英美文学 总结

Introduction: Old and Medieval English Literature1. 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—1066medieval 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 CriseydeJohn Dryden called Chaucer “the father of English poetry”. The English Homer.Chapter 1 The Renaissance Period1.RenaissanceIt 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.HumanismRenaissance 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 Marloweand William Shakespeare.4.By the middle of Elizabeth’s reign,Protestantism had been firmly established,witha 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 Latincomedies 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 modernscience inEngland.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 Tamingof the Shrew, and Love’s Labour’s Lost.b.The second period,Shakespear’s style and approach became highlyindividualized.5 histories: Richard II, King John,Henry IV, Parts I, II, and Henry V.6 comedies: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much AdoAbout Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.2 tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar.c.The third period includes his greatest tragedies and his so-called dark comedies.Tragedies: Hamlet(most popular), Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus.2 comedies: All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure.d.The last period of Shakespeare’s(there’s a prevalent Christian teaching ofatonement [赎罪] ) work includes his principal romantic tragicomedies: Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest.2 final place: Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen.A.3 历史剧:Shakespeare’s history plays are mainly written under the priciple that national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity. The first and second parts of Henry IV are undoubtedly the most widely read among his history plays.A.4 The successful romantic tragedy is Romeo and Juliet, which eulogizes(赞美)the faithfulness of love and the spirit of pursuing happiness.A.5 四大悲剧的共性:(Greatest tragedies have some characteristic in common) Each portrays some noble hero,who faces the injustice of human life and is caught in a dufficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation. Each hero has his weakness of nature. Along with the portrayal of the weakness or bias of the hero,we see the sharp conflicts between the individual and the evil force in the society, which shows that Shakespeare is a great realist in the true sense.A.6 The Tempest is a typical example of his pessimistic view towards human life and society in his late years.He affirms the importance of the feudal system in order to uphold social order. A.7 莎士比亚的学观Shakespeare has accepted the Renaissance views on literature.He holds that literature should be a combination of beauty, kindness and truth, and should reflect nature and reality. The end of the dramatic creation is to give faithful reflection of the social realities of the time. Shakespeare also states that literary words which have truly reflected nature and reality can reach immortality.A.8 莎士比亚的物刻画Shakespeare’s major characters are neither merely individual ones nor type ones; they are individuals representing certain types.Each character has his or her own personailities; meanwhile, they may share features with others.Shakespeare also protrays his characters in pairs.Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to his characters.A.9 莎士比亚的节设计Shakespeare’s plays are well-known for their adroit (巧妙的)plot constraction.He seldom invents his own plots.In order to play more lively and compact, he would shorten the time and intensify the story.A.10 莎士比亚的语言特色Shakespeare can write skillfully in different poetic forms.He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary and idiom.His coinage of new words and disortion of the meaning of the old ones also create stricking effects on the reader.B.1 米尔顿的三类文学成就Three groups:the early poetic works, the middle prose pamphlets and the last great poems.B.2 Lycidas(early period)Lycidas is composed for a collection of elegies dedicated to Edward King.It begins with grief and a feeling of immaturity; then the grief is deepen by the sense of irrecoverable loss in the silencing of a young poet.With this bitter sense of loss,Milton asks why the just and good should suffer.The climax of the poem is the blistering attack on the clergy,who are corrupted by self-interest.B.3 Areopagitica(middle period)is a great plea for freedom of the press.B.4 three major poetical works:Paradise lost, Pparodise regained and Samson AgonistesB.5 Paradise regained shows how mankind, in the person of Christ, withstands thetemper and is established once more in the divine favor. Crist’s temptation in the wilderness in the theme, and Milton follows the account in the fourth chapter of Matthew’s gospel(福音).B.6 米尔顿的艺术特色a. Milton’s style is distinguished by its rich and complex texture, the multiplicityof its classical references, its wealth of ornament and decoration.b. Milton’s subjects are lofty and magnificent. The theme of Samson Agonistes istragic and sublime.c. The great epic, which resounds with the grandear and multiplicity of the world,is also a poem, the central actions of which take place inwardly.d. Finally, his endinds are lifelike.13.玄学派诗人MetaphysicalIt refers to the school of poets that appeared in the Revolutionary period in England by using quite unconventional and often surprising conceits; the metaphysical poets wrote poems full of wit and humor. John Donne and Andrew Marvell are the representative metaphysical poets.14. 十四行诗SonnetIt is a basic lyric form, consisting of 14 lines of iambic pentameter rhymed in various patterns. Milton made a new kind of use of the Petrarchan form, and the Romantic poets continued in the Miltonic tratition.。

