英国文学简史笔记
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英国文学简史笔记
A Concise1 History of British Literature
Chapter 1 English Literature of Anglo-Saxon Period
I.Introduction
1. The historical background
(1) Before the Germanic invasion
(2) During the Germanic invasion
a. immigration;
b. Christianity;
c. heptarchy.来源：考试大
d. social classes structure: hide-hundred; eoldermen (lord) – thane - middle class (freemen) - lower class (slave or bondmen: theow);
e. social organization: clan3 or tribes.
f. military Organization;
g. Church function: spirit, civil service, education;
h. economy: coins, trade, slavery;
i. Feasts and festival: Halloween, Easter; j. legal system.
2. The Overview4 of the culture
(1) The mixture of pagan and Christian2 spirit.
(2) Literature: a. poetry: two types; b. prose: two figures.
II.Beowulf.来源：www.examda.com
1. A general introduction.
2. The content.考试大(www.Examda。com)
3. The literary features.
(1) the use of alliteration5
(2) the use of metaphors6 and understatements
(3) the mixture of pagan and Christian elements
III.The Old English Prose
1.What is prose?
2.figureswww.Examda.CoM
(1)The Venerable Bede
(2)Alfred the Great
Chapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages I.Introduction
1. The Historical Background.
(1) The year 1066: Norman Conquest.
(2) The social situations soon after the conquest.
A. Norman nobles and serfs;
B. restoration of the church.
(3) The 11th century.
A. the crusade and knights8.
B. dominance of French and Latin;
(4) The 12th century.
A. the centralized government;
B. kings and the church (Henry II and Thomas);
(5) The 13th century.
A. The legend of Robin9 Hood10;
B. Magna Carta (1215);
C. the beginning of the Parliament
D. English and Latin: official languages (the end)
(6) The 14th century.
a. the House of Lords and the House of Commons—conflict between the Parliament and Kings;
b. the rise of towns.www.Examda.CoM
c. the change of Church.
d. the role of women.
e. the Hundred Years' War—starting.
f. the development of the trade: London.
g. the Black Death.www.Examda.CoM
h. the Peasants' Revolt—1381.
i. The translation of Bible by Wycliff.
(7) The 15th century.
a. The Peasants Revolt (1453)
b. The War of Roses between Lancasters and Yorks.
c. the printing-press—William Caxton.
d. the starting of Tudor Monarchy(1485)
2. The Overview of Literature.
(1) the stories from the Celtic lands of Wales and Brittany—great myths of the Middle Ages.
(2) Geoffrye of Monmouth—Historia Regum Britanniae—King Authur.
(3) Wace—Le Roman de Brut.
(4) The romance.
(5) the second half of the 14th century: Langland, Gawin poet, Chaucer.
II.Sir Gawin and Green Knight7.
1. a general introduction.
2. the plot.
III.William Langland.
1. Life
2. Piers11 the Plowman
IV.Chaucer
1. Life
2. Literary Career: three periods
(1) French period
(2) Italian period
(3) master period
3. The Canterbury Tales
A. The Framework;
B. The General Prologue12;
C. The Tale Proper.
4. His Contribution.
(1) He introduced from France the rhymed stanza13 of various types.
(2) He is the first great poet who wrote in the current English language.
(3) The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.
V. Popular Ballads14.
VI.Thomas Malory and English Prose
VII.The beginning of English Drama.
1. Miracle Plays.
Miracle play or mystery play is a form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy15 of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching its height in the 15th century. The simple lyric16 character of the early texts was enlarged by the addition of dialogue and dramatic action. Eventually the performance was moved to the churchyard and the marketplace.
2. Morality Plays.
A morality play is a play enforcing a moral truth or lesson by means of the speech and action of characters which are personified abstractions – figures representing vices17 and virtues18, qualities of the human mind, or abstract conceptions in general.
3. Interlude.
The interlude, which grew out of the morality, was intended, as its name implies, to be used more as a filler than as the main part of an entertainment. As its best it was short, witty19, simple in plot, suited for the diversion of guests at a banquet, or for the relaxation20 of the audience between the divisions of a serious play. It was essentially21 an indoors performance, and generally of an aristocratic nature.
Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance1 I.A Historical Background
II.The Overview2 of the Literature (1485-1660)
Printing press—readership—growth of middle class—trade-education for laypeople-centralization of power-intellectual life-exploration-new impetus3 and direction of literature.
Humanism-study of the literature of classical antiquity4 and reformed education.
Literary style-modeled on the ancients.
The effect of humanism-the dissemination5 of the cultivated, clear, and sensible attitude of its classically educated adherents6.
1. poetry
The first tendency by Sidney and Spenser: ornate, florid, highly figured style.
The second tendency by Donne: metaphysical style—complexity and ingenuity7.
The third tendency by Johnson: reaction——Classically pure and restrained style.
The fourth tendency by Milton: central Christian8 and Biblical tradition.
2. Drama
a. the native tradition and classical examples.
b. the drama stands highest in popular estimation: Marlowe – Shakespeare – Jonson.
3. Prose
a. translation of Bible;
b. More;
c. Bacon.
II.English poetry.
1. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard (courtly makers9)
(1) Wyatt: introducing sonnets11.
(2) Howard: introducing sonnets and writing the first blank verse.
2. Sir Philip Sidney—poet, critic, prose writer
(1) Life:
a. English gentleman;
b. brilliant and fascinating personality;
c. courtier.
(2) works
a. Arcadia: pastoral romance;
b. Astrophel and Stella (108): sonnet10 sequence to Penelope Dvereux—platonic devotion.
Petrarchan conceits12 and original feelings-moving to creativeness—building of a narrative13 story; theme-love originality-act of writing.
c. Defense14 of Poesy: an apology for imaginative literature—beginning of literary criticism.
3. Edmund Spenser
(1) life: Cambridge - Sidney's friend - “Areopagus” – Ireland - Westminster Abbey.
(2) works
a. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry in Renaissance.
b. Amoretti and Epithalamion: sonnet sequence
c. Faerie Queene:
l The general end——A romantic and allegorical epic—steps to virtue15.
l 12 books and 12 virtues16: Holiness, temperance, justice and courtesy.
l Two-level function: part of the story and part of allegory (symbolic17 meaning)
l Many allusions18 to classical writers.
l Themes: puritanism, nationalism, humanism and Renaissance Neoclassicism—a Christian humanist.
(3) Spenserian Stanza19.
III.English Prose
1. Thomas More
(1) Life: “Renaissance man”, scholar, statesman, theorist, prose writer, diplomat20, patron of arts
a. learned Greek at Canterbury College, Oxford21;
b. studies law at Lincoln Inn;
c. Lord Chancellor22;
d. beheaded.
(2) Utopia: the first English science fiction.
Written in Latin, two parts, the second—place of nowhere.
A philosophical23 mariner24 (Raphael Hythloday) tells his voyages in which he discovers a land-Utopia.
a. The part one is organized as dialogue with mariner depicting25 his philosophy.
b. The part two is a description of the island kingdom where gold and silver are worn by criminal, religious freedom is total and no one owns anything.
c. the nature of the book: attacking the chief political and social evils of his time.
d. the book and the Republic: an attempt to describe the Republic in a new way, but it possesses an modern character and the resemblance is in externals.
e. it played a key role in the Humanist awakening26 of the 16th century which moved away from the Medieval otherworldliness towards Renaissance secularism27.
f. the Utopia
(3) the significance.
a. it was the first champion of national ideas and national languages; it created a national prose, equally adapted to handling scientific and artistic28 material.
b. a elegant Latin scholar and the father of English prose: he composed works in English, translated from Latin into English biography, wrote History of Richard III.
2. Francis Bacon: writer, philosopher and statesman
(1) life: Cambridge - humanism in Paris – knighted - Lord Chancellor – bribery29 - focusing on philosophy and literature.
(2) philosophical ideas: advancement30 of science—people:servants and interpreters of nature—method: a child before nature—facts and observations: experimental.
(3) “Essays”: 57.
a. he was a master of numerous and varied31 styles.
b. his method is to weigh and balance maters, indicating the ideal course of action and the practical one, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each, but leaving the reader to make the final decisions. (arguments)
IV.English Drama
1. A general survey.
(1) Everyman marks the beginning of modern drama.
