刘炳善英国文学简史笔记免费

1、英国文学简史完全版A Con cise History of British LiteratureChapter 1 En glish Literature of An glo-Sax on PeriodI. I ntroducti on1. The historical backgro und(1) Before the Germanic invasion(2) During the Germanic invasiona. immigrati on;b. Christia ni ty;(lord )-or bondmen:c. heptarchy.d. social classes stru

2、cture: hide-h un dred; eolderme nthane - middle class(freemen) - lower class (slavetheow);e. social orga ni zati on: cla n or tribes.f. military Orga ni zati on;g. Church function: spirit, civil service, education;h. economy: coins, trade, slavery;i. feasts and festival: Hallowee n, Easter; j. legal

3、 system.2. The Overview of the culture(1) The mixture of pagan and Christian spirit.(2) Literature: a. Poetry: two types; b. prose: two figures.II. Beowulf.1. A gen eral in troducti on.2. The content.3. The literary features.(1) the use of alliteration(2) the use of metaphors and understatements(3)

4、the mixture of pagan and Christian elementsIII. The Old En glish Prose1. What is prose?2. figures(1) The Venerable Bede(2) Alfred the GreatAgesChapter 2 En glishLiterature of the Late MedievalI.I ntroducti on1. The Historical Backgro und.(1) The year 1066: Norman Con quest.(2) The social situations

5、soon after the conquest.A. Norma n no bles and serfs;B. restorati on of the church.(3) The 11th century.A. the crusade and kni ghts.B. dominance of French and Lat in;(4) The 12th century.A. the cen tralized gover nment;B. kings and the church (Henry II and Thomas );(5) The 13th century.A. The lege n

6、d of Robin Hood;B. Magna Carta(1215);C. the beg inning of the Parliame ntD. English and Latin: official languages(the end )(6) The 14th century.a. the House of Lords and the House of Com mons con flict betwee nthe Parliament and Kings;b. the rise of tow ns.c. the cha nge of Church.d. the role of wom

7、e n.e. the Hun dred Years War starti ng.f. the developme nt of the trade: London.g. the Black Death.h. the Peasa nts Revolt1381.i. The tran slati on of Bible by Wycliffe.(7) The 15th century.a. The Peasa nts Revolt (1453)b. The War of Roses betwee n Lan caster and Yorks.c. the printin g-press Willia

8、m Caxt on.d. the starti ng of Tudor Mo narchy(1485)2. The Overview of Literature.(1) the stories from the Celtic lands of Wales and Brittany great myths of the Middle Ages.(2 ) Geoffrye of Monm out Historia Regum Brita nniae Ki ng Authur.(3) Wace Le Roman de Brut.(4) The romanee.(5) the second half

9、of the 14th century: Langland, Gawin poet,Chaucer.II. Sir Gawin and Green Kni ght.1. A gen eral in troducti on.2. The plot.III. William Langland.1. Life2. Piers the Plowma nIV. Chaucer1. Life2. Literary Career: three periods(1) French period(2) Italian period(3) master period3. The Can terbury Tales

10、A. The Framework;B. The Gen eral Prologue;C. The Tale Proper.4. His Con tributio n.(1) He in troduced from Fra nee the rhymed sta nza of various types.(2) He is the first great poet who wrote in the eurrent EnglishIan guage.(3) The spoken English of the time eonsisted of several dialects, and Chauce

11、r did much in making the dialect of London the standardfor the moder n En glish speech.V. Popular Ballads.VI. Thomas Malory and En glish ProseVII. The beg inning of En glish Drama.1. Miracle Plays.Miracle play or mystery play is a form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of

12、 the Roman Catholic Church.It developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching its height in the 15th century. The simple lyric character of the early texts was enl arged by the additi on of dialogue and dramatic acti on.Eve ntually the performa nee was moved to the churchyard and themarketplac

13、e.2. Morality Plays.A morality play is a play enforcing a moral truth or less on by means of the speech and actionof characters which are personifiedabstractions figures representing vices and virtues, qualitiesof the huma n mind, or abstract con ceptio ns in gen eral.3. I nterlude.The in terlude, w

14、hich grew out of the morality, was inten ded, asits name implies, to be used more as filler than as the main part of an entertainment. As its best it was short, witty, simple in plot, suited for the divers ion of guests at a banq uet, or for the relaxationof the audienee between the divisions of a s

