英美文学重点总结 第一章
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Introduction: Old and Medieval English Literature
1. source of the rise and growth of English literature: the cultural influences of the
Anglo-Sexons conquest and the Norman conquest.
盎格鲁撒克逊征服与诺曼征服
2. Old English literature: 450—1066
medieval period in English literature: with the Norman Conquest starts,covers
about 4 centurries,
3. Beowulf主题分析:
Beowulf,a typical example of Old English poetry,is regarded as the national epic of
the Anglo-Saxons. Thematically the poem presents a vivid picture of how the
primitive people wage heroic struggles against the hostile forces of the natural world
under a wise and mighty leader.The poem is an example of the mingling of nature
myths and heroic legends.
4. In the second half of the 14th century,English literature started to flourish with the
appearance of writers like Geoffrey Chaucer (the greatest writer){Canterbury Tales},
William Langland (religious and social issues){Piers Plowman},John Gower
(produces the best romance of the period){Sir Gawain and the Green Knight},and
others.
5. 骑士文学
Romance which uses narrative verse or prose to sing knightly adventures or other
heroic deeds is a popular literary form in the medieval period.It has developed the
characteristic medieval motifs(主题) of the quest,the test,the meeting with the evil
giant and the encounter with the beautiful beloved.
6. Chaucer bore marks of humanism and anticipated a new era to come.
7. 乔叟,押尾韵及英雄双韵体.
Chaucer introduced from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English
poetry to replace the Old English alliterative verse.And in The Canterbury
Tales,Chaucer employed the heroic couplet with true ease and charm toe the first time
in the history of English literature.
8. 最早的现代小说: Chaucer’s Troilous and Criseyde
John Dryden called Chaucer “the father of English poetry”. The English Homer.
Chapter 1 The Renaissance Period
1. Renaissance
It refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th .It first started in Italy,with the
flowering of painting,sculpture,and literature.The Renaissance,shich means rebirth or
revival,is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events.Therefore,in
essence,it is a historical period in which the European hunanist thinkers and scholars
made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe,to introduce
new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie.
It was not until the reign of Henry VIII that the Renaissance really began to show
its effect in England.
2. Humanism
Renaissance humanists found in the classics a justification to exalt human nature and
came to see that human beings were glorious creatures capable of individual
development in the direction of perfection,and that the world they inhabited was theirs
not to despise but to question,explore,and enjoy.Thus,by emphasizing the dignity of
human beings and the importance of the present life,they voiced their beliefs that man
did not only have the right to enjoy the beautiful of this life,but had the ability to
perfect himself and to perform wonders.
3. 人文主义者代表(best English humanists): Thomas More, Chistopher Marlowe
and William Shakespeare.
4. By the middle of Elizabeth’s reign,Protestantism had been firmly established,with
a certain compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism.
5. 引进印刷术的英国第一人: William Caxton.
印刷了 The Canterbury Tales(Chaucer), Morte Darthur(Malory)
6. Petrarch was regarded as the fountainhead of literature by the English writers..
7. Wyatt and Surrey engraved the forms and graces of Italian poetry.
(Petrachan sonnet, blank verse)
8. John Donne and George Herbert.(玄学派诗人)
9. The Elizabethan drama is the real mainstream of the English Renaissance.
10. Lively,vivid native English material was put into the regular form of the Latin
comedies of Plautus and Terence.
Tragedies were in the style of Seneca.
11. The most famous dramatists in the Renaissance in England: Chistopher
Marlowe,William Shakespeare,and Ben Jonson.
12. Francis Bacon,the first important English essayist,was also the founder of modern
science inEngland.
A William Shakespeare
A.1 two narrative poems: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece.
A.2 Shakespeare’s drama career:
a.The first period,one of apprenticeship.
5 histoty plays: Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III, Richard III, and Titus Andronicus.
4 comedies: The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming
of the Shrew, and Love’s Labour’s Lost.
b.The second period,Shakespear’s style and approach became highly
individualized.
5 histories: Richard II, King John,Henry IV, Parts I, II, and Henry V.