名词解释1、English RomanticismEnglish Romanticism is a term that denotes most of the writings that were written between 1798 and 1832 during which writers concentrate on feelings and interests rather than structure and order. It was to some extent a reaction against the neoclassical period that preceded it. It designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience. It also places the individual at the center of art, making literature most valuable as an expression of his or her unique feelings and particular attitudes, and valuing its accuracy in portraying the individual's experiences. Nature and imagination are the things that the Romantics worshipped most. The principal Romantic poets were Wordsworth, Blake, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats. The main novelists were Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen. Lamb, Hazlitt and de Quincey were important essayists. Many of the ideas of English Romanticism were first expressed in Lyrical Ballads collaborated by Wordsworth and Coleridge.2、Critical realismCritical realism is a new literary trend in the V ictorian period. It is based on realism which presents life and the natural-world as they are and without idealistic or romantic coloring. Famous critical realist writer are Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and the Bronte sisters, etc. While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the 18th century realist novel, they carry their duly forward to the criticism of the society and the defense of the mass. Although writing from different points of view and with different techniques, they shared one thing in common, that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the common people. They were angry with the inhuman social institutions, the decaying social morality as represented by the money- worship and Utilitarianism, and the widespread misery, poverty and injustice. Their truthful picture of people's life and bitter and strong criticism of tile society had done much in awakening the public consciousness to the social problems and in the actual improvement of the society.3、Stream-of-consciousnessStream-of-consciousness is a phrase taken from William James’s Principle of Psychology (l890) that bas become common in literary terminology where it refers to the attempt by novelists to reproduce the thoughts, impressions and ide as of a character’ s mind as they occur.In English fiction, the novels of Stream-of-Consciousness were represented by James Joyce and V irginia Woolf. Those novels broke through the bounds of time and space, and depicted vividly and skillfully the unconscious activity of the mind fast changing and flowing incessantly, particularly the hesitant, misted, distracted and illusory psychology people had when they faced reality. Britain was the center of the novels of Stream-of-consciousness.4、RealismRealism is literature is associated with a rejection of fantasy, mythology, and highly complex and, therefore, implausible plots. Instead, a realist novel will tend to concentrate on “ordinary people”and the feature stories either based on, or similar to, real events. Also tend to avoid the linguistic experimentalism of, say, a James Joyce, in favor of prose that doesn’t draw attention to itself, and presents the story as clearly as possible. Character is more important than action and plot. Class is important; events will usually be plausible; objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important. Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact.《西风颂》“Ode to the West Wind ”I、作者：Percy Bysshe Shelley (珀西比希雪莱)II、考点及题型：1、For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly interpret it.Be through my lips to unawakened EarthThe trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind,If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”From Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”. This part illustrates Shelley’s optimistic belief in the future of mankind.2、Briefly analyze Shelley’s Ode to the W est Wind.In Ode to the West Wind, Shelley eulogized the powerful west wind and expressed his eagerness to enjoy the boundless freedom from the reality. The autumn wind, burying the dead year, preparing for a new spring, becomes an image of Shelley himself, as he would want to be, in its freedom, its destructive-constructive potential, its universality.3、What does Shelley want to tell the reader in his "Ode to the W est Wind"?Best of all the well-known lyric pieces is Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" (1819); here Shelley's rhapsodic and declamatory tendencies find a subject perfectly suited to them. The autumn wind, burying the dead year, preparing for a new Spring, becomes an image of Shelley ；himself, as he would want to be, in its freedom, its destructive-constructive power , its universality. "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!" calls the Shelley that could not bear being fettered to the humdrum realities of everyday! The whole poem has logic of feeling, a progression that leads to the triumphant, hopeful and convincing conclusion: "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" Here is no reassurance, no mysticism, but the primal amorality of nature itself, with its mad fury and its pagan ruthlessness. Shelley's ode is an invocation to a primitive deity, a plea to exalt him in its fury and to trumpet the radical prophecy of hope and rebirth.《哈姆雷特》“Hamlet”1、作者：William Shakespeare （威廉姆莎士比亚）2、作者主要作品:四大悲剧：1、Hamlet （哈姆雷特）2、Othello (奥赛罗)3、King Lear (李尔王)4、Macbeth (麦克白)四大戏剧：1、A Midsummer Night’s Dream(仲夏夜之梦)2、Twelfth Night（第十二夜）3、All’s W ell That Ends W ell （终成眷属）4、The Merchant of Venice (威尼斯商人)3、人物关系：哈姆雷特Prince Hamlet ——丹麦王子。

