英国作家.doc

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)1. Chaucer was called the “father of English poetry” by Dryden and is considered the forerunner of the literature of English Renaissance.2. His literary career can be divided into three periods: the first period consists of works adapted from French sources; the second period consists of works adapted from Italian sources, e.g. Troilus and Cressie; and the third period is purely English, e.g. The Canterbury Tales. In the third period, he is no longer a mere interpreter of other poets, but a master-hand with great originality.3. Chaucers English is Middle English. The spoken English of his day consisted of several dialects and he played an important role in making the dialect of London the foundation for modern English speech.4. In terms of literary technique, he introduced from France to English poetry the rimed stanzas of various types, esp. the heroic couplet (two rimed lines of iambic pentameter).5. His masterpiece is The Canterbury Tales, in which all classes of the English feudal society, except the royalty and the poorest peasant, are represented by the 31 pilgrims.6. “The General Prologue” of The Canterbury Tales serves as a small model of the English society of Chaucers time, so the Russian author Maxim Gorky regarded Chaucer as “the founder of English realism.”Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)1. He came to be known as the “poets poet” from being the master of different poetic forms and all kinds of verbal music. He influenced later poets such as Milton, Thomas Gray, Byron, Shelley, and Keats in his early period.2. He invented a poetic form known as Spenserian stanza which consists of 8 iambic pentameter lines followed by an iambic hexameter line (also called Alexandrine, a French heroic verse form), riming a b a b b c b c c. This form is used by many later poets.3. His masterpiece is The Faerie Queene, which is a mixture of epic and allegorical romance. Only 6 books and 2 cantos of the 7th book were completed upon his death. This poetic work is chiefly known for its rich imagery, ornate language, metrical pattern and musical qualities. The hero of Book I, a knight named Redcrosse, symbolizes the Anglican Church. The humanist tradition of the Renaissance embodied in this narrative poem includes: the adventurous spirit, the joy of the present life, the eulogy of the power and capabilities of man, as well as the love of nature and natural beauty.(An epic portrays a national hero while the hero in a romance is a knight. The dominant mood of epic is tragic heroic whereas romance presents an idealized picture of life.)Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)1. Marlowe was the greatest of the pioneers of English drama. His works paved the way for the plays of the greatest English dramatist Shakespeare.2. First, he made blank verse the principal medium of English drama. With his “mighty lines”, he combined the poetic rhythm with the rhythm and syntax of natural speech. Being vigorous, fluid and precise, this poetic form best conveys the restlessly moving and questing spirit of the Renaissance.3. Second, he developed a new concept of tragedy, which is centered around the struggle of a great personality doomed to inevitable failure by his limitations.4. The theme of Marlowes plays is the praise of individuality freed from the restraints of medieval dogmas and law, and the Renaissance mans supreme desire for infinite power and authority. However, those heroes individualistic ambition often brings ruin to the world and the themselves.5. Marlowes plays show the spirit of the rising bourgeoisie: its eager curiosity for knowledge, its towering pride, its insatiable appetite for power, its resolute determination and its scornful disregard of orthodox creed. All these are typical of the bourgeoisie in the era of the primitive accumulation of capital.William Shakespeare (1564-1616)1. Shakespeare is the greatest of all English authors and one of the greatest authors in world literature.2. He was born in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, which has become a tourist resort solely because it is Shakespeares hometown.3. He lived in a transitional period between the old feudal economic social order and a new capitalist society. Although he took his plots from old legends and chronicles, he really meant to present a truthful picture of life in contemporary England, therefore his drama becomes a monument to the English Renaissance, and he is regarded as one of the founders of realism in world literature.4. His writing career can be divided roughly into three periods: the first one, from 1590 to 1600, is the period of his apprenticeship in playwriting; the second period, from 1601 to 1608, is his period of great tragedies and the summit of his creativity; and his third period, from 1609 to 1612, yields plays which show a slight falling off from his previous height.5. Being both a playwright and poet, he was very prolific. He left behind him 37 plays, 2 narrative poems and 154 sonnets. His plays fall into three categories: comedies, tragedies and histories. These plays lay right before our eyes a world of full-blooded characters, which shows Shakespeares deep insight into human nature and human relations.6. There are different kinds of sonnet in terms of form, such as the Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet and the Shakespearean (English) sonnet. The sonnets he wrote are Shakespearean. A Shakespearean sonnet consists of 3 quatrains and a couplet, riming abab cdcd efef gg. A quatrain is a stanza of 4 lines riming abab, abba or abcb, etc. and a couplet consists of 2 riming lines.Francis Bacon (1561-1626)1. As one of the representatives of the Renaissance in England, Francis Bacon is a very influential philosopher, scientist and essayist. Some books even rank him among Confucius, Plato and Aristotle as one of the top ten thinkers of the world.2. His work falls into three