and the peasants against feudal lords
• Languages: Latin, French and English
On Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
On Sir Gawain and the Green KnightIntroduction: Observations on Heroic Quest NarrativesBy this point in Liberal Studies you should be well equipped to recognize the main narrative features of a story like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, because they bear an obvious resemblance to other stories we have read together, especially to Gilgamesh and the Odyssey, stories which involve a heroic journey away from the community into uncharted territory, where the hero experiences a range of unusual experiences not available within the community, followed by a return back to where his adventures started.A major source of the appeal of such stories (if well presented) is obvious enough—they take the reader into fascinating places, provide a rapid and varied succession of adventures, and permit the poet considerable freedom to explore many imaginative possibilities. And a good deal of the pleasure we derive from reading this book emerges from our delight in the details of the strange places the hero explores and the way he is forced to cope with many unexpected events in places where the customary rules by which his normal society functions simply don't operate (the same will be true for two other very different but similarly structured books we read later—Dante's Inferno and Swift's Gulliver's Travels).But such a narrative structure frequently also brings into play important thematic concerns, because the hero undertaking the journey takes with him his own character, his own social, physical, intellectual and moral resources which are inevitably put to the test in various encounters, so that the adventures also enable us (as readers) to appreciate the importance of his different qualities—his courage, ingenuity, restraint, powers of endurance, self-confidence, and so on, those features of his character which we usually sum up with the word virtue. In that sense, such quest narratives are almost always a exploration of human virtue—not just as the presentation of aparticular character but also as a study of what it might mean to be a virtuous person.This exploration may be (in fact, often is) a celebration of the heroic virtues manifested in the hero (as in The Odyssey, for example), but it may also involve a growing awareness in the reader and perhaps in the hero himse lf of some important inadequacy with or limitation to his heroic virtue. Hence, the heroic figure may himself become a vehicle for a critique or a satire of his own virtues.Some of the most thematically interesting heroic quest stories are often those in which the heroic character learns something about himself, so that he returns home significantly different from what he was when he set out. The opportunities for such learning obviously present themselves in an intense way because typically the hero is alone and in unfamiliar territory outside the normal civilization to which he is accustomed, without the support of a status group of peers who can reinforce the traditional codes (even if, like Odysseus or Gulliver, he starts with a group of comrades, in many cases these people will disappear). Hence, the hero has to come to grips with his own character in a unique manner—his inner commitment to the values he believes in is challenged repeatedly and he becomes aware of them in a new way. For obvious reason, a hero's failure to benefit from opportunities to learn about himself in such experiences—or (as I shall argue about Sir Gawain) his willed refusal to acknowledge an opportunity to learn—also can carry important thematic weight.If the hero does learn something important, if he changes in some way, then almost inevitably a major thematic point of the story is going to be nature of the change in the hero's virtue: What has he learned? How has that changed him? Why is that change significant? This issue of the education of the hero through the experiences of the journey bears the major weight of the ending of Gulliver's Travels, for example, since Gulliver has become totallytransformed from the man who set out on his first voyage—and however we assess the ending of his fourth voyage (and the significance of the entire book), we have to address that transformation. Gilgamesh also learns important things about life and about himself on his quest, and so perhaps does Odysseus (although in his case that transformation may not be so clear). If the hero fails to learn in circumstances where we sense he should have learned something important, then the poem may offer something of a critical insight into some important limitation in the heroic virtues, both in the hero and the society to which he returns.Such heroic quest narratives do not usually end with the hero's return home but with the reaction of his society to his return and with his reaction to that society (which he may now be equipped to see with new eyes). Such a reaction is particularly important if the hero has changed significantly, because then we witness something of a clash between what that society believes about itself (its faith in its own virtues) and someone who has, through his own personal experiences, come to something of a new understanding of those virtues (this, of course, is a central point in Plato's Allegory of the Cave). This clash may be minor, and the hero may quickly readjust to normal life