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English LiteratureINTRODUCTION:The old English literature一、The old English Literature1、The time period:The period of Old English literature extends from about 450 to 1066.2、The classification of the old English poetry:The Ole English poetry can be divided into two groups:the religious group and the secular one.A.The religions group is mainly on biblical thmes .B.The secular group concludes:The national epic poem,Beowulf ,and lyrical poems of shorter length.3.The representative of this period:A.The nature:Beowulf,is regarded today as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons.B.The setting:The story took place in Scandinavia.C.The theme:The poem presents a vivid picture of how the privitive people wage under a wise heroic struggles against the hostile forces of the natural world under a wise and mighty leader.D.The significance:The poem is an example of the mingling of nature myths and heroic legends.The battle between Beowulf and the Dragon symbolically represents that phase of Winter and Summer myth in which the Summer God,here embodied by Beowulf.二、The medieval English Literature1.The time period :From 1066 up to the mid-14th century.2.The classcification of the medieval English Literature:Middle English Literature deal with a wider range of subjects.A.popular folk literature also occupies an important place in this period.3.The representative of this period:Chancer and the Canterbury tales.A.The influence of Renaissance:The influence of Renaissance was already felt in the field of English literature when Chaucer was learning from the great Italian writers like Petrarch and Boccaccio.B.The contributions to English Literature :a.Chaucer introduced from France the rhymed stanzas to replace the Old English alliterative verse.b.In The Romaunt of the Rose,he first introduced into English the octosyllabic couplet.c.In The Legend of Good Women,he used for the first time in English the rhymed couplet fo iambic pentameter.And in The Canterbury Tales,Chaucer employed the heroic couplet with ture ease.d.Chaucer also developed the art of literature itself.InTroilus and Criseyde,he gave the world what is virtually the first modern novel.e.In The Canterbury Tales,he developed his art of poetry still further towards drama and the art of novel.John Dryden(拜伦),called Chaucer the father of English poetry.For the Renaissance,he was the English Homer.The Renaissance Period (文艺复兴时期) 英国文学 第一章 The Renaissance Period 本章概述一、文艺复兴运动和人文主义思想产生的历史，文化背景；二、文艺复兴时期文学创作的基本特征和基本主张；三、文艺复兴时期的哲学与文艺理论对同时代及后世英国文学与文化的影响；四、主要作家与作品； 文学史分析一、 The time period: The Renaissance marks a transition from the medieval to the modern word.It refers to the period between the 14th and 17th centuries.二、 The definition of Renaissance: A. The birthplace:In ItalyB. The meaning:The Renaissance means rebirth or revivalC. The nature:The Renaissance,in essence,is a historical period.三、 The theoretical basis of the Renaissance:1. The essence of the Renaissance:A. The source Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.It sprang from the endeavor(努力) to restore（恢复） a medieval reverence for the antique authors. BThe basis of the HumanismIt was based on such a conception that man is the measure of all things.2. The representatives:A. The Symbol: Humanism began to take hold in England when the Dutch scholar Desidenrius Erasmus came to teach the classical learningB. The major representative: Thomas More,Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best representatives of the English humanists. 四The cultural Background of the Renaissance: 1.The national feeling: Strong national feeling in the time of the Tudors gave a great incentive to the cultural development in England .English schools and universities were established in place of the old monasteries.2.The introduction of printing: William Caxton introduced printing into England.In his lifetime,Caxton printed about one hundred books in English.3.The emergence(出现) of an age of translationWith the introduction of printing .an age of transtation came into being.4.The significanceThe introducetion of printing led to a commercial market for literature,making everything ready for the appearance of the great Elizabethan writers.五The literature forms during the Renaissance:1.The poetry:A.The feature:The first period of the English Renaissance was one of imitation and assimilation.a. Petrarch was regarded as the fountainhead of literature by the English writers.b. Wyatt introduced the Petrarchan sonnet into England.c. Surrey brought in blank verse.d. Sidney followed with the sentina and terza rima.e. Warlowe gave new vigor to the blank verse with his “mighty lines”.B .The representatives:a.Spensers The Shepheardes Calender showed the pastoral conventionb.In “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”,Marlow spoke that it would be very difficult for us to connect it with the voice in his tragediesc.Poetry and poetic drama were the most outstanding literary forms and carried on by Shakespeare and Ben Johnson.2.The dramaA.The feature:The Elizabethan drama is the real mainstream fo the English Renaissance .English material was put into the regular form of the Latin comedies of Plautus and Terence.Tragedies were in the style of Seneca.C.The representative dramatists The most famous dramatists are Christopher Marlowe,William Shakespeare ,and Ben Johnson.3.The essays : A.The representatives essayist:Francis Bacon,the first important English essayist,is best known for his essays B.The influence: Bacon was also the founder of modern science in England, His writings paved(铺路，安排) the way for the use of scientific method.WilliamShakespeare威廉莎士比亚一. The dramatic career:( 4 periods)1.Apprenticeship period 2.Highly individualized