新编英国文学选读 第二版 复习资料

Chapter 8The age of Romanticism:1.From the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798 to the death of Sir Walter Scott in 1832, a new movement appeared on the literary arena. The essence of this new movement is the glorification of instinct and emotion, a deep veneration of nature, and a flaming zeal to remark the world.2.The political and social factors that gave rise to the romantic movement were the three revolution: American and French Revolution; national liberation movements; democratic movements.3.And Industrial Revolution: brought great wealth to the rich and worsened the living condition of the poor; Workers organized themselves and gave voice to their distress by breaking machines, which is called Machine breaking movement(Luddite movement)4.The shift in literature from emphasis on reason to instinct and emotion was intellectually prepared for by a number of thinkers in the later half of the 18th century.5.Rousseau: the father of Romanticism. He rejects the worship of reason. He maintains in the really vital problems of life, it is much safer to rely on feelings, to follow our instincts and emotions. He preaches that civilized man should return to nature, praised the natural man as the noble savage and attacks the civilized man as the depraved animals.6.Edmund Burke: As a political philosopher he is known for his Reflection on the Revolution in France. He distinguished between two kinds of beauty—the sublime and the beautiful.7.Thomas Paine: He published The Rights of Man in 1791 to answer to Burke’s Reflection. The Rights of Man asserts that man has no property in man and justifies the radical actions of French people in the revolution, claiming that it is the right of people to overthrown a government that opposes humanity.8.Characteristic features of the romantic movement:1)Subjectivism: romantic poets describe poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, which express the poet’s mind.The interest of romantic poets is not objective world or the action of men, but in the feelings, thoughts, and experience of the poets themselves.2)Spontaneity: Wordsworth defines poetry as the spontaneous overflow of feelings. Romanticism is an assertion of independence, a departure from the neo-classis rules.3)Singularity4)Worship of nature5)Simplicity6)Melancholy7)It was an age of poetry by which the poets outpoured their feelings and emotions. Romantic poets loved to use a freer verse form.9.Romanticism is a term that denotes most of the writings that were written between 1798 and 1832.Wordsworth:1.From 1799 to his death he was politically very conservative and lived in retirement at Grasmere in the Lake district in the company of his sister Dorothy Wordsworth and his friend Coleridge. In 1843 after the death of Southey he was made poet laureate.2.The most representative poet of English Romanticism.3.In1798,the publication of Lyrical Ballads marked the break with the conventional poetical tradition of the 18th century and the beginning of the Romantic revival in England. It is a declaration of romanticism and an important piece of literary criticism in English literature.Coleridge:1.3 Lake poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey.2.Married the sister of Southey’ s wife.3.Representative work: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, written in ballad form. The theme is about sin and its expiation.4.Kubla Khan: total imagination. Collected in Lyrical Ballads.5.His only play that was on the stage was Remorse.6.His lectures on Shakespeare are still considered valuable Shakespearean critical materials.Byron:1.The long satirical epic, Don Juan, is generally considered as his masterpiece. As a leading Romanticist, Bryon’ s chief contribution is his creation of Byronic Hero.2.Childe Harold’ s Pilgrimage made him famous overnight.3.Don Juan: It is about the romantic adventure of a legendary Spanish youth who has many love affairs with various woman. The real significance of this poem lies in its vivid description of the lives and manners of many lands. Byron’ s fiery passion for the liberation of the Greek people and his bitter satire on the sham and hypocrisy in love, religion and the social relationship of his time.4.The Isles of Greece: a song sung by a singer at the wedding ceremony between Don Juan and Haidee, in which the singer(Byron) contrast the past glory of the Greek people with their present state of enslavement by the Turks.Shelley:1.His first important poem is Queen Mab, an allegorical poem in which through the mouth of Queen Mab, the fairy queen, he attacks kings, priests, and statesmen and human institutions such as marriage, commerce, and religion.2.He met Godwin in 1814 and fell in love with his daughter Mary Godwin. Her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, a champion for women’ s rights and the authoress ofA Vindication of the Rights of Woman.3.On the death of Keats, he wrote a elegiac poem Adonais.4.His lyrics are best known among the English poets.5.The most well-known is the Ode to the West Wind6.Song to the Men of England: political lyrics in protest against the government’ s barbarous action and calling the working people to rise up to overthrown the rule of idle class.7.An ode: In ancient time, an ode is an elaborate lyrical poem composed for a chorus to chant and to dance to; In modern use, it is a rhymed lyric expressing noble feelings,often addressed to a person