once more, or the clash may create major difficulties, since the hero has great trouble going back to a normal life, now that he has come to a different understanding of himself and his society. In either case, the ending of the heroic quest narrative invites us to make some final reflections on how the people in that society's understand themselves and their value system.This social dimension to the heroic quest narrative is particularly evident in those stories in which the hero is clearly established as the finest example of the virtues the society admires and has a high rank in that society (like Odysseus or Gilgamesh), because then he doesn't carry out into the wilderness simply his own character, his own virtue. He brings with him the faith of an entire people. In a sense, the adequacy of their faith in the systemhe represents is on trial in his personal adventures. In such a case, the story can have interesting political ramifications (either as a celebration or a critique of existing political systems) for a society in which the basis of political order and social justice is the virtue of the ruler (so that the just use of the power he possesses depends upon the qualities of his character). It's no wonder that celebratory heroic quest narratives are so popular among aristocratic political orders eager to promote a traditional faith in the virtue of its leaders and ironic quest narratives popular among those who wish to offer a critique of the values in such a social order).One other thematic concern typically raised by these heroic quest narratives (and an obviously important feature of Sir Gawain) is the relationship between the civilized social group and the wilderness beyond the city or castle walls. For the hero's journey almost always takes him beyond those walls into the woods, mountains, seas, or desert—into nature untamed by the rules, habits, customs, and so on of society—and thus forms the basis for a vision of nature (in contrast to the world of the city or court). In fact, the main character's status as a hero often depends upon his willingness to undertake such a journey beyond the walls of civilization (into a world most people within those walls never have to confront). Such a vision, of course, may serve to highlight the importance of certain social values (and of those who exemplify them best), as in The Odyssey or Robinson Crusoe, or it may serve to direct critical or satirical insights into the limitations of certain social arrangements, as in Gulliver's Travels or Huckleberry Finn, or it may do both.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a Heroic Quest NarrativeAs I mentioned at the outset, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight clearly falls into this narrative pattern. The story begins with Gawain in his normal social environment, and he is quickly established as a pre-eminent member of that aristocratic elite. The poem explicitly and repetitively identifies theparticular qualities which define his virtues. Once his journey begins, these qualities are put to the test again and again, and Sir Gawain consistently demonstrates his excellence (I'll have more to say about these qualities later), until near the end.Gawain's double failure to honour the rules of the game between him and his host and to take the axe blow without flinching expose the limits of his virtue and teach him something important about himself. He brings this knowledge back to Camelot, shares it with his fellow knights, and is re-integrated into Round Table, so that the poem seems to end with the society we saw when we started. But, as I shall mention in a little while, we may need to look at this ending carefully, to see if we can determine just how the ironies latent in this return and the society's response to Gawain might serve to undercut the celebration of the hero's virtues.Given this overall structure to the narrative, I propose to explore the story sequentially, considering, first, the nature of Gawain's society as we see it at the start of the poem, second, the testing of the hero through that part of the story until he reaches Bertilak's castle, third, the testing which goes on in the castle, fourth, Gawain's failure to live up to the highest standards of his virtue, and, finally, the return. I don't want this to be a re-hash of the story, but such a chronological approach seems to make sense here (as in other similar narratives).Arthur's CourtThe poem opens by holding up Arthur's court as a place of the highest honour, not simply in Britain or at a particular period, but through world history. The opening link to the Trojan War may be a conventional narrative device, but it serves to link the heroic life here with the greatest classical models. And the opening description invites us to see Arthur's celebrations, not merely as appropriate to the holiest day of the Christian year, but also asa manifestation of his court's wealth, magnificence, joy, and civility. It is a symbolic evocation of a happy, rich, and well-ordered society, governed by a shared sense of joy in the season, material well being, spiritual discipline, and hierarchical rank—all this is stressed at the very outset (above all by the repetitive insistence on communal feasting and the attendant celebrations).But there's an interesting hint of something amiss. Amid the sophisticated joy, fine manners, abundant food, and general merriment, Arthur seems bored. He has no