英美文学选读2Shakespeare
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王守仁《英国文学选读》(第2版)笔记和课后习题详解(第2单元威廉第2单元威廉?莎士比亚2.1复习笔记William Shakespeare(1564-1616)(威廉·莎士比亚)1.Life(生平)Shakespeare is the most remarkable playwright and poet.He was born on April 26,1564in Stratford-upon-Avon.At the age of7,Shakespeare was sent to the local grammar school where he was taught reading,writing,Latin and Greek.He was a schoolmaster in the country and became well acquainted with theatrical performances.At18he married a farmer’s daughter who was eight years older than him.After he moved to London around1586,he once worked as an actor,a playwright,and a part owner of a theater company.In1612,he went back home and bought a house called New Palace.He died on April23,the anniversary of his birth,in1616and was buried in Stratford Church.The other famous contemporary writer Ben Jonson praised that“He is not for an age,but for all times!”,indicating the prominent position of Shakespeare in world civilization and literature history.莎士比亚是世界最著名的剧作家和诗人。
英美文学选读笔记+考题Lecture 1 William Shakespeare1. Introduction of the course(1) This course is called Selected Readings in English and American Literature, a compulsory course for you. It will be finished in 12 weeks. And in each week we'll meet each other two times.(2) In this course, you will have to read some original works taken from English and American classics. It may be a little bit difficult for you. However, it's also a chance for you to know some great treasury in world literature and I'll help you understand them.(3)Comparing with the literary history courses, this course mainly focuses on original productions. The course book is a nice one with classical works and detailed notes.(4) For the final test, 10% will be decided by your attendance, 20% by your homework and 70% by the test paper. About the homework, after we finish each writer, I'll give you a name list of recommended works written by the writer. In the whole semester, you should choose at least one piece of English writer's works and one piece of American writer's works recommended by me. And then you should write a small paper on the piece of works you chose. That means you should turn in two papers in the whole semester.(5) A very important suggestion: preview the productions before the class; otherwise it'll be very difficult for you to catch me in the class.2. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)(1) Historical BackgroundA. Queen Elizabeth I: a powerful England with the fast development of capitalismB. Renaissance: an intellectual movement sprung first in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe. Two features are striking of this movement. The one is a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature. Another is the humanism, which means the new feeling of admiration for human beauty and human achievement.C. Shakespeare lived in such a period and also such a period made him the most famous and most important English writer.(2) Life(Read paragraph 1 and 2 on page 1 after class. These two paragraphs are the introduction of the great writer's life.)A. His complete works include 37 plays, 2 narrative poems and 154 sonnets.B. He is mainly famous for his great plays, especially the outstanding "Four Great Tragedies". ("Hamlet", "King Lear", "Othello" and "Macbeth") He is also the author of some other famous plays, such as "Romeo and Juliet", but today we'll learn the excerpt from one of his great comedies - "The Merchant of Venice", which we'll talk about a little bit later.C. Shakespeare's sonnets are also very good. We'll first introduce Sonnet 18, the most famous sonnet written by Shakespeare.(3) Sonnet 18A. A sonnet is a lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of fourteen iambic pentameter lines linked by an intricate rhyme scheme. It was introduced to England from Italy by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. (It is a very popular poem form and used widely in English literature. In the Elizabeth era, Edmund Spenser was also famous for his sonnets. And later, John Milton, Byron and Keats all contributed excellent sonnets.)B. Though the sonnet is a fixed form, but the rhyme scheme of the sonnet is not fixed. (few minutes for students to find out this poem's rhyme scheme.)Answer: abab cdcd efef gg. This is a typical rhyme scheme used by Shakespeare in all his sonnets.C. Explain the poem sentence by sentence.temperate: moderate or mild; rough winds: strong winds; darling: lovely; lease: 租约;complexion: appearance; dim: darken with cloud; brag: boast;D.(discuss) Theme: expressing the deep love to his friend(4) The Merchant of VeniceA. Famous comedy written by Shakespeare in his youthB. Setting: Venice, the Middle AgeC. Characters: Bassanio, Antonio, Shylock, Portia (let students discuss the characters)Portia: Shakespeare's ideal woman, beautiful, intelligent, cultured, gracious, independent, a daughter of RenaissanceShylock: most successful character, a Jew, a greedy and merciless usurer and also a victim of racial discrimination and religious persecution (sympathy)D. Plot: Read the introduction from P3 to P4.E. (Discuss)Theme: Mercy wins over malice.F. The selection is the most famous scene of the whole play and also the climax of the play. (Ask students to read it thoroughly after the class.) In the class, we'll learn a short part taken from the scene. (P10 to P11, the famous statement about mercy made by Portia)G. (the last but not least) form of the play: verse drama written in blank verse mostlyblank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter. Soon after blank verse was introduced by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey in his translation of Virgil's works, it became the standard meter for Elizabethan and later poetic dramas and some poets, such as John Milton, also employed this form to write their long poems.(5) Recommended ReadingSonnet 29; Sonnet 73; Sonnet 116; Four great tragedies; Romeo and Juliet; A Midsummer Night's Dream3. Homework1. Preview the next chapter about John Milton.2. Find out the form and rhyme scheme of the poem "To Cyriack Skinner" on P23.Lecture 2 John Milton (1608 0 1674)(Comparing with William Shakespeare, few people read his great productions today. However, he is also a classical writer in English Literature.)1. Historical Background(Discussion: Any important event happened during Milton's life time in Britain )English Bourgeois RevolutionThe conflicts between King (James I and then Charles I) and the ParliamentProfound conflicts: the Old Feudalism and New CapitalismIn religion: The Anglican Church and the PuritanThe consequence of those contradictions: the Civil War (1642 - 1649)The King was executed in 1649 and monarchy was abolished.Oliver Cromwell's dictatorship (1649 - 1660)The Restoration: Charles II and then James IIGlorious Revolution (1688)2. Lifeborn in a rich and cultured family - handsome and hardworking - graduated from Cambridge University and got master degree - six years' private study and the most knowledgeable poet in Britain - writing pamphlets for the Commonwealth - blind in 1652 - arrested and fined after restoration - produced three great poems in plain lifeMost important works - three great poems: Paradise Lost (1667); Paradise Regained (1671); Samson Agonistes (1671) (poetic drama)Besides three great poems in his late years, he also wrote some excellent sonnets including the one we'll learn today.3. To Cyriack Skinner(Ask the questions of homework) (Answer: Sonnet; abba abba cdcdcd)(1) Form: Sonnet(2) Rhyme scheme: abba abba cdcdcd (different with William Shakespeare's sonnets)(3) Explain the poem sentence by sentence(4) (Discussion) Theme: the author's positive attitude towards his blindness (another sonnet on blindness seems more discouraged.)4. Paradise Lost (《失乐园》)(1) Milton's masterpiece; greatest epic written in the English language*epic(史诗): it is a long verse narrative on a serious subject, told in a formal and elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race. Notice the differences between traditional epics and literary epics. Paradise Lost is a literary epic.