专八英美文学总结英国文学一、古英语时期的英国文学（499-1066）1、贝奥武夫2、阿尔弗雷德大帝：英国散文之父二、中古英语时期的英国文学1、allegory体非常盛行2、Romance开始上升到一定的高度3、高文爵士和绿衣骑士4、Willian Langlaud 《农夫皮尔斯的幻象》5、乔叟坎特伯雷故事集（英雄双韵体）6、托马斯.马洛礼《亚瑟王之死》三、文艺复兴时期的英国文学（伊丽莎白时代）（14-16世纪）1、托马斯.莫尔《乌托邦》2、Thomas Wyatt 和Henry Howard引入sonnet3、Philips Sidney 《The defense of Poesie》《阿卡迪亚》描述田园生活；现代长篇小说的先驱4、斯宾塞《仙后》诗人中的诗人；斯宾塞体诗节；5、莎士比亚：长篇叙事诗：《维纳斯和阿多尼斯》、《露克丝受辱记》四大悲剧：哈姆雷特、李尔王、奥赛罗、麦克白7、本.琼森风俗喜剧（comedy of manners）《人性互异》8、约翰.多恩“玄学派”诗歌创始人9、George Herbert 玄学派诗圣10、弗朗西斯.培根现代科学和唯物主义哲学创始人之一《Essays》英国发展史上的里程碑《学术的推进》和《新工具》四、启蒙时期（18世纪）1、约翰、弥尔顿：《失乐园》、《为英国人民争辩》2、约翰、班扬：《天路历程》religious allegory3、约翰、德莱顿：英国新古典主义的杰出代表、桂冠诗人；《论戏剧诗》4、亚历山大.蒲柏：英国新古典主义诗歌的重要代表；英雄双韵体的使用达到登峰造极的使用；《田园组诗》是其最早田园诗歌代表作5、托马斯、格雷：感伤主义中墓园诗派的代表人物《墓园挽歌》6、威廉、布莱克：天真之歌、经验之歌；7、罗伯特、彭斯：苏格兰最杰出的农民诗人；8、Richard Steel和Joseph Addison合作创办《The tatler》和《the spectator》9、Samuel defoe 英国现实主义小说的奠基人之一；《鲁滨逊漂流记》；《铲除非国教徒的捷径》，仪表达自己的不满；10、Jonathan Swift 《一个小小的建议》；《格列佛游记》；《桶的故事》；11、Samuel Richardson 英国现代小说的创始人；帕米拉；克拉丽莎；查尔斯.格蓝迪森爵士的历史；12、Henry Fielding 英国现实主义小说理论的奠基人；《约瑟夫。

英美文学重点知识归纳1. 英美文学的定义英美文学是指英国和美国的文学作品，包括小说、诗歌、戏剧、散文等。

英美文学具有悠久的历史，涵盖了从古代文学到现代文学的各个时期和流派。

2. 英美文学的时期和流派2.1 古代英美文学古代英美文学包括早期安格鲁-撒克逊文学、中世纪文学和文艺复兴时期文学。

其中，早期安格鲁-撒克逊文学以史诗《贝奥武夫》为代表，中世纪文学以《坎特伯雷故事集》为代表，文艺复兴时期文学以莎士比亚的戏剧作品为代表。

2.2 浪漫主义文学浪漫主义是英美文学的一个重要流派，包括诗人拜伦、雪莱和济慈等人的作品。

浪漫主义文学强调个体的感情和想象力，关注自然、爱情、自由等主题。

2.3 现实主义文学现实主义是英美文学的另一个重要流派，出现于19世纪后期。

代表作家包括狄更斯、托尔斯泰和马克·吐温等人。

现实主义文学揭示社会问题，关注人性的复杂性和社会的不公平。

2.4 现代主义文学现代主义是20世纪英美文学的主要流派，代表作家有弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫、塞缪尔·贝克特和詹姆斯·乔伊斯。

现代主义文学对传统的文学形式进行了颠覆和重塑，追求形式上的创新和思想上的深度。

3. 英美文学的重要作家和作品3.1 威廉·莎士比亚（William Shakespeare）威廉·莎士比亚是英国文学史上最伟大的戏剧家和诗人之一。

他的代表作品包括《哈姆雷特》、《罗密欧与朱丽叶》和《麦克白》等。

3.2 简·奥斯汀（Jane Austen）简·奥斯汀是19世纪英国小说家，被誉为英国小说的经典作家。

她的代表作包括《傲慢与偏见》、《理智与情感》和《艾玛》等。

3.3 弗朗西斯·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德（F. Scott Fitzgerald）弗朗西斯·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德是20世纪美国作家，代表作品有《了不起的盖茨比》。

他被认为是美国“爵士时代”的象征之一。