英国文学复习,书本总结

Review Important literary events trends famous writers works characteristics Text analysis Unit one Early and Medieval English Literature The Celtic tribes the earliest inhabitants of Britain Beowulf is the national epic of the Anglo Saxons it tells about Anglo Saxons early life in England its language is characterized by alliteration Geoffrey Chaucer 乔叟 Father of English Poetry the earliest modern poet whose works have the promise of the English Renaissance Famous work The Canterbury Tales Unit Two The English Renaissance 16th 1640 Renaissance is a literary movement over Europe from the 14th to the early 17th centuries Renaissance is characterized by disbelief in Medieval theology and an increased interest in human activities and admiration for human beauty and achievement and a desire for infinite power through knowledge People try to promote the interests of man through the study of classics Humanism is the key note of the renaissance Renaissance reaches England in about the 16th century and is assumed to end around 1640 Drama is the best expression of the English renaissance The renaissance period created a culture that freed man to discover and enjoy the world in a way not possible under the medieval church s domination It shattered the medieval church s stifling control over men thus paving the way for the development of capitalism Drama The beginning religious drama a miracle plays b morality play During the reign of Elizabeth 1558 1603 drama flourished Marlowe founded the Elizabethan tragedy and made blank verse the medium of tragedy Shakespeare wrote nearly 40 plays His famous comedies Much Ado About Nothing 无事生 非 Mid Summer Night s Dream As You Like It 皆大欢喜 Romance play The Tempest 暴风雨 4 tragedies Shakespeare and the Earl of Surrey made blank verse the principal vehicle of expression in drama Renaissance poetry The Fairie Queene is Spenser s 斯宾赛 masterpiece Renaissance Prose Thomas More an early humanist wrote Utopia The earliest translation of the Bible Wyclif Bible from Latin to English is done by John Wyclif In 1611 King James issued King James Bible or the Authorized Version Francis Bacon An philosopher writer and statesman of the early 17th century Famous work Essays Of Studies Language and Style aphoristic concise full of parallelism and metaphor Unit 4 The Early 17th Century John Milton 弥尔顿弥尔顿 A great poet An active supporter of Puritan s revolution and the republic In 1667 he wrote Paradise Lost followed by Paradise Regained These two books wined him great fame and made him the greatest poet of that period His works have two strains the puritan and the classic Another two groups of poets Cavalier 与查理一世的朝廷有联系的一群 17 世纪英国诗人 poets and the Metaphysical 形而上学的 poets Unit Five The Restoration and the 18th Century The 18th Century is the age of enlightenment or reason The reasoning intellect is applied to everything as the sole measure Jonathan Swift 1667 1745 Anglo Irish social critic novelist a master of biting satirical essays one of the greatest satirist in English literature Works Gulliver s Travels A Modest Proposal Satire A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony derision or wit Poetry of the period Neat and reasonable heroic couplet predominant with Pope as representative poet of neo classicism rimed couplet three unities of time place and action regularity in construction presentation Pope 蒲柏 1688 1744 An outstanding enlightener the most important classical poet in the first half of the 18th century representative of the English classic poetry Works Essays on Criticism 23 old The Rape of the Lock ESSAY ON MAN 1 the rhythm meter and rhyme The poem is heroic couplet Iambic Pentameter aabbccdd 2 Rhetoric devices oxymoron paradox parallelism contrast 3 Characteristics heroic couplets direct compact epigrammic language graceful and orderly philosophical full of maxims 格言 epigrams 警句 minute workmanship 技巧 Thomas Gray s Elegy written in a Country Churchyard shows his sympathy towards the poor Unit 6 Romantic Poets In contrast to the rationalism in 18th century the romanticists paid attention to the spiritual and emotional life of man Romanticism Imaginative but impractical visionary An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature sympathy for common people emphasis on the individual s free expression of emotion and imagination departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism and rebellion against established social rules and conventions and ideals for the future Dissatisfied with the bourgeois society and disillusioned with French ideologue s 空想家 圣 西门 utopia romanticists either tried to escape from the prosaic and sordid life or to rebel and strive for an ideal society Their writings are filled with strong willed heroes formidable 可怕的 events tragic situations powerful conflicting passions and exotic pictures Romanticists Wordsworth Coleridge and Southey lake poets passive or escapist romanticists missing the feudal past and turning to nature Active romanticsts yearn for humanity s liberation and rebelled fiercely than had their predecessors Byron Shelley and Keats Wordsworth and Coleridge co publish Lyrical Ballads with a Few Other Poems is regarded as the mark of the beginning of the English Romantic Poetry Wordsworth 1770 1850 a great poet of nature is considered to be the founding father of Romanticism Works To the Cuckoo The solitary Reaper In 1843 named as Poet Laureate of England Unit 7 The Novel 1720 1880 The novel reaches maturity Jane Austen 1775 1817 Sense and Sensibility Pride and Prejudice Emma The Great period of novel 1815 1880 The Victorian period 1837 1901 the great period of novel Charles Dickens The greatest realist of the time Works Oliver Twist David Copperfield Great Expectations George Eliot 艾略特 Works The Mill on the Floss 弗洛斯河上的磨房 Silas Marner 织工马 南 Thomas Hardy Works Tess of the D Urbervilles Jude the Obscure He underwent the painful loss of faith in the second half of the 19th century This led him to a tragic philosophy that human beings are the victims of indifferent forces Fateful circumstances tragic coincidences were abound in his novels However the pessimism and coincidences were minor compared with the great realism he depicted Charlotte Bronte work Jane Eyre A model of modern independent woman The novel reflects the author s advocation of women s equality with men Jane possesses merits which used to be the privilege of men She rebels against unfair treatment strives for happiness and conquers various obstacles and temptations and adheres to her noble spiritual principle Emily Bronte work Wuthering Heights She brings human passion against society with extraordinary violence while at the same time retaining a cool artistic control Unit 9 Into the 20th century Joseph Conrad Great modern English writers He sails around the world and become a master mariner Work Heart of Darkness E M Forster Work A Passage to India D H Lawrence The most influential and controversial figures of 20th century He celebrated human s natural emotion and opposes the artificiality of modern industrial society with its dehumanization of life and love Work Sons and Lovers deals with Oedipus complex Lady Chatterley s lover s open and frank treatment of sexual matters arouses great attack and cr