英美文学 总结.doc

英国文学资料1.The period of Old English Literature extends from about the year of 450 to the year of 1066.2.the significant event which the commencement of medieval period in English literature is Norman Conquest in the year of 1066,and the medieval literature in Britain covers about four centuries.3.Romance is the most popular literature form in the medieval period.4.Old English poets produced the national epic poem, Beowulf, and a number of more or less lyrical poemsof shorter length, which do not contain specific Christian doctrines but evoke the Anglo Saxon sense of the harshness of circumstance and the sadness of the human lot.5.Chaucer alone who, for the first time in English literature, presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life in his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales. admired as the father of English Poetry.一、The Renaissance Period (14th-mid-17th century)1. The cradle of the Renaissance is Italy, and the essential characteristics of it are rising of Humanism and the Reformation of Christianity.2. The Elizabethan drama is the real mainstream of the Engish Renaissane, and its most important representative is Shakespeare.1. Edmund Spenser埃德蒙.斯宾塞the poets poetthe Faerie Queene: Arthur and Gloriana, the Faity Queen ;allegorical poem; the theme is Fierce wares and faithfull lovesthe Shepherds CalenderEpithalanmion2. Christopher Marlowe克里斯多夫.马洛drama:Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Maltanon-dramatic poetry: Hero and Leander, the Passionate Shepherd to His Loveachievements:he perfected the blank verse, his creation of the Renaissance hero for English drama.3. William Shakespeare威廉.莎士比亚1.he is one of the most remarkable playwrights and poets of the world has ever known.history plays: Henry Vi, Richard II, King John, Henry IV,comedies:the Comedy of Errors, the tow gentlemen of verona, the taming of the shrew, loves labours lost, A Midsummer Nights Dream, the merchant of venice, much ado about nothing, as you like it, twelf night, the merry wives of windsor , alls well that ends well, measure for measure.tragedies: Romeo and Juliet , Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra安东尼和克娄巴特拉, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanustrgicomedies: Pericles, Cymbeline, The winters tale , The telpestgreatest tragedieys are : Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth麦克白.2. Why is Hamlet so impressive in Shakespeares Hamlet? The hero Hamlet in Shakespeares play Hamlet is noted for his hesitation to take his revenge, his melancholy nature of action only to deny possibilities to do anythings . He came to know that his father was mudered by his uncle who became king. He hated him so deeply that he wanted to kill him. But he loved his widowed mother who later married his uncle. Thins made hime deep in trouble. When he planned to kill his uncle, he was afraid to hurt his mother . And also ,when everything was ready for him to kill his uncle, he forgave him for his uncle was praying to God for his crime. Thus he lost the good chance. Hamlet represented humanism of his time.3. sonnet 18, a nice summers day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry can last for ever. thus Shakespeare has faith in the permanence of poetry.4. Francis Bacon弗兰西斯.培根1. Bacons achievements mainly lie in the fields of Philosophy, science and essay writing.2. The master piece of Bacon which opened a new genre in English literature is Essays, and his most important philosophical works include The Advancement of Learing and Novum Organum.3. The sentences studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability, and some books are to be tased, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested;.are quoted Of Studies5. John Donne约翰.邓恩玄学派诗人Metaphysical poetryit is a term commonly used to name the work of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. With a rebellious spirit, the metaphysical of the Elizabethan love poetry. The diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan love poetry. The diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan or the neoclassic periods and echoes the words and cadences of common speech. The imagery is drawn from the actual life. The form is frequently that of an argument with the poets beloved, with God, or with himeself. （conceit）Donnes masterpiece are The Songs and Sonnets which contains most of his early lyrics with the theme of love and The Holy Sonnets which focused on religion.邓恩在塑造女性形象时，几乎不去描述她外在的美艳，他的诗文中很难见到玫瑰红色的香腮与皓齿樱唇之类的词眼。邓恩真正的兴趣在于细腻地刻画恋爱中的感觉与状态。6. John Milton约翰.弥尔顿1.Miltons three major poetic works are Paradise Lost, Paridise Regained, and Samson Agonistes, among which Paradise Lost is te greatest ,indeed the only universally acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf, and Samson Agonistes is the most perfect example of the verse drama after the Greek style in Engish.2. Miltons epic poems were very much inflenced by the Bible and the Greek Classics, which are also the major sources of the whole English literature.