(2) It's a long epic including 12 books. The plot is taken from the Old Testament of Holy Bible.*Holy Bible对于理解西方文化最重要的经典,分为《旧约》(The Old Testament)和《新约》(The New Testament)两部分,这两部分写于不同的时期,而且使用的文字不同,《旧约》主要用希伯莱语写成,《新约》则用希腊文写成.圣经最早曾被翻译成希腊文,然后是拉丁文,在欧洲各国通行.《圣经》英译始自8世纪,但各种版本都不算通行,直到Martin Luther宗教改革之后,1611年出现的Authorized Version至今通行,对英国的语言和文学影响极大.推荐阅读英文版《圣经》节选或房龙《圣经的故事》中文版.Plot: (paragraph two on P24) revolt of Satan and some other angels 0 their defeat and throwing into the Hell 0 temptation of Adam and Eve 0 expulsion of Adam and Eve(3) Theme: "to justify the ways of God to man" (submission to the Almighty) (Discussion: Is this the real theme of the poem )Real theme: praising the rebellious spirits against the despot(4) CharacterizationGod: the despot, selfish, cruel and unjust (King of Britain)Satan: real hero, dare to revolt against the despot, persevering but not discouraged after the failure (Republicans including Milton)(Milton is a pious Christian. This epic is the production of the conflicts between his religious belief and political belief. )(5) (P26 Learn a short excerpt from Paradise Lost) Form: blank verse(6) Explain the excerpt sentence by sentence.(7) (Do you think John Milton's works difficult ) Miltonic style: to express the sublimity of thought, sonority, eloquence, majesty and grandeur style(Latin words and Latin sentence structure, inversion, archaism, long sentence and mostly formal words, thus the style formed and his English rather difficult)5. Recommended ReadingJohn Milton's two sonnets: On his blindness; On his deceased wife6. HomeworkPreview the next chapter including the life of Daniel Defoe, the introduction of Robinson Crusoe and the excerpt Chapter VIII from P33 to P37.Lecture 3 Daniel Defoe (1660 0 1731)(He is a very famous novelist around the world because of his popular novel Robinson Crusoe.) 1. Historical Background(1) Comparing with the 17th century, the 18th century is a period for peaceful development.(2) The constitutional monarchy has been set up by parliament in 1688. After the Glorious Revolution, the monarch was deprived of ruling power and in his place Parliament became the actual leader of the country. The Tory and the Whig, as two major parties in England, competed with each other in politics. (Discussion: What do you know about the Whig and the Tory )* 辉格党(Whig)和托利党(Tory)是17世纪末在英国出现的两个正在形成中的政党.1679年,当议会讨论詹姆士公爵(即后来的詹姆士二世)是否有权继承英国王位时,议员们展开了激烈争论.赞成的人被对方称为"托利",反对的人则被对方称为"辉格".渐渐地,双方各自都以此自称.后来,双方的观点都发生了变化,辉格党对君主不再持完全的否定态度,因为"光荣革命"后英国君主的权力已经受到种种限制;托利党也逐渐改变了坚决拥护专制君主制的立场,因为他们几次恢复旧王朝的企图都因遭到了大多数人的反对而失败.久而久之,国王发现,无论是辉格党还是托利党,当其中一个在议会中占多数时,就最好任命这个党的成员为内阁大臣,内阁就不会同议会闹矛盾.18世纪上半期,辉格党在政治上占优势,是议会多数党,故此,辉格党执政近半个世纪.18世纪后半期,托利党才得以执政.工业革命以后,两党的主张发生一些变化.大约在19世纪30年代,托利党改称保守党(Conservative),辉格党改称自由党(Liberal).不过在现在的英国自由党的势力已经衰落了,现在英国的两个主要党派是保守党和工党,英国现任首相布莱尔即是来自工党(Labor Party)的.(3) England grew from a second rate country to a powerful naval country in this century. In a series of wars, England proved her power of naval force.(4) (Discussion)With the ascent of the bourgeoisie cultural life had undergone remarkable changes:A. Political writing: depending on patrons to working for either party in order to help them win more votes;B. Newspapers and journals: for parties and also for the rising middle classC. Due to the development of science and philosophy, (Issac Newton) reason rather than emotion played a more important role in the age. Thus the age was called the Age of Reason. Church's influence was greatly weakened.(5) The rise of the English novel①The modern European novel began after the Renaissance, with Cervantes' "Don Quixote". (西班牙,塞万提斯,《唐吉诃德》)②The rise and growth of the realistic(现实主义作家,以描写现实生活为主要目的) novel is the most prominent achievement of the 18th century English literature. And from Defoe, the pioneer novelist in English literary history, we will meet several great novelists in the following chapters. (Forerunner of English realistic novels)2. Life (P29 Paragraph 1 and 2)(1) born in a butcher's family; father was a dissenter(2) graduated from a dissenting academy but did not want to be a clergyman(3) once a prosperous merchant; bankrupt and got into a heavy debt(4) writing all kinds of books including political pamphlets and trade books for a living(5) questionable political character because served both parties(6) versatile person contributing a lot to journalism ("The Review"; father of modern journalism) and trade(7) When he was 60 years old, he published Robinson Crusoe and then a series of novels which made him a major novelist in English literary history.3. Major works: Robinson Crusoe; Captain Singleton; Moll Flanders etc. (P30)most important: Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders (1722)Moll Flanders: Defoe introduces, for the first time, a lowly woman as the subject of literature. And it anticipates many later novels that take women as the center of attention in order to expose how the social system victimized them. The heroine is a woman living by stealing and cheating. It is also a tradition in English novel but the author's purpose is not showing her tricks. His purpose is satirizing the social system.4. Robinson Crusoe《鲁滨逊漂流记》(1) Background: a real incident; 1704, Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, was thrown onto a desolate island by the mutinous crew of his ship. He lived there alone for 5 years. Defoe read about his adventures in a newspaper and went to interview him to get first-hand information.The first translation wad done by Lin Shu in 1905 and became quite popular in China.(2) Plot: run away from home →become a sailor →a planter in Brazil →to an uninhabited island because of shipwreck →made a living there all by himself →save a negro named Friday who became his servant →back to England →visit the remote island again and Friday was killedOriginal name of the novel: The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoea picaresque novel with a little change (main character is different)(3) (Discussion) Robinson Crusoe's characterization: typical of the rising English bourgeois class, practical, diligent, a restless curiosity to know more about the world and a desire to prove individual power in the face of social and natural challenges; shrewd, care about money and good at managing; courageous and intelligent to overcome all kinds of obstacles(4) (Discussion) Theme: praising labor and man's courage and effort to conquer nature, but at the same time he beautifies colonialism and slavery (Friday)(5) (Ask some questions about the excerpt)What is the first thing mentioned in the excerpt done by Robinson (The first paragraph) (keeping his calendar)How Robinson made a home for himself step by step on the remote island(Finding some useful thing from the wrecked ship - making a little pale around his tent - making a hut with the roof - enlarging his cave and making it like a storehouse - making a chair and a table - making large shelves - keep everything in order(6) (Discussion) Style: journalistic truth with many vivid details, simple and plain sentence structure and language, first person point of view, natural order in narration, making the story intimate to the readers and become popular among lower classes5. Recommended Reading: Robinson Crusoe (the complete novel)6. HomeworkPreview the next chapter, especially the Chapter VIII from P50 to P56. Try to answer question 4 and 5 on P59 after your preview.Lecture 4 Jonathan Swift (1667 0 1745)(He is a master satirist famous for his Gulliver's Travels.)1. Life(He lived in the same age with Daniel Defoe, so we needn't introduce the historical background again.)