categories: the philosophical, the literary and the professional (law). The best-known of the philosophical works is Novum Organum (an enlarged Latin version of the Advancement of Learning), the most important of his literary works is the Essays, which comprises 58 essays in its final edition of 1625, and the two famous professional treatises are Maxims of Law and The Learned Reading upon the Statute of Uses.3. He lays the foundation for modern science with his insistence on scientific way of thinking and fresh observation rather than authority as a basis for obtaining knowledge. As a philosopher, he founded a new inductive method of reasoning (as opposed to Aristotles deductive reasoning), which prepared the way for modern experimental science.4. His Essays has been recognized as an important landmark in the development of English prose. As an essayist, he had a great influence on the development of English rational (as opposed to poetic and imaginative) expression.5. Bacon cares more about axioms under the guidance of which man thinks and acts than human nature or morality. His most famous statement on learning is “Knowledge is power.”6. Bacons essays are famous for their brevity, compactness and powerfulness.John Donne (1572-1631)1. John Donne, as the leading figure of the “metaphysical school” of poets, influenced English literature in the way of boldness and originality. He remained a powerful influence even in modern times on such poets as T. S. Eliot.2. The metaphysical school comprises a succession of 17th-century English poets (Herbert, Vaughan, Crashaw, Marvell and Cowley as well as Donne) who broke away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry. They exalted feeling and thought above expression at a time when the tendency of literature was to extol style at the expense of thought. They blended passion and thought, feeling and logical reasoning. In terms of technique, they frequently applied “conceits” in preference to the well-worn conventional similes.3. A conceit is an extended metaphor involving a paradoxical image which causes a shock to the mind by the unlikeness of the association. This kind of image, forged as a result of admirable wit, unites sharply contrastive experiences in a single impact on the imagination.4. The most striking feature of Donnes poetry is its tang of reality in the sense that it seems to reflect life in a real rather than a poetic world. And the imagery is drawn from the actual life, too.5. Donnes poetry involves a certain kind of argument, sometimes in rigid syllogistic form. His diction is simple and echoes the words and cadences of common speech.6. The Songs and Sonnets is probably his best-known work. This anthology contains most of his early lyrics, and love is the basic theme in it. Donne believed that the nature of love is the union of soul and body. This runs counter to the medieval concept of love, which merely put stress on the spiritual aspect of it. The Holy Sonnets embodies Donnes religious convictions.John Milton (1608-1674)1. Milton is one of the greatest poets in world literature.2. His life was closely related to the English Revolution. He wrote pamphlets to assert the undisputed sovereignty of the people over the divine right of kings and defend the English Revolution. After the founding of the Commonwealth, he became Latin Secretary to the Council of Foreign Affairs. He was so dedicated to the translation work that he became blind in 1652. After the Restoration of Charles II, he was persecuted and spent the rest of his life in obscurity and poverty.3. His literary career divides sharply into three periods: during the first (1625-1640) he wrote a considerable quantity of verse in Latin; in the second (1640-1660) he wrote a large quantity of essays and pamphlets; in the last period (1660-1674) he produced all his ambitious poetry on which his fame chiefly rests.4. His early training in Hebrew and classical literatures gave him an inclination for the sublime theme and an unusual power of language. However, to modern readers his poetry is difficult because it is full of classical allusions and Latinisms.5. Being a great master of the blank verse, he is a pioneer to introduce blank verse into non-dramatic poetry, i.e. using blank verse to express epical themes.6. His masterpiece is Paradise Lost, which is generally regarded as the greatest English epic.John Bunyan (1628-1688)1. The western culture has produced three great religious allegories: Spensers The Faerie Queene, Dantes Divine Comedy and Bunyans The Pilgrims Progress. Bunyans fame chiefly rests on this masterpiece.2. Miltons Paradise Lost and Bunyans The Pilgrims Progress are the two most remarkable works in English literature that are imbued with the Puritan spirit.3. Bunyan lived at a time when political struggles adopted the form of religious battles, which may account for his inclination towards religious subject matter.4. The Pilgrims Progress tells a religious mans search for salvation in the form of allegory. It has been a widely read book partly because it bears a close relation with popular traditions of the English culture, i.e. that of the allegorical sermon and that of medieval and 16th-century romances. Another reason for the books popularity is that the characters in it are full-blooded men and women instead of shadowy figures that seem unreal and distant.Daniel Defoe (1661-1731)1. The 18th century was the golden age of the English novel. Defoes place in English literature was made for him by his novels. His masterpiece is Robinson Crusoe, which is based on a real event. Among other novels he wrote, some more intriguing ones are Captain Singleton (1720), Moll Flanders (1722) and Colonel Jacque (1722).2. Robinson Crusoe (1719) was one of the forerunners of the English realist novel. It creates the image of an enterprising Englishman, typical of the English bourgeoisie at the early stages of its growth. The positive side is its emphasis on Crusoes hardworking spirit and his courage to face difficulties in an unfriendly natural world. The negative side of the novel is that it embodies the germination of colonialism.3. Robinson Crusoe, as well as all his other novels, puts across the message that human nature is shaped by the environment. This idea is the major concern of the Enlightenment (an intellectual movement in 18th-century Europe).4. Defoe wrote simple, concise prose. He loved short, plain sentences. His English is smooth, easy and almost colloquial, yet never coarse. There is nothing artificial in his language. Therefore, his books are easy for common people to read.Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)1. Jonathan Swift is a satirist whose greatness lies in his unparalleled satirical depiction of the vices of his contemporary English society.2. He hated all kinds of oppression political, economic and religious. This may account for the powerful satire which marks both his novels and pamphlets and, to a certain extent, his unpopularity with any social group of his day.3. His masterpiece is the novel titled Gullivers Travels, which is an allegory in terms of form and a satire in terms of content.4. Satire is a form of attack through mockery. It may exist in any literary medium, e.g. poem, novel, essay, etc. It ridicules the follies and vices of society and thus brings contempt upon them. It is a kind of protest whose function is to destroy the root cause of such major moral diseases as hypocrisy, vanity and greed so as to uphold certain standards, ideals and moral values.Joseph Addison (1672-1719)1. Addison is often mentioned together with Richard Steele as essayists who put in circulation two periodicals: the Tatler (1709-11) and the Spectator (1711-12 and 1714), which were almost entirely written by them. 2. The essays in these periodicals are reflective comments on manners, morals, literature and philosophy, aimed at a wide audience. Particularly famous among the essays is the account of the daily life and opinions of a country gentleman, Sir Roger de Coverley in a series of sketches mainly written by Addison. Sir Roger embodies Addisons idea of a gentleman as a moral rather than a social phenomenon.3. Addison introduced new essentially middle-class standards of taste and judgment for essay writing characterized by grace, poise and familiarity. His style was acclaimed by Dr. Johnson as “the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not formal, on light occasions not groveling.”4. Addison was also a poet and a politician, an MP on the Whig side.Alexander Pope (1688-1744)1. As the representative of the Enlightenment, Pope was one of the first to introduce rationalism to England. Like the works of other Enlighteners, his poetry is didactic.2. He strongly advocated neoclassicism, emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rules of order, reason, logic, restrained emotion, good taste and decorum. Modeling himself on the Greek and Latin authors, his poetry is marked by conscious polishing and consummate craftsmanship graceful and artistic diction; and a satiric, concise, smooth and well-balanced style. However, with the growth of Romanticism, his poetry was increasingly seen as artificial.3. He brought to perfection the heroic couplet which had been originally introduced by Chaucer and later successfully used by Dryden.Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)1. He was a versatile writer and chiefly remembered as lexicographer, critic, poet and essayist, although he also wrote romance, tragedy and biography, etc.2. As a neoclassicist enlightener, he wrote works marked by didacticism, refined language and “learned words.”3. One theme that appears in almost all of his major writings is the vanity of all human wishes. He saw it as his mission to awaken men to this folly and to cure them of it through his writings.4. He distinguished himself as the author of the first English dictionary by an Englishman A Dictionary of the English Language (1755). Although some of the definitions are often quoted to illustrate his prejudice e.g. “Oats, n. a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people” the dictionary as a whole is a great work of scholarship. It is a landmark in the study and development of the English language.5. His Dictionary also marked the end of English writers reliance on the patronage of noblemen for support. On the eve of its publication, he wrote a letter in response to two papers written by Lord Chesterfield and this letter was, as it were, his personal declaration of independence.Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774)1. Goldsmith is novelist, poet, essayist and dramatist. His unusual versatility is testified by the his masterpieces: a novel, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766); a poem, The Deserted Village; a play, She Stoops to Conquer (1773); and his essays, The Citizen of the World (1762).2. Like Jonathan Swift, he was born in Ireland of English parentage.3. His literary quality is made up of humor, modesty, generosity and graceful lucidity, which he combined with the firm Augustan virtues of judiciousness, balance and proportion.4. The Vicar of Wakefield is a compromise between a fable and a novel. It has the directness and didacticism of the former and some of the circumstantial realism of the latter form.Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)1. Compared with the novel, English drama was weak in the 18th century and Sheridan was the only important dramatist of the age.2. Like Bernard Shaw and James Joyce, he was Irish.3. In his plays, morality is the constant theme.4. His dramatic techniques are largely conventional. His plots are well organized and his characters sharply drawn. His manipulation of such devices as disguise, mistaken identity and dramatic irony is superb.5. His masterpiece is The School for Scandal, which is regarded as the best comedy up to his time since Shakespeare. As a comedy