or celebrating an event.John Keats1.Unlike Byron and Shelley, Keats was born in London, of lowly origin.2.In 1817, he abandoned his profession in surgeon and published his first collection of poems.3.His best were written in the short three years from 1817 to the time of his death.4.On First Looking into Chapman’ s Homer5.Ode to a Nightingale.6.Negative Capability: Firstly used by Keats to critique those who sought to categorize all experience and phenomena and turn them into a theory of knowledge. This put Keats at the front of Romantic Movement.Lamb:mb was important in English literature for his contribution to the Familiar Essay,a type of essay which dates back to those of the French essayist and was later developed by Addison and Steele.2.With his sister, they wrote Tales from Shakespeare.3.Recollection and nostalgia play an important role in his essays.4.His essays are full of long and curious words and are interrupted by frequent exclamations and parentheses.mb’s most well-known literary work is Tales from Shakespeare. They were stories retold from the plays of Shakespeare.Chapter 9The Victorian Age:1.The English people were proud of the two queens: Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victorian. During their long reigns England developed rapidly both politically and economically.2.Capitalism first took its shape during the reign of Queen E. And the small country defeated the strong naval power Spain in 1588.3.During the reign of Queen Victoria, England grew from an agricultural country into an industrialized one and became he workshop of the world as well as its financial and political center.4.During this period, literature flourished.5.Three period of The Victorian Age:1) a time of social unrest2)The middle period: a period of economic prosperity and religious controversy.3)The last period: a period of decay of Victorian values.6.The first period:1)The passing of the first reform bill made it possible for the industrial capitalists to gain their power in Parliament.2)The Reform of Bill of 1832 extend the right to vote to all men owning property worth ten pounds or more.3)The second accomplishment of Reform of Bill was to eliminate the “rotten boroughs” and gave the vacant seats to the industrial cities.4)This bill broke the monopoly in Parliament of the conservative landowners and ended the long reign of the Tory party. Whig party, which represented the interests of the industrial capitalists and businessman, came into power.5)The Chartist Movement reached its peak in 1838, 1842 and 1848.6)The most influential philosophy of this period: the philosophy of Utilitarianism.7)Corn laws:1815-1846: forbade in importing any grain from foreign countries when the price of wheat dropped to a certain price.7.The mid-Victorian period:1)In 1846, the Corn Laws was replaced and the price of labour lowered.2)By the early seventies England became the workshop of the world and the world’ s banker.3)It was a period of complacency, stability and optimism.4)In the fifties and sixties even the conditions of the working people were improved.5)In Crystal Palace, the Great Exhibition was held.6)In 1857 and following years, the economy was hit by crises from time to time.7)Darwin published the origin of species in 1859. Science came to the forefront in the debate against church. Darwin’ s discovery conflicted the Bible and was applied in social science.8.The last period:1)England continued to grow in strength in this period. By 1890 the British Empire had comprised more than a quarter of all the territory on the surface of the earth and was called “the empire on which the sun never sets”2)To many Victorians this was a period of serenity and security, the age of house parties and long weekends in the country.3)In the nineties, melancholy became the spirit of the time and the intellectuals were tainted by a feeling of fin-desiecle.9.The Victorian novelists:1)1832 witnessed the end of poetry boom.2)Most of the romantic poets died, the romantic movement came to an end as a movement.10.The rise of the novel:1)The growth of urban population resulted in the appearance of a new reading public.2)The Education Acts, which came into effect in 1870, made a certain measure of education compulsory. Thus, there was a fairly large reading public in the Vic age.3)With the development of the method of printing and paper making, the price of book dropped, and besides regular books, there were serial publications.4)Writing had become a profession, which made it possible for the writers to male a living by writing.5)With the ascendancy of the industrial capitalists, the majority of whom lived an idle life in interests, there was a large idle class who needed recreation and entertainment. Novels met their desires.6)The conditions of the time and the dire poverty on the one hand and the enormous wealth on the other hand needed a secular form to explore human relations rather than sermons given in the church.7)The feminist movement had much to do with the growth of the novel.mon features of Vic novel:1)The plot is unfolded against a social background which is broader than what it had been in previous novels.2)The cause-effect sequence is much more striking than in previous novels3)Most of the Vic novel were first published in serial form, that is, by installment, before they were fully published in a single book.4)Tainted by the spirit of Puritanism of the Vic age.5)Characterized by their