①He was born in a poor family in Dublin, Ireland. His father died before his birth.②He graduated from Trinity College in Dublin but he was a rebellious student there. He didn't want to join the church.③He worked in a nobleman's house (Sir Temple, his distant relative) and it was a bitter experience for him because he was treated as a servant.④He first supported Whig and then Tory and then left the political circle. He was good at political writing and once a very popular character. (Review the introduction of Whig and Tory.)⑤After he left political circle he returned to Ireland and became a dean. He wrote a lot of pamphlets to protest the unjust policies of English government to Ireland.⑥Because of a brain disease, Swift became insane and died miserably.2. Works(Read the first paragraph on P43)①"A Modest Proposal"?Climax of his pamphlets on Ireland?It was a bitter satire and in this small book Swift suggested the poverty of the Irish people should be relieved by the sale of their children as food for the rich. (Irony)?这本小册子除了是对英国政府对爱尔兰的剥削政策的讽刺之外,也是对一些projectors的讽刺,Swift在写这本小册子时就以一个projector(献策者)自居.本文流传很广,是Swift最有名的政论文章,也是历来英国散文选必选之文章.(《英国文学名篇选注》)*Irony(反讽):This term derives from a character in a Greek comedy. In most of the modern critical uses of the term "irony", there remains the root sense of dissembling or hiding what is actually the case; not, however, in order to deceive, but to achieve rhetorical or artistic effects. ②"Gulliver's Travels"(《格列佛游记》)?Background: famous as a book for children but actually an important satirical book; took the form of a travel book because this form was popular at that time?Central character: Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon on a merchant ship?Four voyages: Lilliput to Brobdingnag to Laputa to the country of Houyhnms (Read the introduction on P43)?(Discussion) Do you think Swift designed these strange stories only for fun(Answer: no, the purpose is making a bitter satire on English politics and other vices in the society at that time.)?(Turn to P50 and see the excerpt) This is a chapter taken from the last part of the book. It is mainly about the country of Houyhnms. In Gulliver's Travels, before each chapter begins, you can find several sentences telling you the main ideas of the chapter.(Answer the question 4 and 5 on P59.)(Discussion) What are the implied ideas the author tried to convey by this chapter(The author believed Reason was very important for human being. If human's desires aren'tcontrolled by reason, human will become disgusting like yahoos one day in the future. Notice the special historical background of the book - Age of Reason.)?(Discussion) Style of Swift's prose: His prose style is simple, clear and vigorous. His famous saying "Proper words in proper places, makes the true definition of a style" influenced a lot later writers.3. Recommended ReadingGulliver's Travels; A Modest Proposal4. HomeworkPreview chapter 6 (P70 A Red, Red Rose) and chapter 7 (P75 London).Lecture 5 Robert Burns and William Blake(Today we will meet two interesting poets. They lived in the later part of the 18th century and each has some special characteristics which make them have a peculiar position in the English literary history.)1. Robert Burns (1759 0 1796) (罗伯特彭斯) (He was called the national poet of Scotland. But he mainly lived a hard life and died when he was only 37 years old.)(*Scotland: 1707 为英格兰吞并,1745发生过大规模反英起义,曾经是一个独立的国家,有自己独特的民族传统,著名电影Brave Heart)(1) Life (Paragraph 1 on P69)A. He was born in a poor peasant family and only received two and a half years of regular schooling.B. He has been a poor peasant for nearly half of his life.C. He had an intimate knowledge of Scottish folk songs and ballads.D. He decided to go to Jamaica to make a living. He published his poem collection for passage money. The collection called Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect became popular soon so Burns cancelled his plan.E. He has been a lower rank official in the rest of his life. And he collected and published lots of Scottish folk songs and ballads but refused any payment.F. He died when he was 37. All his life he lived in poverty and illness.(2) Poems(His poems can be divided into several groups according to their themes.)A. On love and friendship"A Red, Red Rose", "Auld Lang Syne"(友谊地久天长)etc.B. On patriotism"Scots Wha Hae" etc.(3) Sample: "A Red, Red Rose"A. Background: wrote in 1794 and published in 1796, based on a Scottish folk song, a famous English love poemB. (Discussion) Q1: Rhyme scheme of the poemQ2: Who is speaking in the poemQ3: To whom is the poem addressedQ4: What is the theme of the poemC. (Answers) Q1: "ballad meter": in each stanza the odd-numbered lines are iambic tetrameters while the even-numbered lines are iambic trimesters and the rhyme scheme is abcbQ2: first-person "I", a person in love with a girlQ3: the lover, girlfriend of the poetQ4: showing the deep love to the loverD. Explain several difficult points of the poemA Red Red RoseO, my luve is like a red, red rose, (luve即标准英文中的love,这里是苏格兰方言)That's newly sprung in June,(sprung是spring的过去式,发芽的意思)O, my luve is like the melodie,(melodie: sweet music)That's sweetly play'd in tune.(in tune: harmoniously)As fair art thou, my bonie lass,(fair美丽;art thou: are you;bonie lass: pretty girl)So deep in luve am I,And I will luve thee still, my dear,(still: always, forever)Till a'the seas gang dry. (until all seas become dry; a': all; gang: go)Till a'the seas gang dry, my dear,And the rocks melt wi' the sun!And I will luve thee still, my dear,While the sands o'life shall run. (as long as I live; sand指古代计算时间用的沙漏)And fare thee weel, my only luve, (fare you weel也就是farewell or good-bye to you)And fare thee weel, a while!And I will come again, my luve,Tho' it were ten thousand mile! (tho': though)一朵红红的玫瑰(王佐良译)啊!我的爱人像朵红红的玫瑰,六月里迎风初开;啊!我的爱人像支甜甜的曲子,奏的合拍又和谐.我的好姑娘,多么美丽的人儿!请看我,多么深挚的爱情!亲爱的,我永远爱你,纵使大海干涸水流尽.纵使大海干涸水流尽,太阳将岩石烧作灰尘,亲爱的,我永远爱你,只要我一息犹存.珍重吧,我惟一的爱人,珍重吧,让我们暂时离别,但我定要回来!哪怕千里万里!E. (Discussion) Features: using of Scottish dialect; form of folk song and ballad (rhyme scheme and repetition); musical quality; plain but passionate language(4) Recommended Reading"Auld Lang Syne"; "John Anderson, my jo" or some other poems written by Burns2. William Blake (1757 - 1827)(1) Life (Paragraph 1 and 2 on P73)A. born in a poor family in London; received a little formal education on drawingB. first an apprentice of an engraver and later an engraver himself nearly all his lifeC. a pious Christian and died in obscurity and poverty(2) WorksA. Songs of Innocence (1789): pictures of merry nature and innocent children; everything in harmony; only some minor vicesB. Songs of Experience (1794): contrast; pictures of neediness and distress and showed the sufferings of the poor; showing the change of the author's world view and also showing the change of the social background(3) Sample: London (P75)A. (Discussion) Q1: Do you think this poem is taken from Song of Innocence or Song of ExperienceQ2: Did the author love the London described in the poemQ3: What is the rhyme scheme of the poemQ4: What is the theme of the poemB. (Answer) Q1: Song of ExperienceQ2: No. (He once loved London very much and wrote such lines "golden London and her silver Thames" but London gradually degenerated in the poet's heart)Q3: abab; iambic tetrameterQ4: criticizing the dark sides of English society and showing the sufferings of common people (The poem has been called "mightiest brief poem" because it employs only several images to describe some deep-rooted social vices vividly.)C. Explain the poem sentence by sentence.