appetite for the feast and requires something more, some reminder of danger, of something beyond the careful social rituals of an abundant civilized life:His noble announcement that he never would eatOn such a fair feast-day till informed in fullOf some unusual adventure, as yet untold,Of some momentous marvel that he might believe,About ancestors, or arms, or other high theme;Or till a stranger should seek out a strong knight of his,To join with him in jousting, in jeopardy to layLife against life, each allowing the otherThe favour of Fortune, the fairer lot.Arthur craves novelty, the sharp edge of new experience, the reminder (or the experience) of something less predictable and well ordered than the world of his royal court, something that will give him an appetite to enjoy its most important social-religious ritual—without that, he cannot enjoy himself fully, his zest for living is depleted.His desire is answered, of course, by the sudden arrival of the Green Knight himself, who in contravention of any accepted social rules, simply bursts into the room on horseback, issues his challenge, taunts Arthur into a reply,offers them all the sight of his own marvellous beheading and departure, and, in the process, gives Arthur a hearty appetite, so he can now enjoy the feast.It strikes me that this connection between Arthur's dissatisfaction in the midst of his civilized abundance and the Green Knight's initial entry is worth exploring for a moment, because it may point to some useful ways we might like to interpret the precise significance of the Green Knight.The Green KnightCommentary on Sir Gawain (to judge from the relatively little I have read) often seems to spend a disproportionate amount of time linking our understanding of the Green Knight with, for example, references to castration complexes, pagan nature rituals, various literary ancestors, and so on. Such studies, no matter how interesting, may well over-complicate the issue. I'm not sure that diverting our attention away from the poem into such material is all that necessary, for the poem itself surely makes clear the importance of the Green Knight, especially if we see him as some sort of answer to Arthur's dissatisfaction.The most obvious qualities of the Green Knight are the most important—he is huge, powerful, marvellous to behold, and green. And, on his initial entry, he has little respect for polite civility. He barges in, issues a challenge, and taunts Arthur and Gawain into a response. He is thus, first and foremost, an invading force, a foreign intruder into the sophisticated world of the Round Table—something uncivilized from beyond their immediate experience, something from the world beyond Camelot which the normal procedures and institutions of that society do not acknowledge or know about. We can, taking our cue from the intruder's colour, associate that "something" with the raw forces of nature (that seems obvious enough) or with the mysterious wilderness beyond the control of civilized manners and experience ("a phantom from Fairyland").What's particularly interesting here is the reception he gets. Rather than being upset at the intrusion or with the bold, uncivil challenge (although the Green Knight's opening speech is civil enough, he quickly moves to a mo re contemptuous attitude when his challenge is not at once accepted), Arthur welcomes it (he "sensed an exploit") as something that will break the routine of the Round Table, will provide something new, something invigorating and strange.Near the end of the poem, we learn that the Green Knight has been sent by the witch Morgan the Fay, Arthur's half sister, who has a very hostile attitude to Arthur's court, especially to Guinevere, whom she wants to scare to death. This fact might suggest that the Green Knight is some diabolical agent hostile to the civilized world of the Round Table and that the world of Morgan the Fay and her brother Arthur are locked into some permanent enmity. That may be so. But, given the effect of the Green Knight on Arthur and the later events in the poem, I prefer to see the Green Knight (and the actions of Morgan the Fay which prompt his invasion of the court) as something necessary, as something healthy—a recurring way of holding at bay (or slowing down) the inevitable decay of an overly sophisticated society which is degenerating into a state where it has lost contact with nature and is failing to understand the limitations of its own most cherished beliefs. More about this later.The Testing of Sir GawainArthur, of course, is prevented from taking up the Green Knight's challenge personally by Gawain's offer to respond to the Green Knight, and from this point on, the central issue in the story is the testing of Gawain's virtue: Has he a sufficiently noble character to live up to the conditions of the agreement he has entered into?The poem explicitly describes for us the particular qualities which are on trial, for Gawain carries out into the wilderness the symbols of his virtue—the pentangle on the outside of his shield (in gold)—a figure indicating the seamless interlocking of his spiritual, intellectual, and social virtues—and the picture of Mary on the inside. These establish Gawain's virtues as pre-eminently those of a Christian knight—especially his commitment to piety.Now, what's interesting about the testing of Gawain is that certain elements are emphasized above the rest. For example, the story provides very