英国文学史笔记总结部分.doc

English Literature 英国文学史 笔记The Development of English LiteratureFrom the academic angle, English literature can be divided into seven periods: 1. Early and Medieval English literature; 2. The English Renaissance; 3. The 17th C. The Period of Revolution and Restoration; 4. The 18th Century The Age of Enlightenment 5. Romanticism in England in the 1st half of the 19th century; 6. The Victorian Age; 7. The 20th Century Literature Modernism and Post-ModernismChapter1 Literature of Old and Medieval Period(4491485)1) Anglo-Saxon Period /Old English Period (449-1066)The main literary contribution of this period is the Epic, and its masterpiece is the national epic The Song of Beowulf, which is a long poem of 3182 lines about the deeds of the Teutonic (条顿)hero Beowulf in the 6th century. It is the oldest poem in the English language and the oldest surviving epic in Anglo-Saxon literature. 2）The Anglo-Norman Period /Middle English Period (1066-1485)The literature of this period is greatly influenced by the Norman Conquest (1066). After the conquest, the customs and ideals known as chivalry was introduced by the Normans into England and can be reflected in literature, such as the knightly code, the romantic interest in women , tenderness and reverence paid to Virgin Mary etc. The prevailing form of literature in the Feudal England was Romance (传奇，骑士文学). The most famous Romance was Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Definitions of Literary Terms1. Couplet(对句): a couplet is two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.2. Iambic pentameter: each line has five feet of iambs; in each foot, there is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.3.Heroic Couplet(英雄偶句双韵体): two consecutive lines of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter. (an iambic pentameter couplet). The form was introduced into English by Geoffrey Chaucer and was widely used subsequently, reaching a height of popularity in the works of Alexander Pope.4. Blank Verse(无韵体，素体诗): unrhymed iambic pentameter.5. Epic(史诗): A long narrative poem on the adventures and great deeds of heroes.6. Frame story: a narrative that provides the framework within which a number of different stories, which may or may not be connected, can be told. (The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories in a frame story)7. Romance: A tale in verse, embodying the life and adventures of knights. The content of Romance was usually about love, chivalry and religion.Geoffrey Chaucer (about13401400) 杰弗里乔叟 “The Founder (Father) of English poetry”A Londoner of bourgeois origin, the most important and influential poet in medieval England, established English as a courtly language. Geoffreys Chaucers works are often categorized in three chronological periods (the French period, the Italian period and the English period).Chaucers Contributions. He introduced from French the “heroic couplet” to English poetry. He is the first important poet to write in the current English language. Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the foundation for modern English language.Geoffrey Chaucers famous work :The Canterbury Tales (13871400)坎特伯雷集 an unfinished series of stories told by a group of pilgrims(about 29), who came from all layers of society(a knight, a prioress, a plowman, a merchant, a clerk, the wife from Bath, etc.), journeying from London to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury. “The General Prologue” told us Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. But Chaucer had actually completed only 23 stories.Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales, and The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts. . Other works:1) The French period (to 1372): Book of Duchess (1369) 公爵夫人之书2) The Italian period (13721385): House of Fame (13791384) 声誉之宫 The Parliament of Fowls (13771382) 百鸟会议 The Legend of Good Women 贤妇传说 Troilus and Criseyde (13821385) 特洛伊罗斯与克丽西达3) The English period (13871400): The Canterbury Tales (13871400)Chapter 2 Literature of English Renaissance（14851616）The Renaissance as a cultural movement embraced all Western Europe roughly from the 14th century to the 17th century. It first sprang in Florence of Italy and then spread to the rest of Europe (to Germany