2015英美文学选读考纲

考试范围:第一章到第五章考试形式:闭卷；考试题型:选择题,材料分析,配对题,论述题Part One: Early and Medieval English Literature1. Beowulf: a typical example of national epic of the English people.Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatementsEpic: epics are long narrative poems that record the adventures of a hero whose exploits are important to the history of a nation.2. Romance：which uses narrative verse of prose to sing knightly adventures or other heroic deeds, is a popular literary form in the Middle Ages.3. In the second half of the 14th century, English literature starts to flourish with the appearance of writers like Chaucer, William Langland , John Gower and others. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”: a famous romance about King Arthur’s story4. Ballad: is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.5. Character of Robin Hood:a. his hatred for the cruel oppressors and his love for the poor and down-troddenb.strong, brave and cleverc.tender-hearted and affectionate for the poor and down-troddend.his pure love for Mariane.his simple loyalty to the monarchy6. Geoffrey Chaucer: father of English poetry; The Canterbury Tales (main contents; 120 stories planned, only 24 finished; written in Middle English; significance; form: heroic couplet)Significance of the Canterbury Tales:It gives a comprehensive picture of Chaucer's time.The dramatic structure has been highly commended by critics.His tales expose and satirize the evils of the time, as the degeneration of the noble and attacks the corruption of the Church.7. Heroic couplet（英雄双韵体）: the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic pentameterPart Two: The English Renaissance8. The Authorized Version of English Bible and its significance: apart from its religious influence, the Authorized Version has had a great influence on English language and literature. With the widespread influence of the English Bible, the standard modern English has been fixed and confirmed. English Bible has woven its phrases and expressions into the texture of the English language, English literature and English life.9. Renaissance: is commonly applied to the movement or period in Western civilization, which marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world. Generally, it refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th century. Renaissance, which means rebirth or revival, is usually regarded as the result of a new emphasis upon the newly discovered Greek and Roman classics and the combination or compromise of a newly interpreted Christian tradition. In essence,it is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempt to get rid of those old feudalist ideas.10.Thomas More——Utopia11. Sonnet:an exact form of poetry in 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter with considerable variations in rhyme scheme. The basic sonnet forms are: 1) The Italian or the Petrachan sonnet, which rhymes abba abba/ abab abab cdecde/cdcdcd. 2) The English sonnet or the Shakespearian sonnet, which rhymes abab cdcd efef gg.3) The Spenserian sonnet, which rhymes abab bcbc cdcd ee. It was introduced into English language by Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey.12. Blank verse:poetry in rhymeless iambic pentameter.13. Edmund Spenser’s masterpiece: “The Faerie Queene”;(allego ry)Spenserian Stanza: A special verse form that consists of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by a ninth line of six iambic feet, with the rhyme scheme ababbcbcc15. Christopher Marlowe (“Doctor Faustus” and his achievements)His best works:“Tamburlaine”“The Jew of Malta”“Doctor Faustus”It is he who first made blank verse the principal instrument of English drama.The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus is Christopher Marlow’s masterpiece. The theme is to celebrate the human passion for knowledge, power and happiness, it also reveals man’s frustration in realizing the high aspiration in a hostile moral order.14. William Shakespeare可以说是英国文学史中最重要的作家。

The most famous dramatists in Renaissance England are Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare and Ben Johnson.选段Hamlet 第三场第一幕在课本的156页，此选段的notes 1, 即此段的主要内容。

Part Three: the 17th Century literature15. John Milton：The first one used blank verse in non-dramatic works.三大史诗非常重要，特别是Paradise Lost和Samson Agonistes。

对于Paradise Lost需要知道它是blank verse写成的，故事情节来自Bible，具体情节在课本203,204页，另外要知道此书theme和Satan 的形象。