little detail about the physical obstacles he encounters and the qualities he requires in order to deal with them. We learn, in a very interesting but relatively short part of the poem (Sections 30 to 32), about all the hardships he faces while on his journey, but the poet does not linger here over any potentially amusing or thrilling encounter—he simply mentions how Gawain copes with the intense loneliness, bitter weather, and hostile animals and monsters by an concentrated spiritual commitment which does not waver.The Seduction of GawainThe first really difficult test occurs in Bertilak's castle with the actions of Lady Bertilak in her attempts to seduce him—something to which the poet gives unusual prominence. Here Gawain's stout faith in Mary faces a challenge apparently much more difficult for him to cope with than ogres, wild beasts, and nasty Welsh winters. The events are, of course, very amusing, but is there a more important point being made here?If Gawain were nothing more than the knight of the Pentangle, the fullest embodiments of all the virtues summed up in that symbol, these scenes would never have taken place—for his interest in the lady and his commitment to her company would not have been sufficient to keep him inthat compromising situation where his erotic feelings get engaged so quickly.The difficulty stems from Gawain's commitment to Courtly Love, from the expectations that he, as a knight of the Round Table, has a duty to "courtesy," to engage in a complex linguistic convention of love, in which erotic urges are translated into a vocabulary of flirtation with only occasional physical actions (like kissing)—in which, that is, the most basic natural urges are sublimated into sophisticated courtship rituals. Such a requirement is much harder to put into practice than the simple devotion of a faith in Mary, Mother of God, since there are no simple rules for negotiating one's way between preserving one's chastity and offending the lady. The obligations to his host Bertilak require Gawain to respect his wife—and that means he must not commit adultery with her but also that he must participate in the courtship-seduction game without offending her. The sophisticated artificiality of Gawain's position, especially the language he has to use in order to deal with the issue (for language is his only defence here) is naturally very funny, because, in a way, the scene is absurd. And that absurdity may well be part of the point (perhaps), if we want to see in the poem some sort of attack on courtly love as part of the knightly code of honour.Let me linger on this point a moment, because how we interpret it will affect our understanding of what follows. The lady is appealing to Gawain's most powerful human instincts in contravention of accepted social practice (adultery), and he is responding by carrying out the linguistic ritual his social ideals require, while at the same time experiencing a sense of the lady's obvious attractions (he finds her more appealing than Guinevere, who sets the standard for civilized beauty in Arthur's court). The tension may be amusing, but it's real enough—for what Gawain's faith requires him to do is to be linguistically erotic (flirt and kiss), but abstain from anything morephysical. His artificial language, that is, must contain and restrain his human urges (either to flee or to have sex with the lady).So it's interesting to ask ourselves what we find amusing about this scene, other than its immediate human drama. One definite possibility is that we are laughing at the absurd contradictions in the ideals Gawain is striving to live up to. And this we might construe in at least two different ways: we might see the Courtly Love convention as amusingly incompatible with Christian vows of chastity and their combination in the knightly ideal as an inherently unnatural displacement of powerful feelings into conventional and highly artificial words, or we might (following Gawain's response near the end of the poem) simply blame the lady as one more manifestation of the inherently uncivilized behaviour of lecherous women who cannot leave noble knights alone but have to get them to break their faith in order to satisfy their sexual feelings (which they, unlike the knight, make little attempt to control) or act out their diabolical wishes.At any event, the lady fails to seduce Gawain. Or does she? The fact that he does finally agree to take her "girdle" suggests that she has awoken in him sufficient erotic desire for life that he is prepared to deceive Bertilak (by not telling him of the gift) and to accept Lady Bertilak's girdle (a symbol of her sexuality) as the token he will take into the encounter with the Green Knight. For it's made clear to us that Gawain does not accept the girdle out of politeness or courtesy, and he does not put it on because it looks good or is valuable or because he harbours any special feelings for Lady Bertilak. He puts it on because he wants to save his life. At this point, he has a priority higher than living up to the virtues on the Pentangle or the image of Mary on the back of his shield. And that priority has come to him as a result of his experiences with Lady Bertilak, which, while they may not have satisfied her erotic desires, certainly aroused his.There is thus a direct link between the seduction of Gawain and his flinching at the Green Knight's blow (his second failure to live up to his own standard)—in