(2) two influences.
a. the classics: classical in form and English in content;
b. native or popular drama.
(3) the University Wits.
2. Christopher Marlowe: greatest playwright32 before Shakespeare and most gifted of the Wits.
(1) Life: first interested in classical poetry—then in drama.
(2) Major works
a. Tamburlaine;
b. The Jew of Malta;
c. The Tragical33 History of Doctor Faustus.
(3) The significance of his plays.
V. William Shakespeare
1. Life
(1) 1564, Stratford-on-Avon;
(2) Grammar School;
(3) Queen visit to Castle;
(4) marriage to Anne Hathaway;
(5) London, the Globe Theatre: small part and proprietor34;
(6) the 1st Folio, Quarto;
(7) Retired35, son—Hamnet; H. 1616.
2. Dramatic career
3. Major plays-men-centered.
(1) Romeo and Juliet——tragic love and fate
(2) The Merchant of Venice.
Good over evil.
Anti-Semitism.
(3) Henry IV.
National unity36.
Falstaff.
(4) Julius Caesar
Republicanism vs. dictatorship.
(5) Hamlet
Revenge
Good/evil.
(6) Othello
Diabolic character
jealousy37
gap between appearance and reality.
(7) King Lear
Filial ingratitude38
(8) Macbeth
Ambition vs. fate.
(9) Antony and Cleopatra.
Passion vs. reason
(10) The Tempest
Reconciliation39; reality and illusion.
3. Non-dramatic poetry
(1) Venus and Adonis; The Rape40 of Lucrece.
(2) Sonnets:
a. theme: fair, true, kind.
b. two major parts: a handsome young man of noble birth; a lady in dark complexion41.
c. the form: three quatrains and a couplet.
d. the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
VI.Ben Jonson
1. life: poet, dramatist, a Latin and Greek scholar, the “literary king” (Sons of Ben)
2.contribution:
(1) the idea of “humour”.
(2) an advocate of classical drama and a forerunner42 of classicism in English literature.
3. Major plays
(1) Everyone in His Humour—“humour”; three unities43.
(2) Volpone the Fox
justify23"> Chapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century I.A Historical Background
II.The Overview1 of the Literature (1640-1688)
1. The revolution period
(1) The metaphysical poets;
(2) The Cavalier poets.
(3) Milton: the literary and philosophical2 heritage of the Renaissance3 merged4 with Protestant political and moral conviction
2. The restoration period.
(1) The restoration of Charles II ushered5 in a literature characterized by reason, moderation, good taste, deft6 management, and simplicity7. (school of Ben Jonson)
(2) The ideals of impartial8 investigation9 and scientific experimentation10 promoted by the newly founded Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge (1662) were influential11 in the development of clear and simple prose as an instrument of rational communication.
(3) The great philosophical and political treatises12 of the time emphasize rationalism.
(4) The restoration drama.
(5) The Age of Dryden.
III.John Milton
1. Life: educated at Cambridge—visiting the continent—involved into the revolution—persecuted—writing epics13.
2. Literary career.
(1) The 1st period was up to 1641, during which time he is to be seen chiefly as a son of the humanists and Elizabethans, although his Puritanism is not absent. L'Allegre and IL Pens eroso (1632) are his early masterpieces, in which we find Milton a true offspring of the Renaissance, a scholar of exquisite15 taste and rare culture. Next came Comus, a masque. The greatest of early creations was Lycidas, a pastoral elegy16 on the death of a college mate, Edward King.
(2) The second period is from 1641 to 1654, when the Puritan was in such complete ascendancy17 that he wrote almost no poetry. In 1641, he began a long period of pamphleteering for the puritan cause. For some 15 years, the Puritan in him alone ruled his writing. He sacrificed his poetic18 ambition to the call of the liberty for which Puritans were fighting.
(3) The third period is from 1655 to 1671, when humanist and Puritan have been fused into an exalted19 entity20. This period is the greatest in his literary life, epics and some famous sonnets21. The three long poems are the fruit of the long contest within Milton of Renaissance tradition and his Puritan faith. They form the greatest accomplishments22 of any English poet except Shakespeare. In Milton alone, it would seem, Puritanism could not extinguish the lover of beauty. In these works we find humanism and Puritanism merged in magnificence.