15、erious play.It was esse ntially an in doors performa nee, and gen erally of an aristocratic n ature.Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance I.A HistoricalBackgro undII. The Overview of the Literature(1485-1660)Prin ti ngpress readership growthofmiddleclass trade-educati onforlaypeople-ce ntr

16、alizatio nofpower- in tellectuallife-explorati on-new impetus and directi on of literature.Humanism-study of the literature of classicalantiquityand reformed educati on.Literary style-modeled on the ancients.The effect of humanism-the dissemination of the cultivated, clear, and sen sible attitude of

17、 its classically educated adhere nts.1. poetryThe first tendency by Sidney and Spenser:? ornate, florid, highly figured style.The sec ond tendency by Donne: metaphysical style complexity andingenu ity.The third tendency by Joh nson: reacti on Classically pure andrestrai ned style.The fourth tendency

18、 by Milt on: cen tral Christia n and Biblical traditi on.2. Dramaa. the n ative traditi on and classical examples.b. the drama sta nds highest in popular estimati on: Marlowe-Shakespeare - Jonson.3. Prosea. tran slati on of Bible;b. More;c. Bacon.II. En glish poetry.1. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry How

19、ard (courtly makers )(1) Wyatt: introducing sonnets.(2) Howard: introducing sonnets and writing the first blankverse.2. Sir Philip Sidney poet, critic, prose writer(1) Life:a. En glish gen tlema n;b. brillia nt and fasc in at ing pers on ality;c. courtier.(2) worksa. Arcadia: pastoral roma nee;b. As

20、trophel and Stella( 108) : sonnet seque nee to Pen elopeDvereuxplat onic devotio n.Petrarcha ncon ceitsand origi nal feeli ngs-movi ng tocreative ness buildi ng?ofa n arrativestory; theme-loveorigi nality-act of writi ng.c. Defense of Poesy:an apology forimag in ativeliterature beg innin g?of litera

21、ry criticism.3. Edm und Spe nser(1) life: Cambridge - Sidneys friend - “Areopagus” 一 Ireland-Westm in ster Abbey.(2) worksa. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry in Ren aissa nee.b. Amoretti and Epithalam ion: sonnet seque neee. Faerie Quee n:l The gen eral endA roma ntic and allego

22、rical epiesteps tovirtue.l 12 books and 12 virtues:? Holi ness, tempera nee, justice and courtesy.l Two-level funetion: part of the story and part of allegory(symbolic meaning )l Many allusi ons to classical writers.L Themes: puritanism,nationalism,humanism and RenaissaneeNeoclassicism a Christia n

23、huma ni st.(3) Spenserian Stanza.III. English Prose1. Thomas More(1) Life:“Renaissanee man” ，scholar, statesman, theorist,prose writer, diplomat, patron of artsa. lear ned Greek at Can terbury College, Oxford;b. studies law at Lincoln Inn;c. Lord Chan cellor;d. beheaded.(2) Utopia: the first English

24、 scienee fiction.Writte n in Lat in, two parts, the sec ond place of no where.A philosophical mariner (Raphael Hythloday ) tells his voyagesin which he discovers a Ian d-Utopia.a. The part one is organized as dialogue with mariner depictinghis philosophy.b. The part two is a description of the islan

25、d kingdom where goldand silver are worn by crim in al, religious freedom is total andno one owns anything.c. the nature of the book: attacking the chief political and social evils of his time.d. the book and the Republic: an attempt to describe the Republicin a new way, but it possesses an modern ch

26、aracter and the resembla nee is in exter nals.e. it played a key role in the Humanist awakening of the 16th centurywhich moved away from the Medieval otherworldlinesstowardsRen aissa nee secularism.f. the Utopia(3) the significanee.a. it was the first champion of national ideas and national Ianguage

27、s; it created a national prose, equally adapted to handlingscientific and artistic material.b. a elega nt Lat in scholar and the father of En glish prose: he composed works in En glish, tran slated from Lati n in to En glish biography, wrote History of Richard III.2. Francis Bacon: writer, philosoph

28、er and statesman(1) life: Cambridge - huma nism in Paris kni ghted - LordChan cellor bribery - focus ing on philosophy and literature.(2 ) philosophical ideas: advancement of scienee people: servants? and interpretersof nature method: a child beforenature facts and observati ons: experime ntal.(3)“

29、Essays” : 57.a. he was a master of nu merous and varied styles.b. his method is to weigh and bala nee maters, in dicat ingthe idealcourse of action and the practical one, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each, but leaving the reader? to makethe final decisi ons.(argume nts)IV. En gli

30、sh Drama1. A gen eral survey.(1) Everyman marks the beginning of modern drama.(2) two in flue nces.a. the classics: classical in form and English in content;b. n ative or popular drama.(3) the University Wits.2. Christopher Marlowe: greatest playwright before Shakespeare and most gifted of the Wits.