moral purpose.6)Some Chinese scholars called them critical realistic novelists.Bronte sisters:1.Charlotte/Emily/Ann2.Some critics said that the Bronte sisters inherited their strong emotion from their parents.1) A Celtic blood explains their strong emotion and their audacity in the search for spiritual integrity.2)Another factors was the moorland which was not yet corrupted by the evils of society.3)The third factor that explains their writing career was the fact that they were greatly influenced by romantic poets.3.The works of Charlotte and Emily are different from those of other Victorian writers in the aspects below:1)their works are marked by strong romantic elements.2)The role pf nature plays are significant in their work.3)Marked by a new conception of women as heroines of vital strength and passionate feelings.4.Wuthering Heights: Emily portrays the conflicts between the privileged and the hire hand.5.When they published book, they used pseudonyms, pretending they were male writers. Currer Bell for Charlotte; Ellis Bell for Emily; Acton Bell for Ann.6.In Jane Eyre, Jane’s rebelliousness, her dislike for servility and her insistence o equality that make the book unique. Jane Eyre is the first ENG novel, even the most powerful and popular novel, which represents the modern view of women’ s position in society.Hardy:1.Wessex novel2.The last important novelist of the Victorian Age.3.His philosophy was that everything in the universe is determined by the Immanent Will, which is present in all parts of the universe and its impartially hostile towards human beings’ desire for joy and happiness.4.The dominate theme of his novel is the futility of man’ s effort to struggle against cruel and unintelligible fate. Chance and circumstance, which are all predestined by Immanent Will.5.The prevailing mood in his novel is tragic6.Wrote epic-dramaTennyson:1.Some historians even called the period from 1832 to the death of Tennyson ‘ the age of Tennyson’2.1850, Tennyson published In Memoriam and succeeded Wordsworth the Poet Laureate.3.His first collection of poems was P oem by Two Brothers, on which he collaborate with his brother.4.His first important work Poems was a collection of his early poems.5.It was two volumes of Poems secured his position as the leading poet of the time.6.Buried in Westminster Abbey.7.Break, Break, Break: elegy, Tennyson wrote in memory of his friend Arthur Hallam.Browning:1.He is noteworthy for the dramatic monologue, in which there is one imaginary speaker addressing an imaginary audience.2.His first poem: Pauline, written under the influence of Shelley.3.Was bold and unconventional in matter and style.4.Optimistic5.Look boldly at the evils in human beings without losing faith.Arnold:1.A professor of poetry at Oxford.2.Both a poet and a literary critic.3.An important figure in the intellectual field of 19th century England.4.In his poetry, he reflects on the doubt of his age, and the conflict between science and religion.5.The most important one of his literary criticism: Essays in Criticism and Culture and Anarchy. As a literary critic, he attacked the barbarians, a term used to refer to the aristocrats. He also attacked philistines, a term referring to middle class, whom he regarded as narrow-minded and self-conceited people.6.In his opinion, poetry should be a criticism of life and was destined to take the place of religion as man’s principal moral guide.7.He believed culture should be antidote to anarchy and that through culture and liberal education modern man could avoid anarchy without abandoning liberty to some coercive external authority.Chapter 10The twentieth century1.~ marked by two World Wars.2.Modernism came into being between 1910 and the early years after the WWII.3.The two World War were the direct result of the conflict between rival imperialistcountries and their ambition to dominate the world.4.The development of ENG literature can be divided into two stages: literature between WWs and literature after WW II.5.Three main trend of literature are worth our attention: Modernism; The Angry Young Men; and The Threat of the Absurd.6.Alienation and loneliness are the basic themes of modernism.7.Modernism means a departure from the conventional criteria or established values of the Victorian age.8.The ENG intellectuals were very much influenced by the psychology of Freud.9.The characteristics of modernists:1)Complexity and obscurity2)The use of symbols3)Allusion4)IronyEliot:1.1921, the waste land, established Eliot’ s status in modern literature.2.London, represented as arid, waste land. The central symbol are drought and flood, representing the death and rebirth.3.He said he was classicist in literature, royalist in politics and Anglo-Catholic in religion.4.Also wrote many essays and much literary criticism. His essays are praised for their lucidity and precision.Heaney:1.Belfast group soon came into being and played an important role in changing the previously discouraging literary atmosphere of the city.2.He was awarded the Noble Prize for literature in1995, on the occasion he made the famous Noble lecture, Crediting Poetry.3.His poetry consists of two genres: the observed and recollected facts pf his early rural experience and psychological meditation on the violence in Northern Ireland arising from religious and political conflicts.4.The public and political them as reflected in North and in particular the so-called ‘bog poems’。