period3.Greatest tragedies and dark comedies period 4.Romantic tragicomedies period二. The themes of Shakespeares works:1. The history plays:A. The theme:Shakespeares history plays are mainly written under the principle that national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity B. The examples:Henry VI (I, II, III ) are the beginning of Shakespeares epic treatment of English history. Henry IV (I, II, III ) are undoubtedly the most widely read among his history plays.2. The romantic comedies:A. The theme:In his romantic comedies, Shakespeare takes an optimistic attitude toward love and youth, and the romantic elements are brought into full play B. The example:The important play among the comedies is The Merchant of Venice.a. The traditional theme:The traditional theme of the play is to praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty, and to expose the insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew.b. The modern theme:Many people today tend to regard the play as a satire of the Christians hypocrisy and their false standards of friendship and love, their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice against Jews.3. The tragedies:A. The theme:The play, though a tragedy, is permeated with optimistic spirit.B. The example:The successful romantic tragedy is Romeo and Juliet, which eulogizes the faithfulness of love and the spirit of pursuing happiness.三. The greatest tragedies:1. The common features:Shakespeares greatest tragedies are: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. They have some characteristics in common. Each portrays some noble hero, who faces the injustice of human life and is caught in a difficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation.2. The realistic spirits Along with the portrayal of the weakness or bias of the hero, we see the sharp conflicts between the individual and the evil force in the society, which shows that Shakespeare is a great realist in the true sense.3. The analysisA. Hamlet:a. Hamlet, the first of the great tragedies, is generally regarded as Shakespeares most popular play on the stage.b. Hamlet has none of the single-minded blood lust of the earlier revengers. It is not because he is incapable of action, but because the cast of his mind is so speculative, so questioning, and so contemplative that action.c. His life is one of constant role-playing, examining the nature of action only to deny its possibility.d. By revealing the power-seeking, the jostling for place, Shakespeare condemns the hypocrisy and treachery and general corruption at the royal court.B. The Tempest: a. The Tempest, an elaborate and fantastic story, is known as the best of his final romances.b. The Tempest is a typical example of his pessimistic view towards human life and society in his late years.四. The artistic achievements1. The characters:A. Shakespeares major characters are neither merely individual ones nor type ones.B. By applying a psycho-analytical approach, Shakespeare succeeds in exploring the characters inner mind.C. Shakespeare also portrays his characters in pairs. Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to his characters.2. Construction:A. Shakespeares plays are well-known for their adroit plot construction. He borrows them from some old plays or storybooks, or from ancient Greek and Roman sources.B. He would shorten the time and intensify the story. There are usually several threads running through the play.3. Language and style:A. Irony is a good means of dramatic presentation. Disguise is also an important device to create dramatic irony, usually with woman disguised as man.B. He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary and idiom. His influence on later writers is immeasurable. Almost all English writers after him have been influenced by him either in artistic point of view, in literary form or in language.John Milton 约翰弥尔顿一. Works:Miltons literary achievements can be divided into three groups:1. The early works:Milton appears as the inheritor of all that was best in Elizabethan literature. Lycidas is a typical example.2. The middle works:His powerful pamphlets written during this period make him the greatest prose writer of his age.Areopagitica is probably his most memorable prose work.3. The last great poems:Milton wrote his three major poetical works: Paradise Lost, Paradise regained, and Samson Agonistes.二. The masterpieces:1. Paradise Lost:A. The theme and structure:Paradise Lost is a long epic divided into 12 books. The theme is the “Fall of Man”.B. The humanistic spiritsa. Working through the tradition of a Christian humanism, Milton wrote Paradise Lost, intending to expose the ways of Satan and to “justify the ways of God to man.”b. At the center of the conflict between human love and spiritual duty lies Miltons fundamental concern with freedom and choice.c. The freedom of the will is the keystone of Miltons creed.2. Paradise Regained:A. The content:Paradise Regained shows how mankind, in the person of Christ, withstands the tempter and is established once more in the divine favor.B. Theme:Christs temptation in the wilderness is the theme.3. Samson Agonistes:A. The source:In Samson Agonistes, Milton again borrows his story from the Bible. But this time he turns to a more vital and personal theme.B. The purpose:The poets aim was to present in English a pure tragedy, with all the passion and restraint. 第二章The Neoclassical Period 本章概述一 启蒙运动与新古典主义文学流派产生的历史背景。二 新古典主义的主要特征与基本主张；三 对同时代与后世英国文学的影响；四 主要作家与作品；文学史分析一 The time period: The neoclassical period is between the return of the Stuarts in 1660 and the full assertion(n.断言、主张) of Romanticism which came with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798.二The Age of Enlightenment:1.The outline(n.