31、(1) Life: first interested in classical poetry then in drama.(2) Major worksa. Tamburla ine;b. The Jew of Malta;c. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.(3) The significanee of his plays.V. William Shakespeare1. Life(1) 1564, Stratford-on-Avon;(2) Grammar School;(3) Queen visit to Castle;(4) marria

32、ge to Anne Hathaway;(5) London, the Globe Theatre: small part and proprietor;(6) the 1st Folio, Quarto;(7) Retired, son Hamlet; H. 1616.2. Dramatic career3. Major plays-me n-ce ntered.(1) Romeo and Juliettragic love and fate(2) The Mercha nt of Ven ice.Good over evil.An ti-Semitism.(3) He nry IV.Nat

33、i onal uni ty.Falstaff.(4) Julius CaesarRepublicanism vs. dictatorship.(5) HamletRevengeGood/evil.(6) OthelloDiabolic characterjealousygap betwee n appeara nee and reality.(7) King LearFilial in gratitude(8) MacbethAmbiti on vs. fate.(9) Antony and Cleopatra.Passi on vs. reas on(10) The TempestRecon

34、 ciliati on; reality and illusi on.3. Non-dramatic poetry(1) Venus and Adonis; The Rape of Lucrece.(2) Sonnets:a. theme: fair, true, kind.b. two major parts: a han dsome young man of no ble birth; a ladyin dark complexi on.c. the form: three quatrains and a couplet.d. the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, e

35、fef, gg.VI. Ben Jonson1. life: poet, dramatist, a Latin and Greek scholar, the “ literaryking ”(Sons of Ben )2. c on tributio n:(1) the idea of“ humor.(2) an advocate of classical drama and? a forerunner of classicismin En glish literature.3. Major plays(1) Every one in His Humor “ humor” ; three un

36、 ities.(2) Volpone the FoxChapter 4 En glish Literature of the 17th Cen tury I.A HistoricalBackgro undII. The Overview of the Literature(1640-1688)1. The revolution period(1) The metaphysical poets;(2) The Cavalier poets.(3) Milt on: the literary and philosophical heritage of the Ren aissa nee merge

37、d with Protesta nt political and moral conv icti on2. The restorati on period.(1 ) The restorationof Charles II ushered in a literaturecharacterized by reas on, moderati on, good taste, deft man ageme nt, and simplicity. (school of Ben Jonson )(2 ) The ideals of impartialinvestigationand scientifice

38、xperimentation promotedby the newlyfounded Royal Society ofLondon for Impro ving Natural Kno wledge(1662) were in flue ntialin the developme nt of clear and simple prose as an in strume nt of rati onal com muni cati on.(3) The great philosophical and political treatises of the time emphasize ratio n

39、alism.(4) The restoration drama.(5) The Age of Dryden.III. Joh n Milt on1. Life: educated at Cambridge visit ing the continent invo Ivedinto the revoluti on persecuted writ ing epics.2. Literary career.(1) The 1st period was up to 1641, during which time he is to besee n chiefly as a son of the huma

40、 ni sts and Elizabetha ns, although his Purita nism is not abse nt. LAllegre and IL Pens eroso(1632)are his early masterpieces, in which we find Milt on a true offspri ng of the Ren aissa nee, a scholar of exquisite taste and rare culture.Next came Comus, a masque. The greatest of early creati ons w

41、as Lycidas, a pastoral elegy on the death of a college mate, Edward Kin g.(2) The second period is from 1641 to 1654, when the Puritan wasin such complete ascendancy that he wrote almost no poetry. In 1641, he began a long period of pamphleteering for the puritan cause. For some 15 years, the Purita

42、n in him alone ruled his writing. He sacrificed his poetic ambition to the call of the liberty for which Purita ns were fighti ng.(3) The third period is from 1655 to 1671, whenhumanist and Puritanhave been fused into an exalted entity. This period is the greatest in his literary life, epics and som