both cases Gawain acknowledges (once voluntarily and once involuntarily) an attachment to something beyond his piety, over and above his civilized virtues—a fundamental and irrational desire to live, even at the expense of contravening his honour.The Green Knight recognizes this response of Gawain's as something entirely natural and understandable. It may constitute a breach of the knightly code Gawain strives to uphold, but in the Green Knight's eyes, that is no reason for special reproach:But here your faith failed you, you flagged somewhat, sirYet it was not for a well-wrought thing, nor for wooing either,But for love of your life, which is less blameworthy.What the Green Knight seems to be concerned with, however, is that Gawain learn from the experience—he has the scar from the third blow and the girdle to remind him of the limits to his faith, of something his own conduct has revealed as more fundamental and important to him than the virtues he carried out with him at the start of his quest. That, indeed, seems to be the Green Knight's main concern and the basis of his good-humoured politeness to Gawain after the beheading ritual.What's particularly interesting here is Gawain's reaction (or over-reaction) to his own failure. He is overwhelmed with shame. Instead of seeing his response in the same way the Green Knight does, he turns against himself with an intense bitterness. Throwing away the girdle, he cries out:Lo! There is the false thing, foul fortune befall it!I was craven about our encounter, and cowardice taught meTo accord with covetousness and corrupt my natureAnd the liberality and loyalty belonging to chivalry.There's a sense here that, in his first response, he has failed to listen to what the Green Knight has been telling him about the point of the entire exercise. In taking the girdle and flinching, Gawain is responding to his nature, not corrupting it. The fact that he sees those reactions as corruption raises some interesting questions, not just about Gawain, but also about the "liberality and loyalty belonging to chivalry"—just how life affirming are these if they encourage in Gawain that sort of response?Such questions become all the more prominent once Gawain displaces his anger at himself onto women in general—seeking to excuse himself by an appeal to the inherently duplicitous nature of women. Some commentators on the poem seem to take this as a standard example of the long tradition of misogyny on the part of the poet. Well, maybe. But it strikes me, given the context of the speech, that this reflex response to his own failure is far more an indication of Gawain's failure to learn from the experience he has been through. He's defending himself from having to grapple with how his own behaviour may have exposed some deficiencies or unnatural requirements of the chivalric code he so desperately wants to live up to.The fact that this diatribe against women begins with a peremptory dismissal of Bertilak's invitation to Gawain to return to the castle, reacquaint himself with Lady Bertilak, and sort things out in a new spirit of accord is also important. What Bertilak is offering here is an interesting possibility for Gawain to explore the complexities of what he has been through and to learn from it, to make, if you like, the personal acquaintance of Morgan the Fay and her agents and thus extend his understanding of the world, himself, and his own culture. Gawain's reaction is, as I've already said, defensive in the extreme: he wants no more intercourse (social or otherwise) which a world which has taught him his own limits.Gawain's ReturnIt's true Gawain keeps the girdle. But, in doing so, he neutralizes the most important thing it might serve to remind him of. He's going to keep it to remind him of his sin, of "the fault and faintheartedness of the perverse flesh/ How it tends to attract tarnishing sin"—he wants to transform the girdle from a reminder of the importance of life into a reminder of his own sin. And, of course, even that doesn't last, because once Arthur's sophisticated court gets a hold of the girdle, it turns it into a decoration honouring Gawain—without any critical sense of how the complete story of the girdle might challenge the adequacy of the code of the Round Table. A vital insight into Nature is here transformed into mere fashion.Arthur's court, in other words, appropriates the girdle for its own decorative purposes—without delving into what it might really have to reveal— just as it takes reminders of the wildness of nature (e.g., wild animals) and turns them into gorgeous clothing or rich banquets. Here there is an interesting contrast between Bertilak's court and Arthur's, for in Bertilak's court, the hunting is a vital part of the life of everyone, not merely as a vital social activity in which everyone participates, but as a common source of food for lord, servant, and domestic animals. The lengthy description of the treatment of the dead deer, for example, is more than just a fascinating description of a procedure. It is also a social activity in which an entire social group acts together for their mutual benefit in traditional and acknowledged roles in order to explore nature with the hunt, find what the human community needs, bring it back to the court, process it appropriately, and celebrate their success. No one in such an arrangement lacks an appetite.In Arthur's court, by contrast, there's very little sense that much goes on other than the consumption of rich goods by the aristocratic elite in a sophisticated society far removed from the natural origin of the living energies from which everything emerges, the wilderness. No wonder Arthur seems bored at the start of the poem, and no wonder the women in Bertilak's court are so much more important and vital than the women in Camelot (as。