* Chinese version伦敦(王佐良译)我走过每条独占的街道,徘徊在独占的泰晤士河边,我看见每个过往的行人有一张衰弱,痛苦的脸每个人的每声呼喊每个婴孩害怕的号叫每句话,每条禁令都响着心灵铸成的镣铐多少扫烟囱孩子的喊叫震惊了每座熏黑的教堂不幸士兵的长叹像鲜血留下了宫墙最怕是深夜的街头又听年轻妓女的诅咒它骇住了初生儿的眼泪又带来瘟疫,使婚车变成灵柩D. Features: vivid images to make the poem picturesque; short, clear and concise; simple and fresh words; mysterious atmosphere and difficult symbolism in some poemsE. Conclusion: a precursor of Romanticism (pay more attention on inspiration and emotion rather than reason and neat form of the poem)(4) Recommended ReadingThe Chimney Sweeper; The Tyger; Holy Thursday etc.3. HomeworkPreview Chapter 8 (Composed upon Westminster Bridge) and Chapter 12 (On the Grasshopper and Cricket).Lecture 6 William Wordsworth and John Keats1. Age of Romanticism(1) Time: 1798 (publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge) to 1832 (death of Sir Walter Scott)(2) Essence: shift from reason to emotion(3) Historical BackgroundFrench Revolution (1789 Bastille) and American Independence War (1776 win): revolution enthusiasm swept nearly all European countries.Industrial Revolution (end of the 18th century)": great wealth to the rich and worsen the working and living condition of the poor(4) FeaturesA. Subjectivism ("Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"): poetry expresses poets' minds.B. Spontaneity: opposing rules and regulations, free choice of formC. Enlarging the subject matter: countryside life; supernatural; natural beauty etc.D. Simplicity of languageE. For English literature, it was an Age of Poetry. (lots of famous poets)2. William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)(1) Life (P79 Paragraph 1 - 4)A. born in a lawyer's family but lost both of his parents when he was youngB. was educated in a school in the beautiful lake district thus developed an interest in natureC. graduated from Cambridge and a supporter of French RevolutionD. gradually grew conservative and became Poet Laureate*lake poets: three poets including William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge and Robert Southey; they lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England. They were friends and traversed the same path in politics and in poetry.(2) PoemsA. Collection: Lyrical Ballads (1798) (cooperated with Coleridge) (in the Preface proposed some different views on poetry) (mark the beginning of romanticism)B. Two categories according to themeHe is mainly famous for his poems on nature, such as "I wandered lonely as a cloud".He also wrote lots of poems on common people's life, such as "The solitary reaper", "She dwelt among the untrodden way", "We are seven" etc.(3) Sample: Composed upon Westminster Bridge (P82)A. (Discussion) Q1: form and rhyme scheme of the poemQ2: Tell the name of the city and the river described in the poemQ3: What is the theme of the poemQ4: Did the beautiful scenery of the city influence the authorB. (Answer) Q1: sonnet; abba abba cdcdcd (note 1 on P83)Q2: London; ThamesQ3: praising the beauty of the scenery of London in morningQ4: It made the author felt a deep calm. (This can be found from the poem)C. Explain the poem sentence by sentence.*西敏寺桥上人间没有比这更美好的景象,它是那样庄严,又那样辉煌谁能经过它身边而无动于衷这城市此刻批着美丽的晨光像穿着睡衣;坦露而又安详,那些船舶,楼阁,剧院,教堂,直伸向田野,又深入高空一切在明朗的空中熠熠闪光璀璨的朝阳从未这样美丽地照耀过大地上的峡谷和山冈我从未看到或感到这般沉静河水正在欢快的自由流淌亲爱的主啊!万物似在安睡那伟大的心灵也停止了跳荡D. (Discussion) Question 2 on P83(Answer) different social position of the poet; different aspect to observe London(4) Recommended Reading"I wandered lonely as a cloud", "The solitary reaper" or other poems written by Wordsworth.3. John Keats (1795 - 1821)(He was a genius in poem creation but lived a short and tragic life.)(1) LifeA. He was born in a poor family. And when he was very young, both his parents died.B. He had been an apprentice to a surgeon and then assistant in hospital.C. He loved to read poems. After two collections of poems' publication, Keats gave up his career in hospital.D. Because of Keats' friendship with those radical writers such as Hazlitt, Hunt and Shelley, his works were severely attacked by conservative critics.E. All his life time, Keats lived in poverty. And because he took care of his brother who got consumption, he himself was stricken by same kind of disease, which cannot be cured at that time. And because of the disease, Keats cannot marry the girl he loved deeply. All the misery made a shadow in Keats' poetry.F. In 1821, when Keats died in Rome because of consumption, he was only 26 years old.(2) Poems(Keats wrote some nice long poems, but he was mainly famous for his short poems.)①SonnetsKeats' famous sonnets include "When I have fear", "Bright Star", "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" and "On the Grasshopper and Cricket" and so on.②Odes* Odes: A lyric poem of some length, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal stanza structure. 颂诗His famous odes include "Ode to Autumn", "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and so on.。
一莎士比亚In 1593 and 1594, he published two narrative poems(叙事诗), Venus and Adonis(维纳斯和安东尼斯) and The Rape of Lucrece(鲁克丽斯受辱记).Four period:First: The first period of Shakespeare's dramatic career was one of apprenticeship(学徒期). He wrote five history plays: Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III(亨利六世上,中,下),Richard III(理查三世), and Titus Andronicus(泰托斯.安东尼); and four comedies: The Comedy of Errors(错误的喜剧), The Two Gentlemen of Verona(维洛那二绅士), The Taming of the Shrew(训悍记), and Love's Labour's Lost(爱的徒劳).Second: In the second period, Shakespeare's style and approach became highly individualized. By constructing a complex pattern between different characters and between appearance and reality, Shakespeare made subtle comments on a variety of human foibles. In this period he wrote five histories: Richard II(理查二世), King John(约翰王), Henry IV, Parts I and II(亨利四世上部和下部), and Henry V(亨利五世); six comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream(仲夏夜之梦), The Merchant of Venice(威尼斯商人),Much Ado About Nothing(无事生非), As You Like It(皆大欢喜), Twelfth Night(第十二夜), and The Merry Wives of Windsor(温莎的风流娘们儿); and two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet(罗密欧与朱丽叶) and Julis Caesar(裘里斯.凯撒).Third: Shakespeare's third period includes his greatest tragedies and his so-called dark comedies. The tragedies of this period are Hamlet(哈姆雷特), Othello(奥赛罗), King Lear(李尔王), Macbeth(麦克白), Angony and Cleopatra(安东尼与克利奥佩特拉), Troilus and Cressida(克利奥拉纳斯), and Coriolanus(). The two comedies are All's Well That Ends Wells(终成眷属)and Measure for Measure(一报还一报).Last: The last period of Shakespeare's work includes his principal romantic tragicomedies(浪漫悲喜剧): Pericles(伯利克里), Cymbeline(辛白林), The Winter's Tale(冬天的故事) and The Tempest(暴风雨); and his two final plays: Henry VIII(亨利八世) and The Two Noble Kinsmen(两位贵族亲戚).Shakespeare's authentic non-dramatic poetry consist of two long narrative poems: Venus and Adonis(维纳斯和安东尼斯) and The Rape of Lucrece(鲁克丽斯受辱记), and his sequence of 154 sonnets. Shakespeare's sonnets are the only direct expression of the poet's own feelings.With three exceptions (99,126,154) Shakespeare writes his sonnets in the popular English form, first fully developed by Surrey, of three quatrains and a couplet(三节四行诗加一节偶句).Shakespeare's history plays are mainly written under the principle that national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity(在一个强大英明的君主统治下的国家,统一是非常必要的).The three history plays on the reign of Henry VI are the beginning of Shakespeare's epic treatment.The first and second parts of Henry IV are undoubtedly the most widely read among his history plays. It reveals a troubled reign in the 15th century. Shakespeare presents the patriotic spirit when mourning over the loss of English territories in France. He also dramatizes the class struggle between the oppressors and the oppressored during Jack Cade's rising of 1450. Furthermore, he condemns the War of the Roses waged by the feudal barons in which innocent people were killed. Here Shakespeare has liberated himself from any imitations of the contempory example .In his romantic comedies, Shakespeare takes an optimistic attitude toward love and youth, and the romantic elements are brought into full play.(在他的浪漫喜剧中,莎士比亚以乐观的态度对待爱情与青春,并将流浪色彩渲染到极致。
