英国文学史重难点概括

Main Points for English Literature

一、Old English : 450-1066

Beowulf

二、Medieval English : 1066 - middle 14th century

Geoffrey Chaucer - the father of English poetry

The Canterbury Tales first time to use heroic couplets

三、The Renaissance - rebirth or revival

Humanism - the essence of the Renaissance, the dignity of human being & the importance of the present life

1.Edmund Spenser - the poets‟poet

The Shepherd’s Calendar ; The Faerie Queene

2.Christopher Marlowe - University Wits, the pioneer of English drama

Blank verse, hyperbole夸张

The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus: the human passion for knowledge, power and happiness

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love: pastoral life

3.William Shakespeare - above all writers in the past and in the present time

Four tragedies - Hamlet, Othello, King Lear & Macbeth

Sonnet 18: eternal or immortal beauty

The Merchant of Venice :to praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty, to expose the insatiable greed and brutality.

Hamlet: hesitate between fact and fiction, language and action, too sophisticated to degrade his nature to the conventional role of a stage revenger. To be, or not to be - to live on in this world or to die; to suffer or to take action. Soliloquy or monologue - fully reveal the inner conflict of the characters

4.Francis Bacon - brevity, compactness & powerfulness, his essays is an important landmark in the development of English rose.Inductive method is in place of deductive method.

Of Studies : uses and benefits of study - studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Studies perfect nature, and are perfected by experience. Different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies - studies and experience are complementary to each other. The correct attitude to reading books - to weigh and consider. How studies exert influence over human character - reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.

5.John Donne

Metaphysical poetry - break away from love poetry, a seemingly unfocused diversity of experiences and attitudes, and a free range of feelings and

moods.Donne frequently applies conceits and syllogistic forms.

The Sun Rising: the busy sun is always ready to interfere with other things and everywhere

Death, Be Not Proud: whatever you are, you can not escape from death. When you are living, you are always in the shadow of death. Death only lasts a moment, our life after death is eternal. The more pleasure the death gives people, not only the pleasure of the rest & the sleep, because “whom the gods love die young”. Though death is usually considered powerful, it actually provides a rest for a man‟s body and a birth for his soul.

6.John Milton

Paradise Lost: the only generally acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf. The conflict is between human love and spiritual duty. In heaven, Satan led a rebellion against God with his unconquerable will.