高中英语《Sir Gawain and the Green Knight》优质课教案、教学设计
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight教学设计主题语境:“人与社会”主题群中的主题群“文学、艺术与体育”话题：文学适用对象：高二学生教材分析：本文是根据一首诗歌改编的故事,取自北师大版高中英语必修模块五Literature Spot。
本文篇幅较短，但情节奇特、引人入胜：主要主人公高文爵士勇敢接受生死挑战、抵御贵妇诱惑、守诺引颈直面斧头、含愧回到亚瑟王宫几个场景组成。
其中，对高文爵士抵御贵妇诱惑这一场景的描述只是只言片语，为了引导学生更好的理解并归纳高文爵士抵御美色诱惑这一品质，教师在教学过程中补充了对这一场景描述的两个段落，使主人公高文爵士的形象更为多面化、更为立体。
本课根据教学内容，引导学生了解主要故事情节，分析人物品质，并从文学角度--背景，探讨文章中骑士精神在当时社会所代表的内涵。
学情分析：本次授课对象为高二学生，经过高中一年的学习，他们已经能读懂简单读物、报刊、杂志，基本能理解大意；能根据阅读目的运用适当的阅读策略，逐渐形成用英语获取信息、处理信息、分析问题和解决问题的能力；具有明确的英语学习动机和积极主动的学习态度；已具备较好的小组合作意识，上课勇于回答问题，思维活跃，敢于张嘴说英语，进一步确保了各个环节的完成，实现学习目标。
课标分析：（一）主题语境“人与社会”主题群中的主题群“文学、艺术与体育”。
(二)语篇类型选修I 2. 记叙文，如：小说、科幻故事、幽默故事等。
具体解读“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”是一篇小说的概要，通过了解主要故事情节，分析骑士具备的品质，并总结这本小说所承载的文化意义。
（三）语言知识1.词汇知识必修3. 在语境中，根据不同主题，运用词汇给相关事物命名、进行指称、描述行为、过程和特征、说明概念等；具体解读根据上下文，使用brave、honest、temptation 等词描述骑士Sir Gawain 的品质。
罗经国版《新编英国文学选读》笔记
羅經國《新編英國文學選讀第二版》自製筆記1. 盎格魯撒克遜時期钱俊@ 2009/8/23 13:08 阅读(291) 无评论推荐值(0)引用通告分类: 學習筆記羅經國《新編英國文學選讀第二版》自製筆記1. Chapter One The Anglo-Saxon Period (450 —— 1066) 1. Historical backgroundThe Celts 〉the Brythons.The Iron Age.The ceremonies of May Day and the cult of mistletoe.From 55 BC to 407 AD, the Roman Empire, a slave society.London was founded.Little influence on the cultural life of the Celts,Town with names ending in “chester” or “caster”.De Bello Gallico by Julius Caesar and Germania by Publius Cornelius Tacitus450 AD, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.“angul” means a hook; “seax” means a short sword.Around 500 AD, the Celtic King Arthur fought against Cerdic, the founder of the kingdom of Wessex. Camelot, King Arthur’s capital.Later 8th, the Danes, or the Vikings.King Alfred the Great of Wessex (849-899)Harold, the last Saxon King 〉William the Duke of Normandy.597, Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine to England and the first converted king was King Ethelbert of Kent.2. Northumbrian School and Wessex literature——two highlights in the development of the Anglo-Saxon literature.Monasteries and abbeys in the kingdom of Northumbria.Caedmon in the 7th turned the stories in the Bible into verse form ——Paraphrase. Inspired by God.The Venerable Bede (673-735), wrote in Latin The Ecclesiastical History of the English People from Caesar to 731. It was Bede who told about the story of Caedmon.The reign of King Alfred (871-899)First, Latin books into West Saxon dialect. It is said that King Alfred translated the history of Bede.Second, the launching of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from Caesar’s conquest to 1154.Third, created a style of Anglo-Saxon prose which was not obscure.3. Anglo-Saxon poetryThe earliest is Widsith and the last is Maldon.BeowulfAs early as the 6th in oral formWritten down in the 8th.The manuscript preserved dates back to the 10th and in Wessex dialect.One datable fact in the poem is a raid on the Franks by Gelac in 520.3183 lines.Danish King Hrothgar built a hall called Heorot.Grendel for 12 years.Beowulf, nephew to King Hygelac of the Geats. With 14 companions.Hrothgar's friend Aeschere killed by Grendel's mother.Killing Grendel’s mother with a magic sword in the cave.One of the 12 companions, Wiglaf, helped Beowulf kill the dragon.Physical strength demonstrates his high spiritual qualities.A mixture of paganism and Christian elements.Old English Poetry:1. The technical structure:1)Every line consists of two clearly separated half lines betweenwhich is a caesura. The two parts of the line are united byalliteration, a form of initial rhyme, which is the repetition of the same sound or sounds at the beginning of two or more words that are next to or close to each other.2)Every half line consists of two feet and each foot is made up ofan accented syllable and a varying number of unaccented syllables.3)Generally there are 3 alliterations per line, two in the first halfline and one on the first foot of the second half line.2. The scop also used a figurative language called “kenning”, a metaphor usually composed of two words, which becomes the formula of a special object: “helmet bearer” for “warrior.”3. The use of repetition and variation. Same idea expressed more than once by synonyms.2. Chapter Two The Norman Period (1066-1350)1. Historical background1066, the battle of HastingsThe Normans, also descendants of Scandinavian marauders, having seized a wide part of northern France.Accelerated the feudalism in England.Large tracts of land by the king, barons, knights and the church.A peasant uprising in 1381.2. Middle EnglishFor 3 centuries after the Norman conquest, two languages were used side by side in England: Latin and French.Words and expressions from Latin and French and Greek in the 14th.Inflectional forms dropped and grammar simplified.3. Religious literatureThe issue of personal salvation.Moral and spiritual responsibilities of individual rather than his ethical and social responsibilities.Conventional theme: homiletic paraphrases of the Gospels4. Romance and the influence of French literatureThrough French literature