英国文学史文艺复兴时期复习资料

The RenaissanceTime: 1500–1660The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th and early 16th centuries to the early 17th century.Backgrounds:Following the introduction of a printing press into England by William Caxton in 1476, vernacular literature flourishedThe Reformation（宗教改革）inspired the production of vernacular（白话的）liturgy（祈祷书）which led to the Book of Common Prayer（英国国教教会祈祷书）, a lasting influence on literary language.Representatives:Poets:Edmund Spenser ( 1552–1599)Works: The Faerie Queene Epithalamion AmorettiWilliam ShakespeareWorks: Sonnet 18 A Lover's Complaint The Phoenix and the TurtleSir Philip Sidney(1554–1586)Works: Astrophel and Stella The Defence of Poetry(essay)The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (Prose)Blank verse:blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameterSonnet:a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure.A Shakespearean, or English, sonnet consists of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter, a pattern in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable five times.The rhyme scheme :a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g three quatrains and one couplet.A Italian sonnet includes two parts that together formed a compact form of "argument". First, the octave (two quatrains), forms the "proposition", which describes a "problem", or "question", followed by a sestet (two tercets), which proposes a "resolution". Typically, the ninth line initiates what is called the "turn", or "volta", which signals the move from proposition to resolution.The rhyme scheme:a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a,c-d-e-c-d-e or a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-c-c-d-c Dramatist:Christopher MarloweDoctor FaustusWilliam ShakespeareFour comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream《仲夏夜之梦》Merchant of Venice 《威尼斯商人》As You Like It《皆大欢喜》Twelfth Night《第十二夜》Four tragedies:Hamlet《哈姆雷特》Othello《奥赛罗》Macbeth《麦克白》King Lear《李尔王》Ben JonsonWorks: Volpone Epicoene The AlchemistHumanism is a movement of philosophy and ethics that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers individual thought and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over established doctrine or faith (fideism)Eg. Romeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy about two young star-crossed（不幸的）lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding familiesTheme：Scholars have found it extremely difficult to assign one specific, overarching theme to the play. Proposals for a main theme include a discovery by the characters that human beings are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, but instead are more or less alike, awaking out of a dream and into reality, the danger of hasty action, or the power of tragic fate.In the later balcony scene, Shakespeare has Romeo overhear Juliet's soliloquy. By bringing Romeo into the scene to eavesdrop（偷听）, Shakespeare breaks from the normal sequence of courtship. Usually a woman was required to be modest and shy to make sure that her suitor was sincere, but breaking this rule serves to speed along the plot. The lovers are able to skip courting, and move on to plain talk about their relationship—agreeing to be married after knowing each other for only one night. Romeo and Juliet's love seems to be expressing the "Religion of Love" view rather than the Catholic view. Duality：Scholars have long noted Shakespeare's widespread use of light and dark imagery throughout the play. Caroline Spurgeon considers the theme of light as "symbolic of the natural beauty of young love"For example, both Romeo and Juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness. Romeo describes Juliet as being like the sun, brighter than a torch, a jewel sparkling in the night, and a bright angel among dark clouds.Time plays an important role in the language and plot of the play. Both Romeo and Juliet struggle to maintain an imaginary world void of time in the face of the harsh realities that surround them. For instance, when Romeo swears his love to Juliet by the moon, she protests "O swear not by the moon, th'inconstant moon, / That monthly changes in her circled orb, / Lest that thy love prove likewise variable." From the very beginning, the lovers are designated as "star-cross'd" referring to an astrologic belief associated with time. Stars were thought to control the fates of humanity, and as time passed, stars would move along their course in the sky, also charting the course of human lives below.Doctor FaustusA play by based on the Faust story, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge.The play is in blank verse and prose in thirteen scenes (1604) or twenty scenes (1616).Blank verse is largely reserved for the main scenes while prose is used in the comic scenes.act 5 being the shortest. As in many Elizabethan plays, there is a chorus that does not interact with the other characters but rather provides an introduction and conclusion to the play and gives an introduction to the events that have unfolded at the beginning of some acts.“In the Opening and Close of Doctor Faustus,‖ which mainly focuses on Faustus's opening and closing soliloquies. He stresses the importance of the soliloquies in the play, saying: ―the soliloquy, perhaps more than any other dramatic device, involved the audience in an imaginative concern with the happenings on stage‖. By having Doctor Faustus deliver these soliloquies at the beginning and end of the play, the focus is drawn to his inner thoughts and feelings about succumbing （屈服）to the devil. The soliloquies have parallel concepts. In the introductory soliloquy, Faustus begins by pondering the fate of his life and what he wants his career to be. He ends his soliloquy with the solution and decision to give his soul to the devil. Similarly in the closing soliloquy, Faustus begins pondering, and finally comes to terms with the fate he created for himself. Frey also explai ns: ―The whole pattern of this final soliloquy is thus a grim parody of the opening one, where decision is reached after, not prior to, the survey‖One theme in Doctor Faustus is sin. Throughout the play, Faustus is continuously making wrong choices. His first sin was greed. Faustus began his downfall by making a pact with the devil. Doctor Faustus is a German scholar who is well known for his accomplishments. He grows sick of the limitations on human knowledge, which leads him to his interest with magic. Faustus summons a demon, Mephistophilis, ordering him to go to Lucifer with the offer of Faustus‘s soul in return for twenty-four years of servitude from Mephistophilis. At the news of acceptance from Lucifer, Faustus begins his years filled with sinful nature. Faustus feeds sin with his need for power, praise, and trickery. He becomes absorbed in the way people look up to him, believing him to be a sort of ‗hero‘. In the end, Faustus realises his mistake in believing power will bring him happiness. At the end of his twenty-four years, Faustus is filled with fear and he becomes remorseful for his past actions, yet this comes too late. When fellow scholars find Faustus the next morning, he is torn limb from limb, with his soul carried off to hell.In terms of historical context, a major thematic idea is that related to knowledge and the quest for it. With Enlightenment thinkers demonstrating the extent to which the sciences and rational speculation could inform human knowledge of the cosmos and other pressing mysteries of the age, Marlowe presents the idea of hubris（骄傲自大）which fundamentally relates to the search for knowledge in a religious age. Marlowe also draws significant attention to feelings experienced both by himself and other thinkers of his time: the unsatisfying nature of the answers found as part of this quest and the impossibility of learning everything in a lifetime as brief as that of a human.。