二、The Neoclassical Period(1660-1798)1.the Neoclassical period refers to the one in English literature between the return the Stuarts to the English throne in 1660 and the full assertion of Romanticism which came with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798.2. The two dominent political events in the period are the English Bourgeois Revolution and a vast expansion of British colonies.3. The 18th century england is known as the age of Enlightenment启蒙 or the age of Reason.4.with the introduction of the Enlightenment Movement into England, a revival of interest in the old calssical works was in full swing. This tendency is known as neoclassicism. According to the neoclassicists, all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers and those of the contemporary French ones. They believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic,restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity.1. John Bunyan约翰.班扬the pilgrims progress 天路历程（allegory寓言）2. Alexander Pope亚历山大.蒲柏as a representative of the Enlightenment, Pope was one of the first to introduce rationalism to england. 作为启蒙主义时期的代表人物，蒲柏第一个将理性主义引入英国。Pope made his name as a great poet with the publication of An Essay on Criticism.The Dunciad, generally considered Popes best satiric work.the poem, as a comprehensive study of the theories of literary criticism, exerted great influence upon Popes contemporary writers in advocating the classical rules and popularizing the neoclassicist tradition in England.论批评是对文学批评理论的全面研究，对同时期作家们产生了深远影响，倡导了古典主义标准在英国普及了新古典主义。3. Daniel Defoe丹尼尔.笛福Robinson Crusoewhy did Robinson Crusoe become so successful when it was published? Robinson Crusoe is supposedly based on the real adventure of an Alexander Selkirk who once stayed alone on the uninhabited island Juan Fernandez for five years, is ,in fact ,a work of sheer imagination. in the story the author described inviting plots of Robinson Crusoe who survived and lived quite well on an island after the shipwreck. In Robinson Crusoe, Defoe traces the growth of Robinson from a naive and artless youth into a shrewd and hardened man, tempered by numerous trials in his eventful life. The realistic accound of the successful struggle of Robinson here is a real hero: a typical eighteenth century English middle-class man, with a great capacity for work,in exhaustible energy, courage, patience and persistence in overcoming obstacles, in struggling against the hostile natural environment. He is te very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. Robinson Crusoe is an adventure story very much in the spirit of the time. So when it was published ,people all liked that story ,and it became an immediate success.4. Johathan Swift乔纳森.斯威夫特（bitter satire）Gullivers travels（yahoo） , A Modest Proposal5. Henry Fielding享利.菲尔丁菲尔丁被一些人尊为英国小说之父，在所有十八世纪的小说家中他第一个在理论与实践上创造了散文体喜剧史诗，并第一个为现代小说确立了结构与风格。代表作汤姆.琼斯Fielding has been regarded by some as Father of the English Novel, for his contribution to the establishment of the form of the modern novel.Tom Jones6. Samuel Johnson塞缪尔.约翰逊词典编篡者是十八世纪下半叶最后一位新古典主义启蒙文学家。代表作:致切斯特菲尔勋爵的信Johnson was the last great neoclassicist enlighter in the later eighteen century.To the Right Honorable the Earl of Chesterfield（ironic）7. Richard Brinsley Sheridan理查德.比.谢立丹代表作：造谣学校The School for Scandal 情敌The Rivalshe was the only important English dramatist of the eighteenth century.8. Thomas Gray托马斯.格雷代表作写在教堂墓地的挽歌,诗中的内宾与理查.韦斯特的去世有关，他抒发了对穷人和无名小卒的同情，并嘲讽了那些轻视穷人并给穷人带来苦难的伟人。it is more or less connected with the melancholy event of the death of Richard West, Grays intimate friend. he reveals his sympathy for the poor and the unknown, but mocks the great ones who despise the poor and bring havoc on them.三、The Romantic Period (1798-1832)1.english romanticism, begun in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridges Lyrical Ballads and to have ended in 1832 with Sir Walter Scotts death and the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament.2. During the Romantic Period, the most important background revolution are the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.3. Imagination, the major feature of Romanticism, replaced reason, the prevailing ideological tendency in the 18th century neoclassicism.4. The literary form which is fully developed and the most flourishing during the Romantic Period is poetry.1. William Blake威廉.布莱克代表作：天真之歌、经验之歌Songs of Innocence、Songs of Experience2. William Wordsworth威廉.华兹华斯湖畔诗人：华兹华斯、科勒律治、骚塞我如行云如自游一诗是英国诗歌中的奇葩，把我们带入华兹华斯诗歌宗旨的核心。威斯敏斯特桥即景、独自幽居 、孤独的收割女i wandered lonely as a cloud, composed upon westminster bridge, she dwelt among the untrodden ways , the solitary reaper3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge塞.特.科勒律治代表作：忽必烈汗古航海家之歌、克丽斯贝尔Kubla Khan4. George Gordon Byron乔治.戈登.拜伦代表作：唐.璜、哈罗德游记、曼弗雷德、东方故事集Don Juan, childe Harolds PilgrimageDon Juan, the masterpiece of Byron, is a long satirical poem. Its hero Juan is an aristocratic libertine, amiable and charming to ladies.As a leading Romanticist, Byrons chief contribution is his creation of the Byronic hero, a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin.5. Percy Bysshe Shelley珀.比.雪莱代表作：西风颂：瑟瑟寒风熄灭了一年的生机，却孕育着新春的希望。