and Spain and England). “Renaissance”, French for “rebirth”, refers to the revival of interest in ancient Roman and Greek culture.During this period, the classical arts and learning were discovered again and widely studied , so the term Renaissance originally indicated a revival of classical (Roman and Greek) arts and learning after the dark ages of medieval obscurantism , it also marked the beginning of bourgeois revolution . In the Renaissance period, scholars and educators called themselves humanists and began to emphasize the capacities of the human mind and the achievements of human culture, in contrast to the medieval emphasis on God and contempt for the things of this world. So humanism became the keynote of the English Renaissance. And the greatest humanist is Thomas More, the author of Utopia. The representatives in literature are Shakespeare and Bacon. The former has the greatest contribution in drama and sonnets while the latters essays are condensed and witty.代表人物： 1) Thomas More（14781535）托马斯莫尔 Utopia 乌托邦 2) Thomas Wyatt 托马斯怀亚特 He introduced sonnet into English literature引入十四行诗的第一人 sonnet(十四行诗)： form of poetry intricately rhymed(间隔押韵) in 14 lines iambic pentameter 3) Edmund Spenser（15221599）埃德蒙斯宾塞 “the poets poet”(诗人中的诗人) English poet whose long allegorical poem(寓言性浪漫史诗) The Faerie Queene 仙后 is one of the greatest in the English language. It was written in what came to be called the Spenserian stanza. Spenserian stanza： A nine-line stanza with the following rhyme scheme: ababbcbcc. The first eight lines are written in iambic pentameter. The last line is written in iambic hexameter 4) Christopher Marlowe （15641593）克里斯托弗马洛 “the most gifted writer of the University Wits” “the forerunner of English drama” “The Father of English Tragedy” (one-man tragedy) The greatest pioneer of English drama who made blank verse the principal vehicle of expression in drama.blank verse(无韵体：不押韵的五步抑扬格) 是十六世纪英国戏剧的主要表现形式。 5）Francis Bacon（15611626）弗兰西斯培根 the first English essayist the father of the English essayAn English philosopher, essayist and statesman, is a representative of the English Renaissance. As a literary figure, he played a central role in the development of English essay; while as the father of Empiricism, he laid the foundation for modern science in England. Bacons main works include The Advancement of Learning学术的推进 (1605), New Instrument 新工具 (1620), New Atlantics新大西岛 (1627) and Essays 论说文集 ( 1597). 6) Sir Philip Sidney(15541586)菲利普西德尼 An outstanding lyrical and epic poet 7）John Lyly Great popularity was won by his novel Euphues (尤弗伊斯) which gave rise to an affected style of court speech called “euphuism”(尤弗伊斯体/绮丽体)8）William Shakespeare(15641616) 威廉莎士比亚Shakespeare is not of an age, but for all time. Ben JohnsonOne of the most remarkable playwrights and poets the world has ever known. He contributed 154 sonnets, 37 (38?) plays, and 2 long narrative poems to the literary legacy of the world.William Shakespeares works:Four great comedies(四大喜剧): A Midsummer Nights Dream仲夏夜之梦; The Merchant of Venice威尼斯商人; Twelfth Night第十二夜;As you like it皆大欢喜.Four great tragedies（四大悲剧）: Hamlet（1601）哈姆雷特; Othello（1604）奥赛罗King Lear（1605）李尔王; Macbeth（1605）麦克白Sonnet: A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter. 1. It originated from Italy .Thomas Wyatt introduced it to English in the 16th century . 2. Sonnet has two types: (1) The Italian sonnet （Petrarchan sonnet）（Petrarch is an Italian poet in the 14th century.) (2) The English or Shakespearean sonnet 莎士比亚十四行诗 ( The Shakespearean sonnet) 的节律是五音步抑扬格。全诗包 括三个四行组和一个两行组，韵脚按abab cdcd efef gg排列，称为“莎士比亚式 ”， “伊丽莎白式” “或英国式 ”。意式（彼特拉克式）十四行诗(The Petrarchan sonnet)的格式，即包括一个八行节（octave）和一个六行节（sestet），韵脚按abba abba cdecde。