课本202---205，其Paradise Lost 的选段很重要）It is a long epic in 12 books, written in blank verse.The theme is the “Fall of Man”, i.e. man’s disobedience and the loss of Paradise, with its prime cause ---Satan. Actually, it praises the rebellious spirits against the despot.Character: In the poem, God is no better than a selfish despot. Adam and Eve embody Mlilton’s belief in the powers of man. Their longing for knowledge opens before mankind a wide road to an intelligent and active life. And Satan is the real hero who has the spirit to question the authority of God.16. John Bunyan——The Pilgrim’s Progress( it is a religious allegory ) The most successful religiousallegory in English language: vivid characterization, simple language and natural way of story telling a real story : its predominant metaphor of the story,---life as a journey---is simple and familiar.17. Founder of the Metaphysical school——John Donne; features of the school: philosophical poems, complex rhythms and strange images(Metaphysical Poets refers to a school of poets that appeared at the beginning of the 17th century. The works of the Metaphysical poets are characterized by mysticism in content and fantasticality in form. John Donne is the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry. Metaphysical poetry uses conceits to express ideas . A conceit is an elaborate and surprising figure of speech, comparing two very dissimilar things.)19. John BunyanHis masterpiece: “The Pilgrim’s Progress”It is a religious allegory.hero: Christianevent: a spiritual pilgrimage from City of Destruction to The Celestial CityOne of the most remarkable passages is the passage about Vanity Fair.The most successful religious allegory in English language: vivid characterization, simple language and natural way of story telling18. John Dryden——“All for Love”(a tragedy); “An Essay of Dramatic Poesy”(Literary criticism); forerunner of the Classicism in Britain，the most distinguished literary figure of the Restoration period；Dryden established the heroic couplet as one of the principal English verse forms.John Dryden is one of the representatives of neoclassicists.CHAPTER SEVEN the 18TH centuryThe characteristics of neo-classicism（refers to P.236，recite）19. Alexander Pope, Pope was the greatest poet of his time. He worked painstakingly on his poems, developed a satiric, concise, smooth, graceful and well-balanced style and finally brought to its lastperfection the heroic couplet Dryden had successfully used in his plays.Main wroks: An Essay on Criticism makes him famousThe Rape of the Lock, a finest mock epic.The Dunciad, his best satiric workAn Essay on ManTranslated Homer’s Iliad and Odyseey20. Daniel Defoe. His works are the first literary works devoted to the study of problems of the lower-class people.Main works: Robinson Crusoe (most famous of his work, his masterpiece) , Moll Flanders21. Jonathan Swift，as a prose satirist，He is making the most devastating protest against the inhuman exploitation and oppression of the Irish people by the English ruling class. his satire is usually masked by an outward gravity and an apparent earnestness which renders his satire all the more powerful. He is one of the greatest masters of English Prose, He is almost unsurpassed in the writing of simple, direct, precise prose.He defined a good styleas “proper words in proper places”.Main Works: A Tale of a Tub (satirist)The Battle of the BooksGulliver’s Travels(his greatest satiric work)A Modest Proposal(more powerful)The Drapier’s Letters22. Henry Fielding(1707-1754): of all the eighteenth-century novelists, he was the first to set out, both in theory and practice.“Comic epic in prose” , “Tom jones”24. Sentimentalism and Thomas GraySentimentalism came into being as the result of a bitter discontent among the enlightened people with social reality27. William BlakePersonal character: he strongly criticized the capitalists’ cruel exploitation, and he cherished great expectations and enthusiasm for the French Revolution, and regarded it as a necessary stage leading to the millennium predicted by the biblical prophets.Main works: Poetical SketchesSongs of Innocence is a lovely volume of poemsHoly Thursday reminds us terribly of a world of loss and institutional cruelty.Songs of Experience paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone.His works’ Characters: Childhood is central to Blake’s concern in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experienc e, and this concern gives the two books a strong social and historical reference.Appreciate the chimney sweeper in Songs of ExperienceThe theme of the chimney sweeper is by describing the poor little chimney sweeper, the poet reveals the true nature of religion which helps bring misery to the poor children.The Romantic Period23.The Romantic Period: The Romantic period is the period is generally said to have begun in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads and to have ended in 1832 with Sir Walter Scott’s death and the passage of the firstReform