the introduction of Italian literature.Chief breeding ground was the aristocratic society in France in the 12th and early 13th and was introduced into England in the second half of the 13th and the 14th.In subject matters, romance naturally falls under three categories.1) The matter of France: the exploits of Charlemagne the Great and Roland,a national hero in the 8th, Chanson de Roland.2) The matter of Rome: Alexander the Great and the siege of Troy.3) The matter of Britain: the Arthurian legend, Sir Gawain, Launcelot, Merlin, the Holy Grail, the death of King Arthur.Sir Gawain and the Green KnightWritten about 1375-1400.About 2500 lines.Four “fyttes”.Green ChapelFirst day, a deer; second day, a boar; the third day a fox. A girdle. —〉the Order of GarterA true knight should not only dedicate himself to the church but also should possess the virtues of great courage, of fidelity to his promise, and of physical chastity and purity.It contained several element which prepared for a new culture.A vivid portrayal of the hero and a fine analysis of his psychology.A well unified and exciting plot full of climaxes and surprises.The three hunting scenes and the three bedchamber scenes are closely related with each other.A mixture of Anglo-Saxon poetry, the musical effect of which depends on the alliterated initial syllables and French poetry, the musical effect of which depends on the fixed number of accented and unaccented syllables in a verse line. Paragraphs of long alliterative lines of varying length are followed by a single line of two syllables, called “the bob”, and a group of four-stressed lines called “the wheel”, i.e., a set of short lines forming the concluding part of a stanza.3. Chapter Three The Age of Chaucer (1350-1400) Historical backgroundChaucer and William Langland (1330?-1400?) and the writer of Sir Gawain were contemporaries.But he deserves a period of his own.Two historical events which their influence can be detected in the writings of Chaucer and Langland: The Hundred Years’ War from the reign of Edward III (1327-1377) to the reign of Henry VI (1421-1471), or from 1337-1453; the peasant uprising of 1381, the reign of King Richard II.The Hundred Years’ War for the French throne.The first seven English kings were in fact living in France.Starting from King Henry III, England became the principal concern of the English kings.An awakening of national consciousness in England. No longer vassals to the French but claimed that they had the right to succeed the French throne. And the French language was gradually replaced by the native tongue.Peasant uprising. John Ball: “When Adam delved and Eve span / Who was then the gentlemen?”From Kent to London under the leadership of Wat Tyler.William Langland and another writer John Wycliff (1324?-1384) expressed people’s hatred for the church and the government.John Wycliff (1324?-1384)One of the first figures who demanded to reform the church.Translated the Bible into standard English. Fixed a national standard for English prose to replace various dialects. Father of English prose.Many pamphlets in Latin to attack the feudal lords and the church. Opposed to the claim of the Pope to the English throne. Civil authority had the right to deprive the church of the property if it proved unworthy of people’s trust. The views were taken over by the peasants in their uprising.William Langland (1330?-1400?)Piers Plowman, or The Vision of Piers Plowman, another alliterative poem besides Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Giving a realistic picture of the 14th century England.The form of allegory, a story or description in which the characters and events symbolize some deeper underlying meaning, and serve to spread moral teaching. An allegory has a double meaning. A primary or surface meaning, and a secondary meaning, or underlying meaning. In an allegory, abstract qualities or ideas, such as patience, purity or truth, are personified as characters in the story.The visions the poet had on a May morning.A high tower ——TruthA deep dungeon ——the Father of FalsenessPeople from all walks of life, laymen and religious people.Gluttony.Lady Meed (bribery) to be married to Falseness but protested by Theology. The king proposed to marry her to Conscience but failed. Meed is expelled and Conscience and Reason become king’s counsellers.Conscience preaching to the people and Repentance moving their hearts, including the Seven Deadly Sins.People came to seek for truth but no one knows the way. Then Piers Plowman appears. This episode suggests that man should do the task that falls to his lot.Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1340-1400)Born in a wine merchant family with rising fortunes.Grew up in London.1357, a page at court.1359, joined the army in the Hundred Year’s War and was taken prisoner. 1360, returned to England and married a maid of honour of the queen. For the next ten years in the Continent on diplomatic missions.1382, Controller of Customs at the port of London.1386, PM from KentJohn of Gaunt(Duke of Lancaster. 1340-1399. English soldier. The fourth son of Edward III, he ruled England during his father's last years and in the beginning of Richard II's reign.) as his patron.〉A great variety of occupations and experiences as well as close observation of life made him familiar with the lives of various classes. Died on Oct 25, 1400, the Poet’s Corner in WestminsterAbbey.Works divided into 3 periods, corresponding to the 3 periods of his life.