Chapter3 Literature of the 17th centuryThe 17th century was one of the most tempestuous periods in English history. It was a period when absolute monarchy impeded the further development of capitalism in England and the bourgeoisie could no longer bear the sway of landed nobility. The contradictions between the feudal system and the bourgeoisie had reached its peak and resulted in a revolutionary outburst.The 17th-century literature was greatly influenced by the bourgeoisie revolution against monarchy. The politically tempestuous period made the literature one of confusion in the Puritan Age. The greatest representatives of this period are the “Three Johns”: John Milton, John Donne, the representative of the Metaphysical School and John Bunyan, a great prose writer. John Donne约翰邓恩 (1572-1631) John Donne is the most outstanding of the English Metaphysical Poets（英国玄学派诗人）today and very influential upon modern writers; at his time, Donne was a preacher famous for his magnificent sermons.1. Early works ( written before 1600, 55 love poems) Songs and Sonnets: The Flea 跳蚤 Song歌Womans Constancy 女人的忠贞 A Valediction : of Weeping别离辞：谈哭泣 A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning别离辞莫悲伤 2. Religious poems and sermonsMetaphysical Poetry: The poetry of John Donne and other seventeenth-century poets who wrote in a similar style. Metaphysical poetry is characterized by verbal wit（巧智）, ingenious structure, irregular meter, colloquial language, elaborate imagery, and a drawing together of dissimilar ideas.Conceit (奇喻): A kind of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things.Forbidding Mourning别离辞莫悲伤 The speaker uses the conceit to compare their inseparable relationship to the compasses whose two legs are separated on the two-dimensional surface, yet are combined together in the third dimension.The imagery of compasses demonstrates that perfect love is a union of the body and the soul, or to love the beloved both physically and spiritually. Ernest Hemingway: The American writer who won the 1954 Nobel Prize in literature by The Old Man and The Sea. Both the title and the inspiration of his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls are derived from a sermon by Donne. “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent Each mans death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankindAnd therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”T. S. Eliot: One of the most distinguished literary figures of the 20th century, who won the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature. His Donne-worship is reflected in his work The Metaphysical PoetsJohn Bunyan (16281688) 约翰班扬John Bunyan is an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrims Progress. Pilgrims Progress was written as a book of religious instructions in the form of allegory and dream. Bunyan wrote Pilgrims Progress in two parts, the first of which was published in London in 1678 and the second in 1684. the earliest edition in which the two parts combined in one volume came in 1728.约翰班扬 英国著名作家、布道家。出生于英格兰东部区域贝德福德郡的贝德福德。青年时期曾被征入革命的议会军，后在故乡从事传教活动。1660年斯图亚特王朝复辟，当局借口未经许可而传教，把他逮捕入狱两次，分别监禁十二年、六个月。狱中写就天路历程（The Pilgrims Progress），内容讲述基督徒及其妻子先后寻找天国的经历，语言简洁平易，被誉为“英国文学中最著名的寓言”。Allegory：A narrative in which the characters and the setting stand for abstract qualities and ideas. The writer of an allegory is not primarily trying to make the characters and their actions realistic, but to make them representative of ideas or truths.John Milton约翰弥尔顿(1608-1674)John Milton was an English poet, a polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost.Miltons literary career can be generally divided into three periods:1. The early period of poetic works;2. The middle period of prose pamphlets;3. The last period of great prose弥尔顿是清教徒文学的代表，他的一生都在为资产阶级民主运动而奋斗，代表作失乐园是和荷马史诗、神曲并称为西方三大诗歌。Works: Paradise lost 失乐园 Paradise regained 复乐园 Samson Agonistes 力士参孙Chapter4 Literature of the 18th Century (16881798)After the tempestuous events of the 17th century, England entered a period of a comparatively peaceful development. With the advent of the 18th century, England as well as other European countries sprang into life a public movement known as the Enlightenment, which, on the whole, was an expression of the struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeoisie against feudalism, the purpose of which was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideals.With the introduction of the Enlightenment Movement into England, a revival of interest in the old classical 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 (Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, etc.) and those of the contemporary French ones. They believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy. The 18th century English literature can be roughly divided into three stages: (1) The English Neo-classical movement or the Neo-classicism. Neo-classicism flourished in England from late the 17th century to 1730s. Pope, Addison, and Steele were the representatives of this school. The Neo-classicists modeled themselves after the ancient Greek and Latin writers.