3. Major Works
(1) Paradise Lost
a. the plot.
b. characters.
c. theme: justify the ways of God to man.
(2) Paradise Regained24.
(3) Samson Agonistes.
4. Features of Milton's works.
(1) Milton is one of the very few truly great English writers who is also a prominent figure in politics, and who is both a great poet and an important prose writer. The two most essential things to be remembered about him are his Puritanism and his republicanism.
(2) Milton wrote many different types of poetry. He is especially a great master of blank verse. He learned much from Shakespeare and first used blank verse in non-dramatic works.
(3) Milton is a great stylist. He is famous for his grand style noted25 for its dignity and polish, which is the result of his life-long classical and biblical study.
(4) Milton has always been admired for his sublimity26 of thought and majesty27 of expression.
IV.John Bunyan
1. life:
(1) puritan age;
(2) poor family;
(3) parliamentary army;
(4) Baptist society, preacher;
(5) prison, writing the book.
2. The Pilgrim Progress
(1) The allegory in dream form.
(2) the plot.
(3) the theme.
V. Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets.
1. Metaphysical Poets
The term “metaphysical poetry” is commonly used to designate the works of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. Pressured by the harsh, uncomfortable and curious age, the metaphysical poets sought to shatter myths and replace them with new philosophies, new sciences, new words and new poetry. They tried to break away from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry, and favoured in poetry for a more colloquial28 language and tone, a tightness of expression and the single-minded working out of a theme or argument.
2. Cavalier Poets
The other group prevailing29 in this period was that of Cavalier poets. They were often courtiers who stood on the side of the king, and called themselves “sons” of Ben Jonson. The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elegant, amorous30 and gay, but often superficial. Most of their verses were short songs, pretty madrigals, love fancies characterized by lightness of heart and of morals. Cavalier poems have the limpidity31 of the Elizabethan lyric32 without its imaginative flights. They are lighter33 and neater but less fresh than the Elizabethan's.
VI.John Dryden.
1. Life:
(1) the representative of classicism in the Restoration.
(2) poet, dramatist, critic, prose writer, satirist34.
(3) changeable in attitude.
(4) Literary career—four decades.
(5) Poet Laureate
2. His influences.
(1) He established the heroic couplet as the fashion for satiric35, didactic, and descriptive poetry.
(2) He developed a direct and concise36 prose style.
(3) He developed the art of literary criticism in his essays and in the numerous prefaces to his poems.
Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th Century I.Introduction
1. The Historical Background.
2. The literary overview.
(1) The Enlightenment.
(2) The rise of English novels.
When the literary historian seeks to assign to each age its favourite form of literature, he finds no difficulty in dealing37 with our own time. As the Middle Ages delighted in long romantic narrative38 poems, the Elizabethans in drama, the Englishman of the reigns39 of Anne and the early Georges in didactic and satirical verse, so the public of our day is enamored of the novel. Almost all types of literary production continue to appear, but whether we judge from the lists of publishers, the statistics of public libraries, or general conversation, we find abundant evidence of the enormous preponderance of this kind of literary entertainment in popular favour.
(3) Neo-classicism: a revival40 in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of classical standards of order, balance, and harmony in literature. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major exponents41 of the neo-classical school.
(4) Satiric literature.
(5) Sentimentalism
II.Neo-classicism. (a general description)
1. Alexander Pope
(1)Life:
a.Catholic family;
b.ill health;
c.taught himself by reading and translating;
d.friend of Addison, Steele and Swift.
(2)three groups of poems:
e.An Essay on Criticism (manifesto42 of neo-classicism);
f. The Rape43 of Lock;
g.Translation of two epics.
(3)His contribution:
h.the heroic couplet—finish, elegance44, wit, pointedness45;
i.satire46.
(4) weakness: lack of imagination.
2. Addison and Steele
(1) Richard Steele: poet, playwright47, essayist, publisher of newspaper.
(2) Joseph Addison: studies at Oxford48, secretary of state, created a literary periodical “Spectator” (with Steele, 1711)
(3) Spectator Club.