43、efamous sonnets. The three long poemsare the fruit of the long con test within Milt on of Ren aissa nee traditi onand his Purita n faith. They form the greatestaccomplishme nts of any En glish poet except Shakespeare .In Milt onalon e, it would seem, Purita nism could not ext in guish the lover of b

44、eauty .In these works we find huma nism and Purita nism merged in mag ni fice nee.3. Major Works(1) Paradise Losta. the plot.b. characters.c. theme: justify the ways of God to man.(2) Paradise Regained.(3) Sams on Ago ni stes.4. Features of Milt ons works.(1) Milt on is one of the very few truly gre

45、at En glish writers who is also a prominent figure in politics, and who is both a great poet and an importa nt prose writer. The two most esse ntial things to be remembered about him are his Purita nism and his republica nism.(2) Milton wrote manydifferenttypes of poetry. He is especiallya great mas

46、ter of blank verse. He learned muchfrom Shakespeare and first used bla nk verse in non-dramatic works.(3) Milt on is a great stylist. He is famous for his grand styleno ted for its dig nity and polish, which is the result of his life-l ong classical and biblical study.(4) Milt on has always bee n ad

47、mired for his sublimity of thoughtand majesty of expressi on.IV. John Bun yan1. Life:(1) puritan age;(2) poor family;(3) parliamentary army;(4) Baptist society, preacher;(5) prison, writing the book.2. The Pilgrim Progress(1) The allegory in dream form.(2) the plot.(3) the theme.V. Metaphysical Poet

48、s and Cavalier Poets.1. Metaphysical PoetsThe term “ metaphysical poetry ” is com mon ly used to desig nate the works of the 17th cen tury writers who wrote un der the in flue nee of Joh n Donne. Pressured by the harsh, un comfortable and curious age, the metaphysical poets sought to shatter myths a

49、nd replace them with n ewphilosophies,n ewscie nces, n ewwords and new poetry. They triedto break away from the conven tio nal fashi on of Elizabetha n love poetry, and favoured in poetry for a more colloquial la nguage and tone, a tight ness of expressi on and the sin gle-min ded work ing out of a

50、theme or argume nt.2. Cavalier PoetsThe other group prevailing in this period was that of Cavalier poets.They were ofte n courtiers who stood on the side of the king, andcalled themselves “sons” of Ben Jonson. The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elega nt, amorous and gay, but ofte n

51、superficial. Most of their verses were short songs, pretty madrigals, love fan cies characterized by light ness of heart and of morals.Cavalier poems have the limpidity of the Elizabetha n lyric withoutits imaginative flights. They are lighter and neater but less fresh than the Elizabetha ns.VI. Joh

52、n Dryde n.1. Life:(1) the representative of classicism in the Restoration.(2) poet, dramatist, critic, prose writer, satirist.(3) changeable in attitude.(4) Literary career four decades.(5) Poet Laureate2. His in flue nces.(1) He established the heroic couplet as the fashion for satiric, didactic, a

53、nd descriptive poetry.(2) He developed a direct and concise prose style.(3) He developed the art of literary criticism in his essays andin the nu merous prefaces to his poems.Chapter 5 En glish Literature of the 18th Cen turyI. I ntroducti on1. The Historical Backgro und.2. The literary overview.(1)

54、 The Enlightenment.(2) The rise of English novels.Wherthe literaryhistorianseeks to assign to each age its favouriteform of literature, he finds no difficulty in deali ng with our own time. As the Middle Ages delighted in long romantic narrative poems, the Elizabethans in drama, the Englishman of th

55、e reigns of Anne and the early Georges in didactic and satirical verse, so the public of our day is en amored of the no vel. Almost all types of literary producti on continue to appear, but whether we judge from the lists of publishers, the statistics of public libraries, or general conversation,we

56、find abundantevideneeof theenormousprep on dera nee of this kind of literary en terta inment in popular favor.(3) Neo-classicism: a revival in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen turies of classical sta ndards of order, bala nee, and harm ony in literature. Joh n Dryde n and Alexa nder Pope were major exp onents of the n eo-classical school.(4) Satiric literature.(5) Sen time ntalismII. Neo-classicism.(a gen eral descriptio n )1. Alexa nder Pope(1) Life:a. Catholic family;b. ill health;c. taught himself by readi ng and tran slat ing;d. friend of Addis on, Steele and Sw