(1) 1360-1372, wrote under the influence of the French literature, even translated French poems himself. Poem The Book of the Duchess, much of conventional romance elements in it.(2) 1372-1386, under the influence of the Italian literature. Troilus and Cryseyde, adapted from a long poem by Boccaccio, the writer of The Decameron. The Parliament of Fowls and The House of Fame.(3) the last 15 years of his life. The Canterbury Tales between 1387 and 1400. A general prologue and 24 tales that are connected by “links”. Tarbard Inn. 29 pilgrims to St. Thomas Beckett’s tomb at Canterbur y.The host is Harry Bailey. Expected to tell 120 tales, i.e. each person tells 4 tales.The significance of The Canterbury Tales(1). A comprehensive picture of Chaucer’s time. The gentle class; the burgher class, the wife of Bath included, who has married five times; the professionals. All persons connected with the church are drown with touches of gentle irony and mild satire, with the exception of the poor parson. His satire can be the bitterest in the portrayal of the pardoner and the summoner. In this sense Chaucer himself is “the smyler with the knyf under the cloke.”Each character not only a representative of his or her class but also has an individual character of their own.(2). The dramatic structure of the poem has been highly commended by critics. Unlike The Decameron, it is cleverly woven together by links between the stories. Most of the stories are related to the personalities of the tellers, the personalities of each character, his or her private life and habits, his or her mood and social status are revealed in the prologue and in the story he or she tells, as well as by their behaviour along the road and their remarks on the way.Most important is the part played by the host Harry Hailey.(3). Chaucer’s humour: a characteristic feature of the English literature.(4). Contribution to the English language: wrote in the London dialect of his day. He was at one moment serious and another light-hearted and full of fun and sometimes he could be very poetical. He proved that the English language is a beautiful language can be easily handled to express different moods.In doing so Greatly increase the prestige of the English language.PS: 文中的《十日談》作者意大利作家薄伽丘用的單詞是“Boccacio”，但是維基百科和朗文當代英語詞典查詢出的都是“Boccaccio”。
英国文学简史&美国文学简史--背诵版
1. Beowulf赏析英国现存最早、最完整的民族史诗。
1反映当时部落社会的面貌。
背景取自欧洲。
2古Anglo-Saxon人崇拜英雄的部落文化。
政治观点：“王”，权利来自武力，王权的继承还需要仁义。
3历史事实+神话传说。
主人公Beowulf英勇顽强。
自我牺牲精神。
爱护臣民。
有责任感。
简洁明快。
头韵。
隐喻：用复合词来比喻某种事物或现象。
2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight赏析传奇文学是贵族人生理想的反映，与平民百姓没有丝毫的关系。
头韵诗。
2个主题：1砍头游戏检验Gawain的勇敢和信守诺言。
2女主人的诱惑检验Gawain的诚实和忠贞。
以重读音节为基础的韵律。
每一个stanza后面有一个只有一个重读音节的短促诗句，再加一个abab韵的4行诗节。
语言朴素自然，流畅通顺。
反映出Norman征服的宗教影响：基督教成统治地位。
Gawain是基督徒，拥有人的弱点。
他在困境中祈求圣母玛利亚的帮助，又因死亡的威胁而背弃诺言。
他身上有亚当的影子，原罪的概念。
3. Chaucer特点“英国诗歌之父”。
人文主义。
现实主义。
明快、诙谐。
伦敦方言创作。
首创heroic couplet。
钟情于中世纪的文学形式。
第一个用韵脚韵律诗，以重音-音节为基础的格律诗。
一方面用贵族式的理想眼光看待生活。
一方面又以现实的态度思考。
1法国影响时期—2意大利影响时期—3成熟时期强调人权，今生今世幸福快乐的权利，反对神权与禁欲主义。
反对滥用宗教教义。
人物：个人与社会关系的主题。
突出人物之间性格冲突和物质利益矛盾。
幽默讽刺地描写了新兴资产阶级所反感的阶级出身问题。
人物形象是立体的，有独特的气质和性格。
押尾韵。
八音节对偶句（octosyllabic couplet），iambic pentameter的heroic couplet。
4. Canterbury Tales赏析现实主义。
但未能摆脱中世纪的偏见。
轻松、欢快文艺复兴的先驱。
高文爵士和绿衣骑士原型及象征主义分析 优质课件
-----stage 1
Gawain’s experience in the castle and in the green knight’s chapel
Jason’s journey of searching the Golden Fleece
More information
/wiki/Main_Page /medlit/index.html
Thank you!
Spirituality
Valor
Honesty
Justice
I will be kind to the weak. I will be brave and against the strong. I will fight the all who do wrong. I will fight for those who cannot fight. I will help those who call me for help. I will harm no woman. I will help my brother knight. I will be true to my friends. I will be faithful in love.
English literature along with Canterbury Tales
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King Arthur Knight of the Round Table Lancelot Sir Gawain
Chivalry
Humility
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Reading the story, I admired Gawains’ bravery that he had couraged to accept the challenge. What is more, the King Knight was also be praised. He did not kill the Gawain although Gawain treated him. Here is the story.
King Arthur and his knights were holding a feast for celebration about the arrival of the new years, then a Green Giant came in with a huge axe. He put forward a challenge to all the knights, but only Gawain accepted it. A year later, Gawain set off to look for the Green Knight to receive the cut. After going through many adventures, he found a castle stayed there for three days. On the first and second day, the hostess gave Gawain a kiss. On the third day, she gave Gawain a magic green girdle to protect him form any injury. Gawain received it but he did not tell the host. Three days later, Gawain leaved the castle and found the Green Giant. He bent over for the cut. Twice he was not injured at all, the third time his should was a slight wound. Then the Green Giant told Gawain that he was the host of the castle, the last blow wounded him because he concealed the girdle. At last, the Green Giant sent the girdle to Gawain as a gift. Finally, Gawain came back his kingdom and told the thing. King Arthur commended that everyone weared a green girdle to remember this shameful thing.
This passage described the chivalry for us. I think the chivalry is
bravery, loyalty, honesty, politeness and so on.。