第2单元威廉•莎士比亚2.1复习笔记William Shakespeare(1564-1616)(威廉·莎士比亚)1.Life(生平)Shakespeare is the most remarkable playwright and poet.He was born on April 26,1564in Stratford-upon-Avon.At the age of7,Shakespeare was sent to the local grammar school where he was taught reading,writing,Latin and Greek.He was a schoolmaster in the country and became well acquainted with theatrical performances.At18he married a farmer’s daughter who was eight years older than him.After he moved to London around1586,he once worked as an actor,a playwright,and a part owner of a theater company.In1612,he went back home and bought a house called New Palace.He died on April23,the anniversary of his birth,in1616and was buried in Stratford Church.The other famous contemporary writer Ben Jonson praised that“He is not for an age,but for all times!”,indicating the prominent position of Shakespeare in world civilization and literature history.莎士比亚是世界最著名的剧作家和诗人。
英美文学选读William Shakespeare简答Explain the theme of The Merchant of Venice.(1)In his romantic comedies,Shakespeare takes an optimistic attitude toward love and youth,and the romantic elements are brought into full play. The most important play among the comedies is The Merchant of Venice.(2)The traditional theme of the play is to praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty,and to expose the insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew. But after centuries' abusing of the Jews, especially the holocaust committed by the Nazi Germany during the Second World War, it is very difficult to see Shylock as a conventional evil figure. And many people today tend to regard the play as a satire of the Christians' hypocrisy and their false standards of friendship and love,their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice against Jews.Shakespeare's great tragedies(1) Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth.(2)They have some characteristics in common.Each portrays some noble hero, who faces the injustice of human life and is caught in a difficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation.(3)Each hero has his weakness of nature:①Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince,face the dilemma between action and mind;②Othello's inner weakness is made use of by the outside evil force;③the old king Lear who is unwilling to totally give up his power makes himself suffer from treachery and infidelity4.and Macbeth's lust for power stirs up his ambition and leads him to incessant crimes.“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s Day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”This poem is Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18; personification is used here; the theme of this poem:A nice summer’s day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry can last forever.“Nor lose possession of that fair thouow’s;Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,When in eteral lines to time thou grow’st:So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”When you are in my eternal poetry, you are even with time. A nice summer’s day is usually transient, but the beauty in poety can last forever.“And thus the native hue of resolutionIs sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.Native hue of resolution means determination.Pale cast of thought means consideration.”It expresses too much thinking makes activity impossible.论述Briefly discuss William Shakespeare’s artistic achievements in characterization, plot construction and language.A.Shakespeare’s major characters are neither merely individual ones nor type ones; theyrepresent certain types; they are individuals representing certain types. By emplying a psycho-analytical approach, Shakespeare succeeds in exploring the characters in pairs.Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to his characters.B.Shakespeare seldom invents his own plot; instead, he borrows them from old plays orstorybooks, from ancient Greek or Roman sources. In order to make the play more lively and compact, he would shorten the time and intensify the story. There are usually several clues running through the play, thus providing the story with suspense and apprehension.C.Shakespeare can write skillfully in different poetic forms, such as the sonnet, the blank verseand the rhymed couplet. He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary and idiom. His coinage of new words and distortion of the meaning of the old words also creates striking effects on the reader.。
英国文学选读复习资料一.Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) 杰弗里.乔叟时期1、the father of English poetry 英国诗歌之父2、heroic couplet 英雄双韵体:a verse unit consisting of two rhymed(押韵) lines in iambic pentameter(五步抑扬格)3、代表作:the Canterbury Tales 坎特伯雷的故事 (英国文学史的开端)人文主义先驱,the father of English poetry..第一个用英语写作的诗人。
二. William Shakespeare1.The four great tragedies by William Shakespeare are _Hamlet_, _Othello_, _King Lear_, Macbeth. 四大喜剧是A Midsummer Night's Dream ;As you like it ;Twelfth Night ;The merchant of Venice .the period of Revolution and Restoration (17世纪) 资产阶级革命与王权复辟prose 散文1、文学特点:the Puritans(清教徒) believed in simplicity of life、disapproved of the sonnets and the love poetry、breaking up of old ideals.清教徒崇尚俭朴的生活、拒绝十四行诗和爱情诗、与旧思想脱离。
2、代表人物:1)、John Donne 约翰.多恩The founder of the“metaphysical”poets (玄学派诗人) 的代表人物代表作:Love lyrics:Songs and sonnets.The Flea.A Valediction: forbidding morning作品特点:① strike the reader in Donne’s extraordinary frankness and penetrating realism.(坦诚的态度和现实描绘)② novelty of subject matter an d point(新颖的题材和视角)③ novelty of its form.(新颖的形式)2)、John Milton 约翰.弥尔顿 a great poet 诗人( poem 诗歌 blank verse )was a _radical puritan in politics and religion. 激进清教徒分子。
威廉-莎士比亚威廉-莎士比亚(1564-1616)是世界有史以来最著名的作剧家和诗人之一。
凭着38部作品,154首十四行诗和2首长诗,他建立了他在世界文学史中的赫赫威名。
他也被全世界各式各样的学者和评论家给予了最高的赞誉。
在过去4百年间,关于莎士比亚的书籍和文章还不断大量出版。
莎士比亚可能出生于1564年4月23日埃文河畔斯特拉特福城的一户商人家庭。
他的父亲的职业被传为是卖手套的、羊毛商人、农夫或者是屠夫,是一个镇上有点地位的人,并多次当选为镇委员会的成员。
莎士比亚在哪个美丽的贸易小镇度过了他的童年并上了斯特拉特福语文小学。
他真正的老师是大自然和周围的百姓。
1587年,莎士比亚娶了大他几岁的安妮-哈撒韦为妻。
妻子为他生了3个孩子,苏珊娜和双胞胎朱迪斯和哈姆尼特。
也许由于要养活不断壮大的家庭,莎士比亚在1586或1587年离开斯特拉特福去了伦敦。
莎士比亚去了伦敦一处为戏剧发展提供了优越环境的地方。
他既当演员又做作剧家,为张伯伦家族做事,张伯伦家族后来又成为了王族。
莎士比亚的事业发展得如此的好以致被誉为‘大学才子’之一的罗伯特-格林气极败坏地地称呼他是只‘向上扑腾的乌鸦’。
大约从1591到1611年间,莎士比亚到达了他戏剧生涯的顶峰,他的作品一部又一部地不断问世。
莎士比亚没有把他的天赋局限于戏院里,在1593和1954年,他发表了2篇叙事诗,《维纳斯与阿多尼斯》和《路易斯受辱记》,都是写给南安普顿伯爵的。
1609年他也写了短诗并出版了。
到1597年时莎士比亚已经很有钱了,他在斯特拉特福买套大宅子作为新居。
大约于1610年莎士比亚从伦敦退隐回了斯特拉特福,即便如此他还是坚持写作了一段时间。
他卒于1616年4月23日。
由于对莎士比亚的许多作品的创作准确时间仍然存有争议,评论家们对把莎士比亚戏生涯的戏剧作品划分阶段方面存有不同的观点。
但总体来说他的戏剧生涯可以分为4个时期。
莎士比亚戏剧创作生涯的第一个阶段是创作早期。
