英国文学史各个时期中的文学流派British literature in each period.doc

British literature in each periodOld English and Middle EnglishOld English was referred to the period of the English language and English countries. The earliest form of literature was poetry which spread orally, and the main poet was bards. When Christianity spread to Britain, some poems were recorded. At this period the most important literature of the British national epic was Beowulf written with head blank.Old English period（10661500） From the Normans conquered England in 1066 to 1,500 years around London dialect became accepted modern English literature, forms of main was ballad, poetry and knight legend. In a few groups in the legend, the British knights of the subject was king Arthur and his knights adventure stories, including The Green Knight and Heroes of the Marshes which represented the highest achievement in medieval knight legends. A lot of excellent folk emerged, and the most representative was the folk singing for hero Robin Hood .The most important poet known as the father of English poetry was the Chaucer. The Canterbury tales which achieved high artistic accomplishment was his representative works. He created the double blank poetry. Five steps to raise grid was adopted by many British poet. Chaucer written with London dialect laid the foundation of the literary creation, and promoted the development of the English language and literature.During the Renaissance British literature developed in poetry, prose, and especially prosperity.The poetry, the new poetic forms like sonnets and black verse were introduced to Britain. Philip Sidney was a famous poet. He wrote many beautiful sonnets, also created one of the earliest poetry A Defence of Poetry. Edmund Spenser wrote The Fairy Queen with Spencer method. Shakespeare is not only a drama writer but also a great poet, besides two poems, two epic and 154 sonnets.English version of Authorized Version (AV) in 1611, not only made great religious significance, but also a great literary works, and made great influence on British language culture. Its simple, easy and clear prose style laid the traditional British prose. A famous philosopher and essayist Francis Bacon wrote his literary works Essays which Included 58 essays he published in each period. Drama represented the highest achievement of English literature during the Renaissance. Main dramatists were Christopher Marlowe and W. Shakespeare.British literature in the 17th centuryBritish society in the 17th century is one of the severe turbulence. Because of the autocratic monarchy and the bourgeoisie, the conflict between the civil war broke out in 1642, and resulted in the glorious revolution in 1688. The political struggle and the bourgeois revolution ideology were closely connected with the Puritan religious struggle. So this period of literature and art showed the development and growth of revolutionary ideas, and had a strong Puritan tendency. Two representatives were Milton and Bunyan. Miltons masterpiece Paradise Lost and Bunyans masterpiece The Pilgrims Progress were both based on The Bible. The Pilgrims Progress was an allegory works, which used Christian to the heaven to present mankind pursuing the bright future.British literature in the 18th centuryThe 18th century produced a kind of progress trend- the Enlightenment. During this period, the writers and thinkers advocated rational thought. They thought enlightenment education was the basic method of social transformation. Therefore the 18th century was called the rational era. In the field of literature embodied in the eighteenth century was neoclassicism. Representative writers were A.Pope, R.Steele, and J.Addison.Britains modern fictions and a plenty of influential novelists rose in the mid 18th. Pamela written by Samuel Richardson used the form of epistolary to describe the characters of the psychological activity, which greatly enriched the creation of novels.The Vicar of Wakefield written by Oliver Goldsmith was one of the famous sentiment novels in British literature. Laurence Sterne broke traditional narrative methods and created Tristram Shandy, so he was believed to be the forerunner of British modernist literature.Daniel Defoe was the first realist in British literature. His masterpiece was Robinson Crusoe.Swift was the famous novelist, who used sharp writing to expose hypocrisy and corruption of the society and the church. His masterpiece was Gullivers Travels.Henry Fielding is one of the most outstanding novelists, who contributed to the development of novel in theory and practice for the British. In his masterpiece Tom Jones, he created many lifelike characters and demonstrated the intricacies of the social contradictions.British literature in the 19th centuryThe 19th century British literature mainly included Pre-Romantic Period and the later period of the critical realism novels. Black and Burns belong to former romantic poets. Blacks masterpiece was Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Burns was a famous national poet of Scotland. He wrote a lot of poetries for friendship, love, praises and liberty. Among them A Red Red Rose was widespread.Romantic heyday began with William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge jointly issued Lyrical ballads to the death of George Eliot. The main literary achievements were poetry. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey who have often been mentioned as the “Lake Poets”, George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats were eulogized as rich revolutionary ideals of freedom and liberty. In the 19th century Critical Realist writer who had deep sympathy to poor people described the British bourgeois society, and exposed and criticized the bourgeois society. Charles Dickens was Britains most outstanding critical realist who was good at describing the bottom of peoples life and thoughts, ideas, and works, while William Makepeace Thackeray was good at describing the upper society people. Critical realist female novelist and their representative works: Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Mrs. Gaskell, George Eliot. Th