解放的普罗米修斯Ode to the west wind , Shelly eulogized the powerful west wind and expressed his eagerness to enjoy the boundless freedom from the reality.6. John Keats约翰.济慈代表作：夜莺颂、希腊古瓮颂Ode to a nightingale expreses the contrast between the happy world of natural loveliness and human world of agony.Ode on an Grecian Urn shows the contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human passion.7. Jane Austen简.奥斯汀代表作：理智和情感、傲慢与偏见、爱玛Pride and Prejudice mainly tells of the love story between a rich,proud young man Darcy and the beautiful and intelligent Elizabeth Bennet.四、The Victorian Period (1836-1901)1. unlike Romantic Period, the dominent ideological tendency of the Victorian literature is realism or critical realism.2. Victorian Period witnessed the rising of working class.The poetic form which Browning attached to it maturity and perfection is dramatic monologue. his work m last duchess is just an example.1. Charles Dickens查尔斯.狄更斯Dickens is the greatest critical realist writer of the Victorian Age.雾都孤儿中那非人道的工厂厂房与黑暗的充满犯罪的下层生活；尼古拉斯.尼克尔比中寄宿学校把学生们当奴隶来役使；皮克威克外传中的法制弊病；大卫.科波菲尔中债主的监牢；马丁.瞿述伟与董贝父子中的拜金主义与腐败的盛行。双城记，荒凉山庄中对法制系统及让客户掏尽腰包的企图的批判，小多利特中政府的无能与玩忽职守导辜者身陷囹圄，艰难时世中被实用主义侵蚀了的英国教育系统及在精神上饱受摧残的青少年，远大前程与我们共同的朋友中令人窒息的社会环境和这种环境下社会成员的堕落与毁灭等等。Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, the Pickwick Paper, David Copperfield, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Hard Times, Great Expectations Our mutual Friend.2. The Bronte Sisters布朗蒂姐妹Charlotte Bronte, Jane EyreEmily Bronte, Wuthering HeightsAnne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell HallThe work is one of the most popular and important novels of te Victorian age. It is noted for its sharp criticism of the existing society, e.g. the religious hypocrisy of charity institutions such as Lowood School where poor girls are trained , through constant starvation and humiliation Jane experiences first as a dependent at her aunts house and later as a governess at Thornfield, and the false social convention as concerning love and marriage. at the same time, it is an intense moral fable. Jane, like Mr. Rochester, has to undergo a series of physical and moral tests to grow up and achieve her final happiness.the success of the novel is also due to its introduction to the English novel the first governess heroine. Jane Eyre, an orphan child with a fiery spirit and a longing to love and be loved, a poor, plain ,little governess who dares to love her master, a man superior to her in many ways, and even is brave enough to declare to the man her love for him, cuts a completely new woman image. She represents those middle-class working women who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being. The vivid description of her intense feelings and her thought and inner conflicts brings her to the heart of the audience.3. Alfred Tennyson阿尔弗雷德.丁尼生he is certainly the most representative,if not the greatest ,Victorian poet.Break, Break,Break ,this short lyric is written in memory of Tennysons best friens, Arthur Harlam, whose death has a lifelong influnence on the poet.Crossing the Bar , Ulysses.4. Robert Browning罗伯特.布朗宁戏剧独白The poetic form which Browning attached to it maturity and perfection is dramatic monologue. his work my last duchess is just an example.代表作：指环与书 the ring and the book5. George Eliot乔治.艾略特人生与人性的分析家代表作：亚当.贝德、弗洛斯河上的磨房，织工拉斯.马奈尔middlemarch弥都玛持镇主要描写了朵罗西.布鲁克与特尔斯.莱加特二人的生活。这两个角色都具有潜在资质与雄雄野心，但都因为社会环境与自身弱点的限制没能达到人生目标。Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner6. Thomas Hardy托马斯.哈代in most of Hardys masterpieces ,trgic sense is the keynote of his novels.most of Hardys novels are set in Wessex , the fictional primitive and crude rural region which is really the home place he both loves and hates.Under the Greenwood Tree, Far from the Madding Crowd,The Return of the Native, Tess of the DUrbervilles, Jude the Obscure从还乡开始，悲剧便成了哈代主调。discuss the fate of Tess in Thormas Hardys Tess of the DUrbervilles.Tess is a beautiful, innocent peasant girl. The poverty of the family forces her to claim kniship with the sham but rich DUrbervilles. Alec, the young master of the dUrbervilles, a dandy,seduces Tess and impregnates her. Tess returns home and later gives birth to a baby,who dies soon. peoples opinion forces Tess to leave home to work on a dairy farm. There she meets Angel Clare, son of a clergyman, The two fall in love with each other. On their wedding night, Angel makes a confession about his past dissipation and is readily forgiven by Tess, but when Tess reveals her own past, Angel just wouldnt forgive her and deserts her that very night. Helpless and hopeless, Tess has to wander from place to place, doing the hardest work and bearing the harshes insult. When her fathers death transfers the whole burden of the family on her ,she is forced to go back to Alec, now a peacher. Before long, the repentant Angle returns from abroad. Tess,putting all the blames of her unhappiness on Alec, kills him. She flees with Angel but is caught by the police and hanged. Tess is acturally a victim of her society. Hardy created the heroine Tess in Tess of the dUrbervilles just to criticize the society in his time. Hardys works are known as novels of character and env