《英国文学史及选读》第二册复习提纲Part VII. THE ROMANTIC PERIODIntroduction●Historical BackgroundThe political & social factors that gave rise to the Romantic Movement were the three revolutions –the American Revolution, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.●Intellectual backgroundThe shift in literature from emphasis on reason to instinct & emotion was intellectually prepared for by a number of thinkers in the later half of the 18th century. Representative thinkers are Rousseau, Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine.●Term – Romanticism(1)Romanticism is a literary trend fighting against the idea of Enlightenment. It prevailed in England during the period of 1798—1832. It begins with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and ends with Sir Walter Scott’s death.(2)Romanticism actually constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit.(3)In essence, it designates a literary & philosophical theory, which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life & all experience.(4)It also places the individual at the center of art, making literature most valuable as an expression of his or her unique feelings & particular attitudes, & valuing its a ccuracy in portraying the individual’s experiences.●Term – Lake Poets or The LakersIn English literature it refers to such romantic poets as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey who lived in the Lake District.●Term—Gothic NovelIt is a type of romance very popular in the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century. It emphasizes things which are grotesque, violent, mysterious, supernatural, desolate and horrifying. It was applied by Horace Walpole to his novel The Castle of Otranto. It has exerted a great influence over the writers of the Romantic period with its description of the dark, irrational side of human nature. Gothic novel has exerted a great influence over the writers of the Romantic period. Works like The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley are typical Gothic romance.●Romantic Authors in England(1)The glory of the age is in the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats and Southy. (2)Of its prose works, those of Scott alone have attained very wide reading(3)The essays of Charles Lamb(4)The novels of Jane Austen and historical novels of Walter ScottWilliam Wordsworth (1770-1850)“. . . poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility…” (“Preface”) 所有的好诗都是炽烈情感的自然涌流,而这种情感又是经过在宁静中追忆的.——quotation from William Wordsworth.●Major works from William WordsworthLyrical Ballads抒情歌谣集(I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud我好似一朵孤独的流云;Composed upon Westminster Bridge写于威斯敏斯特桥上)Lucy Poems露西组诗(She Dwett Among the Untrodden Ways她走在人迹罕至的路边;To the Cuckoo杜鹃颂;The Solitary Reape r孤寂的割麦女);The Excursio n远足The Prelude序曲●Analysis of William Wordsworth’s works(1)She Dwett Among the Untrodden Ways is one of his famous Lucy Poems, in which the lover tells that she lived unknown and died unknown.(2)Composed upon Westminster Bridge describes a vivid picture of a beautiful morning in London. (3)The Solitary Reaper describes vividly and sympathetically a young peasant girl working in the fields and singing as she works and shows that the gir l’s singing deeply moved the traveler and kept lingering in his heart.(4)I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud is perhaps the most anthologized poem in English literature, and one that takes us to the core of Wordsworth’s poetic belief.●FormThis poem contains four six-lined stanzas of iambic tetrametre(四步抑扬格), with a rhyme scheme of ababcc in each stanza.●ThemeThe theme of this poem is the serene beauty of nature through vivid description of daffodils and the poet’s respect for nature.●ContentFirst Stanza–It shows a harmonious picture. The image of “cloud” gives us the impression of the poet’s pride and loftiness. But on seeing numerous daffodils, the poet descends from above to below.Second Stanza– In this stanza, the poet draws an analogy between stars and daffodils to emphasize the great number. “Star” in this stanza echoes with “cloud” in the previous stanza.Third Stanza–The poet draws an analogy between waves of water and waves of daffodils. The description of the scenery ends in the second line. Following that, the poet shifts his emphasis from scenery to emotion. Fourth Stanza –The glee of daffodils turns into happiness of the poet. As a result, the beauty of nature becomes the beauty of mind. The last two lines explain why daffodils had brought great wealth to me, because they had brought fresh inspiration, greater creativity and new capacity for imagination. New life has been brought to him by the memory.●Brief comment on William Wordsworth(1)He is the leading figure of English Romantic poetry, and he is regarded as a “worshipper of nature”. (2)His Lyrical Ballads, written with Coleridge, marked the beginning of Romanticism in English poetry.(3)He defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”(4)He was one of the “Lake Poets”.George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)Introduction●George Gordon Byron was as famous in his lifetime for his personality cult as for his poetry. He created the concept of the “Byronic hero”—a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. Byron’s influence on European poetry, music, novel, opera, and painting has been immense. He was the most renowned English language poet of his day.●Term – Byronic HeroThis is a concept created by George Gordon Byron. It refers to a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, this figure would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupted society, and would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies.●Term – LyricLyric is a short poem wherein the poet expresses an emotion or illustrates some life principle. Lyric often concerns love. “My love is like a red, red rose” is Robert Burn’s well-known lyric.●Major worksHours of Idliness1807English Bords and Scottish Reviewers1809Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage1812The Giaour 1813The Corsair1814Lara1814Manfred1817Cain 1821Don Juan (1819-1824)●Famous selected poems in our textbook:When We Two Parted;She Walks in Beauty;The Isles of Greece taken from Don Juan●Analysis of Byron’s works(1)Don Juan, Byron’s masterpiece, is regarded as the great poem of the Romantic Age. It is a poem based on a traditional Spanish legend of a great lover and seducer of women.(2)When We Two Parted is a lyric poem of usual love between man and woman. The poem is alternately rhymed to show the poet’s mental pain of love mingled with hate. The metrical movement of this poem is basically a combination of iambic and anapaestic (抑抑扬格) feet, with a rhyme scheme ababcdcd.(3)She Walks in Beauty is one of B’s early love lyrics.●Background knowledge – On June 11, 1814, B attended a party where he for the first time net hisyoung cousin, Lady Wilmot Horton, who was dressed in a black mourning gown. B was so struck by her beauty that, on returning home, he wrote this poem in a single night.●Theme – This lyric poem is a compliment to a lady and to celebrate the beauty of the woman.●Form – The poem contains three stanzas of iambic tetrameter, with a rhyme scheme ababab.(4)The Isles of Greece is taken from Don Juan, Canto III, which is sung by a Greek singer at the wedding of Don Juan and Haidee. In the early 19th century, Greece was under the rule of Turk. Bycontrasting the freedom of ancient Greece and the present enslavement, the poet appealed to people to struggle for liberty.●Comments on Byron(1)Byron is the most excellent representative of English Romanticism. He was one of the most influential poets of his time.(2)He created the concept of the “Byronic hero”—a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. (3)His poems are favorites of the British workers & the laboring people of other countries. He opposed oppression & slavery, & had an ardent love for liberty. He praised the people’s revolutionary struggles in his works.(4)He was the most renowned English language poet of his day.Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1827)Introduction●Shelley is one of the leading Romantic poets, an intense and original lyrical poet in the English language. Shelley drew no essential distinction between poetry and politics, and his work reflected the radical ideas and revolutionary optimism of the era.