(4) The significance of their essays.
a. Their writings in “The Tatler”, and “The Spectator” provide a new code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie.
b. They give a true picture of the social life of England in the 18th century.
c. In their hands, the English essay completely established itself as a literary genre49. Using it as a form of character sketching50 and story telling, they ushered in the dawn of the modern novel.
3. Samuel Johnson—poet, critic, essayist, lexicographer51, editor.
(1)Life:
a.studies at Oxford;
b.made a living by writing and translating;
c.the great cham of literature.
(2) works: poem (The Vanity of Human Wishes, London); criticism (The Lives of great Poets); preface.
(3) The champion of neoclassical ideas.
III.Literature of Satire: Jonathan Swift.
1.Life:
(1)born in Ireland;
(2)studies at Trinity College;
(3)worked as a secretary;
(4)the chief editor of The Examiner;
(5)the Dean of St. Patrick's in Dublin.
2. Works: The Battle of Books, A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal, Gulliver's Travels.
3. Gulliver's Travels.
Part I. Satire—the Whig and the Tories, Anglican Church and Catholic Church.
Part II. Satire—the legal system; condemnation52 of war.
Part III. Satire—ridiculous scientific experiment.
Part IV. Satire—mankind.
IV.English Novels of Realistic tradition.
1. The Rise of novels.
(1)Early forms: folk tale – fables53 – myths – epic14 – poetry – romances – fabliaux – novelle - imaginative nature of their material. (imaginative narrative)
(2)The rise of the novel
a.picaresque novel in Spain and England (16th century): Of or relating to a genre of prose fiction that originated in Spain and depicts54 in realistic detail the adventures of a roguish hero, often with satiric or humorous effects.
b.Sidney: Arcadia.
c. Addison and Steele: The Spectator.
(plot and characterization and realism)
(3) novel and drama (17the century)
2. Daniel Defoe—novelist, poet, pamphleteer, publisher, merchant, journalist.)
(1)Life:
a.business career;
b.writing career;
c.interested in politics.
(2) Robinson Cusoe.
a. the story.
b. the significance of the character.
c. the features of his novels.
d. the style of language.
3. Henry Fielding—novelist.
(1)Life:
a.unsuccessful dramatic career;
b.legal career; writing career.
(2) works.
(3) Tom Jones.
a.the plot;
b.characters: Tom, Blifil, Sophia;
c.significance.
(4) the theory of realism.
(5) the style of language.
V. Writers of Sentimentalism.
1. Introduction
2. Samuel Richardson—novelist, moralist (One who is unduly55 concerned with the morals of others.)
(1)Life:
a.printer book seller;
b.letter writer.
(2) Pamela, Virtue56 Rewarded.
a.the story
b.the significance
Pamela was a new thing in these ways:
a) It discarded the “improbable and marvelous” accomplishments of the former heroic romances, and pictured the life and love of ordinary people.
b) Its intension was to afford not merely entertainment but also moral instruction.
c) It described not only the sayings and doings of characters but their also their secret thoughts and feelings. It was, in fact, the first English psycho-analytical novel.
3. Oliver Goldsmith—poet and novelist.
A. Life:
a.born in Ireland;
b.a singer and tale-teller, a life of vagabondage;
c.bookseller;
d.the Literary Club;
e.a miserable57 life;
f. the most lovable character in English literature.
B. The Vicar of Wakefield.
a.story;
b.the signicance.
VI.English Drama of the 18th century
1. The decline of the drama
2. Richard Brinsley Sheriden
A. life.
B. works: Rivals, The School for Scandals.
C. significance of his plays.
a. The Rivals and The School for Scandal are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy.
b. In his plays, morality is the constant theme. He is much concerned with the current moral issues and lashes58 harshly at the social vices59 of the day.
c. Sheridan's greatness also lies in his theatrical60 art. He seems to have inherited from his parents a natural ability and inborn61 knowledge about the theatre. His plays are the product of a dramatic genius as well as of a well-versed theatrical man.
d. His plots are well-organized, his characters, either major or minor62, are all sharply drawn63, and his manipulation of such devices as disguise, mistaken identity and dramatic irony64 is masterly. Witty65 dialogues and neat and decent language also make a characteristic of his plays.
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