Bill in the Parliament. It is emphasized the special qualities of each individual’s mind.23. Romanticism: it is romanticism is a literary trend. It prevailed in England during the period of 1798-1832. Romanticists were discontent with and opposed to the development of capitalism. They split into two groups.Some Romantic writers reflected the thinking of those classes which had been ruined by the bourgeoisie called Passive Romantic poets represented by Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey(passive romanticists).Others expressed the aspiration of the labouring classes called Active or Revolutionary Romantic poets represented by Byron and Shelley and Keats(active romanticists).24.Characteristic feather of thr romantic movement（refers to Page 4-5，recite）ke Poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge and Robert Southey have often been mentioned as the “Lake Poets” because they lived in the Lake Districtin the northwestern part of England26.Wordsworth’s Poetical Principles .He is regarded as a “worshipper of nature”.Its nature that gives him“strength and knowledge full of pe ace” His Works divided into two groups: Poems about nature and poems about human life.Poetry is spontaneous.Nature inspires poetry.Common subjects can be poetic.“All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”Poetry “takes its orig in from emotion recollected in tranquility (平静中回忆起来的情感).”Poetry should describe life of the ordinary people.The function of poetry lies in its power to give an unexpected splendor to familiar and commonplace things.Poems: The Sparrow’s Nest, To a Skyla rk, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud( is perhaps the most anthologized poem in English literature.), TinternAbbey , The Solitary Reaper29. Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1772-1834)Main Works: Lyrical Ballads.The Rime of the Ancient MarinerKubla KhanThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner told an adventurous story of a sailor. By neglecting the law of hospitality, the mariner cruelly shot an albatross which flew to the ship through thick fog. Then disaster fell onto the ship. The breeze died down; the ship stopped, the hot tropical sun shone all day long. The other sailors died of thirst one after another, while the mariner alone was alive, being tortured all the time with thirst and the horror of death. Only when the mariner finally repented and blessed for the water snake did the spell break and the ship was then able to go back home. The story moves on through a world of wonder, from mysterious preface to inevitable close. Of course , the mariner finally recovered from the isolation joyfully; but the joy came only from his own changed attitude and his willingness to look differently on the world. From thispoem, we can infer that Coleridge believed the universe as the projection not of reasoned beliefs but of irrational fears and guilty feelings. He had created the kind of universe which his own inexplicable sins and their consequences might have suggested to him. His religious conflicts enforced him to describe the universe in his work as the Christian universe gone mad.30. George Gordon Byron(1788-1824):Childe H arold’s PilgrimageThis long poem contains four cantos.It is written in the Spenserian stanza, i.e. a 9-line stanza rhymed ababbcbcc, in which the first eight lines are in iambic pentameter while the ninth in iambic hexameterDon JuanIt is Byron’s maste rpiece.It is 16,000 lines long, in 16 cantos, and written in ottava rima, each stanza containing 8 iambic pentameter lines rhymed abababcc.Hero of the long poem: Don Juan, a Spanish young man born in a noble family; strangeadventures he has experienced (Greece, Turkey, Russia and England);A panorama of the whole Europe and a strong satire26. Byronic Hero: Characters described in Byron’s works who are men with fiery passions and unbending will and express the poet’s own ideal of freedom. These heroes rise against tyranny and injustice, but they are merely lone fighters striving for personal freedom and some individualistic ends.four cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (brought Byron fame),Donjuan(his masterpiece, famous, in this work, it’s about a g loomy, passionate young wanderer who escaped from the society he disliked and traveled around the continent, questing for freedom. It teems with all kinds of recognizable features of Romantic poetry. The medieval, the outcast figure, love of nature, hatred of tyranny, preoccupation with the remote and savage, and so on. It’s also contains many vivid and exotic descriptive passages on mountains, rivers, and seas. the author just to present apanoramic view of different types of society by the Don Juan ’s adv enture.)31.Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822)Shelley is among the world’s greatest lyric poets. He is called “the most wonderful lyric poet England has ever produced.”Ode to the West Wind(pay more attention to THE FIRST STANZA 注释1)Shelley’s best-known lyric piece.It can be ranked as the best of the well-known lyric pieces.It represents an image of Shelley himself in its freedom, its destructive-constructive potential and its universalityThis is one of Shelley's best known lyrics. The poet describes vividly the activities of the west wind on the earth, in the sky and on the sea and then expresses his envy for the boundless freedom of the west wind and his wish to be free like it and to scatter his words among mankind. The celebrated final line of the poem, "If winter comes, can Spring be far behind" has often been cited to illustrate Shelley's optimistic belief in the future of mankind. In the firststanza, Shelley uses the seasonal cycle in nature as a continuing process of universal death and regeneration.Prometheus UnboundPrometheus Unbound” is Shelley’s masterpiece. It is a lyrical drama in 4 acts.The plot o f Shelley’s drama is borrowed form “Prometheus Bound”, a play of the Greek tragedian Aeschylus.Prometheus bound becomes Prometheus unbound. This symbolizes the victory for man’s struggle against tyranny and oppression.32.KEATSODE TO A NIGHTINGALE In this ode, Keats focuses on immediate, concrete sensations and emotions. The poem is so free in its movement, so apparently untrammeled自由自在的with philosophy, so lush丰富的in its imagery, so impassioned in its song that there is no lyric in the English language to which it need take a second place or to which the heart can more freely respond.At the same time, it is full of the speculation思考about life and death and art, full of the "light and shade" that characterizes all of the poet's best work and that invites a thoughtful as well as an emotional reactionA major concern in this poem is Keats's perception of the conflicted nature of human life, i.e., the interconnection or mixture of pain/joy, intensity of feeling/numbness of feeling, life/death, mortal/immortal, the actual/the ideal, and separation/connection名词解释：1. AllegoryIt is 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 meaning, 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.2. BalladIt is an important literary feature in the 15thcentury. An ballad is a narrative poem that tells a story in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the 2nd and 4th lines rhymed. The most significance are the Robin Hood Ballads.3. RenaissanceIt sprang first in Italy in the 14th c and gradually spread all over Europe, it indicated a revival (“rebirth”) of classical (Greek and Rome) arts and sciences after the dark ages of medieval obscurantism. Two features are striking of this movement. One is a thirsting curiosity for classical literature; another feature is the keen interest in life and human activities.4. Blank verseBlank verse is a form of unrhymed iambic pentameter. The major achievements in English blank verse were made by William Shakespeare, who wrote much of the content of his plays in unrhymed iambic pentameter, and Milton, whose Paradise Lost is written in blank verse.5 SonnetIt is a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines ofequal length, usually in iambic pentameters. Originating in Italy, the sonnet was established by Petrarch in the 14th century as a major form of love poetry, and was introduced to England by Wyatt and Earl of Surry in the 16th c. The rhyme schemes of the sonnet follow two basic patterns: the Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet; and the Elizabethan, or Shakespearean sonnet.6. SoliloquyA soliloquy is a device often used in drama where by a character relates his or her thoughts and feelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters. Soliloquy is distinct from monologue and aside.7. Metaphysical ConceitA metaphysical conceit is what we would call an extended metaphor, a comparison between two relatively dissimiliar entities or feelings. The classic metaphysical conceit is Donne's comparison of the union between two lovers to the two legs of a compass in "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning."8. Byronic hero" Byronic hero，" a proud & mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions & powers, the Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in an evil society, & would fight single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion or in moral principles with unconquerable wills & inexhaustible energies. The figure is, to some extent, modeled on the life & personality of Byron himself.。