●Term – OdeIt is a dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem of some length, praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Originally they were songs performed to the accompaniment of a music instrument. John Keats wrote great odes. His Ode on a Grecian Urn is a case in point.●Term -- Terza RimaIt is an Italian verse that consists of a series of three-line stanzas in which the middle line of each stanza rhymes with the first and third lines of the following stanza with the rhyming scheme aba, bcb, cdc, ded, etc.. It appeared first in Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Besides, Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind is a case in point.●Major WorksThe Necessity of Atheism《无神论的必要性》Adonais《阿多尼斯》Queen Mab 1813《麦布女王》The Revolt of Islam 1818《伊斯兰的反叛》Prometheus Unbound 1820《解放了的普罗米修斯》A Defence of Poetry《诗辩》●Famous selected poems in our textbook:A Song: Men of EnglandOde to the West WindOzymandiasTo a SkylarkThe Cloud●Analysis of Shelley’s works(1) A Song: Men of England is one of Shelley’s greatest political lyrics. It is not only a war cry callingupon all working people to rise up against their political oppressors, but an address to them pointing out the intolerable injustice of economic exploitation. The poet warns the working people that if they should give up their struggle, they would be digging graves for themselves with their own hands.(2)Ode to the West Wind is one of the most popular and best-known of Shelley's lyrics. Main Idea–Shelley eulogized the powerful west wind & expressed his eagerness to enjoy the boundless freedom from the reality. “West Wind”— in the poem symbolizes both destroyer of the old and preserver of the new. It destroys leaves/things/thoughts/ideas that are dead; it preserves new life or seeds that represent new life or new birth. Form—This ode consists of five stanzas, each a stanza formed of four units of terza rima (三行诗节) completed by a couplet. Famous lines—”Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;/ Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!” and “I fall upon the thorns of life!” and “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”(3)Prometheus Unbound is Shelley’s greatest poetic drama. The drama celebrates man’s victory over tyranny and oppression.(4)Queen Mab is a revolutionary poem condemning tyranny and exploitation and the unjust war waged by the rich to plunder wealth.John Keats (1795-1821)●Romantic poets comparedWordsworth: beauty in simplicityColeridge: beauty in the extraordinary and supernaturalByron: beauty in power and satireShelley: exquisite beautyKeats: sensuous beauty(给人以美的享受的).On John Keats’ tomb are carved, according to his own request, the words: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” (此地长眠者,声名水上书)●John Keats is one of the major English Romantists in the 19th century. He wrote best odes in Englishliterature. He sought to express beauty in all of his poems. His leading principle is “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”. His poetry is distinguished by sensuousness and the perfection of the form. His ability to appeal to the senses through language is virtually unrivaled.●Major Works“““““●Analysis of Keats’ works(1)Ode on an Grecian Urn shows the contrast between the permanence of art and the transience of human passion. Form—Each stanza is 10 lines long, metered in a relatively precise iambic pentameter,and divided into a two part rhyme scheme: the first 7 lines of each stanza follow an ABABCDE rhyme and the last 3 lines of which are variable. The famous line from this ode is “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” and “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard/ Are sweeter”.(2)On First Looking into Chapman’s Hom er is a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet with a rhyme scheme of abba abba cdc dcd. The octet (eight lines) describes Keats's reading experience before reading Chapman's translation and the sestet (six lines) contrasts his experience of reading it.(3)Ode to a Nightingale expresses the contrast between the happy world of natural loveliness and human world of agony.Walter Scott (1771—1832)●Walter Scott, a Scottish novelist and poet, is the father of the historical novel. His historical novel ishis chief contribution to English literature. His historical novels concern the history of Scotland, English history and the history of European countries. His language is difficult with Scottish dialect.●Major Works of Walter ScottPoems1802, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,《苏格兰边区歌谣集》1805, The Lay of the Last Minstrel,《最末一个行吟诗人》1808, Marmion《玛密恩》1810, The Lady of the Lake《湖上夫人》NovelsOf Scottish historyWaverley 《威弗利》1814Guy Mannering 《盖曼纳合》1815Old Morality 《清教徒》1816Rob Roy 1817 《罗布·罗伊》, the best of the groupThe Heart of Midlothian 1818《弥德洛西恩的心》Of the English historyIvanhoe《艾凡赫》1820, is Scott’s masterpiece. It is a novel of English subject covering the days after the Norman Conquest.Kenilworth, 《肯纳尔沃思堡》1821The Fortunes of Nigel, 《尼格尔的家产》1822Woodstock 《皇家猎宫》Peveril of the Peak 《贝弗利尔·皮克》1823Of the European countriesQuentin Durward 《昆丁·达沃德》1823Talisman 《惊军英雄记》1825Count Robert of Paris《巴黎的罗伯特伯爵》1832St. Ronan’s Wells《圣·罗南之泉》, the only one, dealing with his contemporary life●Features of Scott’s Novels(1)Scott has an outstanding gift of vivifying the past.(2)In his novels, historical events are closely interwoven with the fates of individuals.(3)In his historical novels, he concerns both the lives and deeds of the higher class and that of the ordinary people.(4)He is a romantic while a Tory, a conservative in politics.Jane Austen (1775-1817)Introduction●She was a woman novelist of the 18th century, thought she lived mainly in the 19th century for herworks show clearly her firm belief in the predominance of reason over passion, the sense of responsibility, good manners and clear-sighted judgment over the Romantic tendencies of emotion and individuality.●Six NovelsEmma《爱玛》Persuasion《劝导》Mansfield Park《曼斯菲尔德庄园》Northanger Abbey《诺桑觉寺》Pride and Prejudice《傲慢与偏见》Sense and Sensibility《理智与情感》●Analysis of Pride and PrejudicePride & Prejudice which was originally drafted as First Impressions, mainly tells of the love story between a rich, proud young man Darcy and the beautiful and intelligent Elizabeth Bennet. In this novel, Darcy stands for Pride and Elizabeth represents Prejudice. In the end false pride is humbled and prejudice dissolved.Main Characters—Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet with their daughters of Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine and Lydia, besides there are Charles Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy.Major Themes— Pride and prejudiceLove and marriageFamilyFamous quotations from Chapter 1①“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”. ——Opening sentence from Pride and PrejudiceExplanations of the opening sentence—P & P begins with one of her most famous uses of irony. The first sentence takes a local attitude, to be exemplified in Mrs. Bennet, about the need of well-to-do men to marry, and transforms it, tongue-in-cheek, into a self-evident fact “universally acknowledged.”②“What is his name?”“Bingley.”“Is he married or single?”“Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”“How so? how can it affect them?”“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”——Conversations between Mr. and Mrs BennetExplanations of this conversation—The conversation tells us that Mrs. Bennet is eager to marry one of his daughters to the mentioned young man, but her husband does not care much.