(2) The second stage lasted from 1740s to 1750s, which saw the rise of modern English novel. Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and George Smollett were among the Pioneers(3) The third stage, also known as the Age of Johnson, is from the 1750s to 1798, with the appearance of Sentimentalism and Pre-romanticism as protests against the social injustice of the day. Most of the Sentimentalism writers were in the field of poetry, such as Edward Young and Thomas Gray. Pre-romanticism manifested itself chiefly in the poetry of William Blake and Robert Burns.1. Alexander Pope (16881744) 亚历山大蒲柏18世纪最伟大的诗人；杰出的启蒙主义者Pope made the Heroic Couplet perfect by the closed couplet.蒲柏深受法国古典主义文学理论家布瓦落（NicolasBoileau-Despraux，1636-1711）的影响，在批评论一诗中提出只有自然才是值得研究和描写的对象，诗人不能离开自然，并认为古希腊、罗马的诗歌是最优秀的艺术典范。蒲柏遵循着这种古典主义的原则进行文学创作。1713年起，他着手翻译荷马的史诗伊利亚特和奥德赛，他并没有准确地进行翻译，而是根据当时英国时代精神进行再创作，他自己说如果荷马生活在18世纪的英国，也一定会这样写作这两部史诗。但是这两种译本在英国大受欢迎，第一部英语词典的编纂者约翰逊博士称赞为“世界前所未见的高贵的诗译作”。依靠这两部书的收入，足以使他的生活不必依靠赞助，并使他稳居英国桂冠诗人的宝座.蒲柏的代表作：Pastorals田园诗集（(1709) An Essay on Criticism批评论 (1711) 讽刺长诗鬈发遇劫记（The Rape of the Lock 1714），诗人称之为“英雄滑稽诗”（An Heroi-Comical Poem）。这部作品对英国上流社会的无聊生活提出了温和的批评。蒲柏的其他诗作还有讽刺长诗愚人志（The Dunciad，1742）、哲理诗道德论（Moral Essays，1731-1735）、人论（An Essay on Man，1734）和与阿布斯诺博士书（Epistleto Dr. Arbuthnot，1735）等。另外，蒲柏还编纂了莎士比亚的戏剧集。2. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) 乔纳森斯威夫特英国-爱尔兰作家 讽刺文学大师Major Works:The Battle of the Books 书的战争 (the first notable work)Anale of a Tub 一个木桶的故事Gullivers Travels 格列佛游记 The Drapiers Letters布商的书信A Modest Proposal一个温和的建议 Gullivers Travels, written in 1726 is the immortal work of Jonathan Swift. Though its been labeled a childrens book, its also a great satire of the times that is pretty much beyond most children. It shows Jonathans desire to encourage people to read deeper and not take things for granted: readers who paid attention could match all of Gullivers tall tales with current events and long-term social problems. 1. The voyage in Lilliput 2. The voyage in Brobdingnag3. The voyage in the flying island of Laputa 4. The voyage in Houyhnhnms 3. Daniel Defoe（16601731）丹尼尔笛福 One of the forerunners of the modern novel英国作家，新闻记者。英国启蒙时期现实主义小说的奠基人，被誉为“小说之父”代表作鲁滨逊漂流记4. Henry Fielding（1707-1754）亨利菲尔丁“comic epic in prose”18世纪最杰出的英国小说家，戏剧家。其代表作品汤姆琼斯对后世影响极大。5. Oliver Goldsmith（1730-1774）奥利弗哥德史密斯A Novel The Vicar of WakefieldComedies She Stoops to Conquer The Good-natured ManShe Stoops to Conquer and Richard Taylor Sheridans The School for Scandal (the summit of comedy of manners) and Rivals are the three plays of the 18th c. that are still active on the modern stage.A series of essays The Citizen of the WorldTwo fine poems: The Traveller旅行者The Deserted Villager 荒村The most outstanding figure of English sentimentalism was Laurence Sterne. His Tristram Shandy（商弟传） and Sentimental Journey（伤感旅行）reveal a purely emotional approach to life on the part of the narrator.6. Thomas Gray托马斯格雷(1716-1771)英国18世纪重要诗人,也是英国新古典主义后期的重要诗人。格雷一生作诗不多，仅十余首传世，其中以墓园挽歌Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750) 最为著名。此诗创作长达8年之久，最初是为了哀悼他在伊顿公学读书时的好友里查德 韦斯特，至少诗末所附的“墓志铭”是为他而作。Sentimentalism The middle of the 18th century in England sees the inception of a new literary current sentimentalism, which came into being as a bitter discontent in social reality on the part of certain enlighteners who found the power of reason to be insufficient in dealing with social injustices, and therefore, appealed to sentiment as a means of achieving happiness and justice.The Graveyard School(墓园派): A group of 18th-century poets, and among them are Thomas Gray, Robert Blair, Thomas Parnell, and Edward Young, who wrote on funeral subjects.Elegy：A poem of mourning , usually over the death of an individual . Elegy Written in a Country ChurchyardTheme: By mourning over the dead, the poet is sentimentalizing about the vicissitudes of human life and inconstancy of human fortune.7. William Blake 威廉布莱克 (17571827)英国第一位重要的浪漫主义诗人， 是一位复杂的多重人物。除了诗人，他同时还是画家、雕刻家。Blakes Stylev Blakes poems seem easy but difficult to und