轮廓大纲)：A.The definition:The eighteenth-century England is also known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason.The Enlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement.B.The source:It flourished in France and swept through the whole Western Europe at the time.C.The nature:The movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.D.The purposeIts purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas.2.The rational principle:APrinciples：The enlighteners celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science.They held that rationality or reason should be the only,the final cause of any human thought and activities.BThe significance:It provided theory for the French Revolution of 1789 and the American War of independence in 1776C.The humanistic ideas:The enlighteners advocated universal education.They believed that human heings were limited,dualistic,imperfect,and capable(a.有能力的，能胜认的) of rationality and perfection through education.3.The literature features:Literature at the time,heavily didactic and moralizing,became a very popular means of public education.三The literature forms:1 The sentimental Literature:A.The background:In the last few decades of the 18th century ,however,the neoclassical emphasis upon reason,intellect,wit and form was rebelled against or challenged by the sentimentalists,and was gradually by Romanticism.B The significance:The poetic techniques and certain classical graces have become a permanent heritage(n. 遗产，继承物)2 The neoclassical poetry:A.The background:The neoclassical period witnessed the fourish of English poetry in the classical style climaxing with John Dryden.Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson .B The features:Much attention was given to the wit,form and art of poetry.3 The realistic novels:A The background:The mid-century was ,however,predominated by a newly rising literary form-the modern English novel,gives a realistic presentation of life of the common English people.B The features:This is a natural product of the industrial Revolution and a symbol of the growing importance and strength of the English middle class.4 The Gothic novels:A The background:From the middle part of the end of the century there was also an apparent shift of interest in literature creation.B The features:Gothic novels-mostly stories of mystery and horror which take place in some haunted or dilapidated Middle Age castles-were turned out profusely by both male and female writers.5 Others: Eulogizing or lamenting lyrics;The romantic poems;The theatrical world; The witty and satiric prose;作家作家作品Daniel Defoe 丹尼尔笛福一. The works1. The first novel: Robinson Crusoe.2. four other novels: Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack and Roxana.3. The pseudo-factual account of Great Plague: A Journal the Plague Year. 二. The masterpieces:1. Robinson Cruse:Robinson Crusoe, an adventure story very much in the spirit of the time, is universally considered his masterpiece.2. The rest four novels:His rest four novels deal with the personal history of some hero or heroine. The group of four novels clearly manifests Defoes deep concern for the poor and the unfortunate in his society. They are the first literary works devoted to the study of problems of the lower-class people.三. The Artistic features:1. The realistic novels:A. Defoe spoke for and to the members of his class and his novels enjoyed great popularity among the less cultivated.B. In most of his works, he gave his praise to the hard-working, sturdy middle class and showed his sympathy for the downtrodden, unfortunate poor.2. The language features:A. He had a gift for organizing minute detailsB. His sentences are sometimes short, crisp and plain, and sometimes long and rambling.C. His language is smooth, easy, colloquial and mostly vernacular.四. Selected Reading: Robinson Crusoe1. The outline:The novel consists actually of three parts though only the first part is most well-known and widely read. In this part the hero of the story, Robinson Crusoe, narrates in the first person his stories.2. The hero:A. In Robinson Crusoe, Defoe traces the growth of Robinson from a na?ve and artless youth into a shrewd and hardened man.B. Robinson is here a real hero: a typical eighteenth-century English middle-class man.C. He is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. In describing Robinsons life on the island, Defoe glorifies human labor and the Puritan fortitude.Jonathan Swift乔纳森斯威夫特一. The works:1. The works to establish his name:A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books established his name as a satirist.2. The letters of Drapier: He published, under the pseudonym of Drapier, a series of letters. Even today Swift is still respected as a national hero in Ireland.3. The greatest satiric work:He wrote and published his greatest satiric work, Gullivers Travels.二. The artistic features:1. The master satirist:A. Swift is a master satirist. His satire is usually masked by an outward gravity and an apparent earnestness.B. His “A Modest Proposal” is generally taken as a perfect model.2. The master of English prose:A. Swift is one of the greatest masters of English prose. His writing is simple, direct, precise prose. He defined a good style as “proper words in proper places.”B. Clear, simple, concrete diction, uncomplicated sentence structure, economy and conciseness of language mark all his writings.三. Selected Reading: Gullivers Travels1. Gullivers Travels, Jonathans best fictional work. The book contains four parts: His experience in Lilliput, Alone in Brobdingnag, Visit to the Flying Island and Account of his discoveries in the Houyhnhnm land. In structure, the four parts make an organic whole.2.Gulliver gives an account of some aspects of Lilliputian life and obviously alludes to the similar