●Jane Austen’s contribution to English literature(1)Jane Austen is one of the most important Romantic novelists in English literature. She creates six influential novels such as Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Pride and Prejudice.(2)Her main literary concern is about human beings in their personal relationships. She makes trivial daily life as important as the concerns about human belief and career and salient social events. This is what make her important in English literature.(3%)(3)Jane Austen has brought the English novel, as an art of form, to its maturity because of her sensitivity to universal patterns of human behavior and her accurate portrayal of human individuals. (4)She describes the world from a woman’s point of view, and depicts a group of authentic and common women.Charles Lamb (1775-1834)●Romantic prose writers(1)The early 19th century is remarkable for the development of a new and valuable type of critical prose writing.(2)The leaders in this new and important development are William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, De Quincy and Charles Lamb.(3)These prose writers were much influenced by the French Revolution in politics and by the Romantic Movement in literature.(4)They freely expressed their own personality in their writings.(5)The best representative of these writers is Charles Lamb.●Major literary worksFirst PeriodJohn Woodvil《约翰·伍德维尔》1802Mr. H 《H君》1806Second PeriodTales from Shakespeare 《莎士比亚故事集》1807 cooperated with his sisterSpecimens of English Dramatic Poets Contemporary with Shakespeare《莎士比亚同时代英国戏剧诗人之范作》1808Third Perid—series of essaysEssays of Elia 《伊利亚随笔集》1823Last Essays of Elia《后随笔集》1833Part VIII. The Victorian Age●Age DivisionThe Victorian Age can be roughly divided into 3 periods:The Early Period (1832-1848): a time of social unrest.The Middle Period (1848-1870): a period of economic prosperity & religious controversy.The Last Period (1870-1901): a period of decay of Victorian values.●Features of Victorian novels(1)The plot is unfolded against a social background, which is broader than what it had been in previous novels.(2)The cause-effect sequence is much more striking than in previous novels.(3)Most of the Victorian novels first published in serial form, that is, by installment, before they were fully published in a single book.(4)The Victorian novels were tainted by the spirit of Puritanism of the Victorian age.(5)The Victorian novels were characterized by their moral purpose. Many writers wrote novels with a purpose to edify readers & to bring about reforms.●Victorian PoetsAlthough the novel was the predominating genre of literature in the Victorian age, it does not follow that there were no prominent poets after the deaths of major Romantic poets.In fact, poets like Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), Robert Browning (1812-1889), Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), & Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)were important in the sense not only that they wrote highly lyrical poems as the Romaticists did, but also that they in their poetry reflected the spiritual search which was characteristic of the age.●Terms—Critical RealismCritical Realism is a term applied to the realistic fiction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It means the tendency of writers and intellectuals in the period between 1875 and 1920 to apply the method of realistic fiction to the criticism of society and the examination of social issues. Charles Dickens is the most important critical realist who applies this method.●Terms—Dramatic MonologueDramatic Monologue, in literature, refers to the occurrence of a single speaker saying something to a silent audience. Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess is a typical example in which the duke, speaking to a non-responding audience, reveals not only the reasons for his disapproval of the behavior of his former duchess, but some tyrannical and merciless aspects of his own personality as well.Charles Dickens (1812-1870)“He was a sympathizer to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world.”——The Epitaph of Charles Dickens●Charles Dickens is one of the greatest critical realist writers of the Victorian Age. His works areintended to expose and criticize all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and corruptness of the 19th century England, particularly London. All his works are characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.●Major worksThe First Period1836 Sketches by Boz 《博兹随笔》1837 The Pickwick Papers 《匹克威克外传》1837-1838 Oliver Twist 《雾都孤儿》criticizes the dehumanizing workhouse system and the dark, criminal underworld life.1838-1839 Nicholas Nickleby 《尼古拉斯.尼科尔贝》1840 The Old Curiosity Shop 《老古玩店》The Second Period1842 American Notes 《美国札记》1843 Martin Chuzzlewit 《马丁.瞿述传》1843 A Christmas Carol 《圣诞欢歌》(圣诞故事集)1844 The Chimes 《钟声》(圣诞故事集)1846 Dombey and Son 《董贝父子》1849 David Copperfield 《大卫.科波菲尔》is about the debtor’s prison.The Third Period1852 Bleak House 《荒凉山庄》attacks the legal system and practices that aim at devouring every penny of the clients.1853 Hard Times 《艰难时世》lashes the Utilitarian principle that rules over the English education system and destroys young hearts and minds.1854 Little Dorrit 《小杜丽》1859 A Tale of Two Cities 《双城记》1860 Great Expectations 《远大前程》expose the overwhelming social environment which brings moral degeneration and destruction to people.1864 Our Mutual Friend 《我们共同的朋友》●The characteristics of Charles Dickens’ works(1)As a novelist, Charles Dickens was first remembered for his sketches of characters and exaggeration. As a master of characterization, Dickens was skillful in drawing vivid caricatural sketches by exaggerating some peculiarities.(2)Dickens is well known as a humorist as well as a satirist. He sometimes employs humor to enlivena scene or lighten a character by making it (him or her) eccentric or laughable.(3)Dickens loved complicated and fascinating plot in his novels. He is also skillful at creating suspense and mystery to make the story fascinating. A plot formula in his novel is the happy ending. (4)As the greatest representative of English critical realism, Dickens made his novel the instrument of morality and justice. Each of his novels reveals a specific social problem.William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)●William Makepeace Thackeray is one of the most important writers of the English critical realism.Through his masterpiece Vanity Fair, Thackeray sharply exposes the vices of his society: hypocrisy, money-worship, and moral degradation.●Major worksThe Book of Snobs1846-47《势利人脸谱》《势利者集》Vanity Fair1847-48《名利场》The History of Pendennis1849-50《彭登尼斯》The Newcomes 1853-55《纽克姆一家》The History of Henny Esmond 《亨利•埃斯蒙德》1852The Virginians《弗吉尼亚人》1859●The Analysis of V anity FairGeneral Introduction—Vanity Fair is Thackeray's masterpiece. It was published in 1847-48 in monthly installments.The title— was taken from Bunyan's “Pilgrim's Progress”.The sub-title —of the book, “A Novel Without a Hero”, suggests the fact that writer ' s intention was not to portray individuals, but the bourgeois and aristocratic society as a whole.Main idea—In this novel Thackeray describes the life of the ruling classes of England in the early decades of the 19th century, and attacks the social relationship of the bourgeois world by satirizing the individuals in the different strata of the upper society. It is a world where money grubbing is the main motive for all members of the ruling classes.The heroin—is Rebecca Sharp who is a perfect embodiment of the spirit of Vanity Fair as her only aspiration in life is to gain wealth and position by any means fair or foul. Sharp is charming and pretty, but she is ambitious. Driven by her ambition, she has become a merciless social climber. As her name suggests, Becky Sharp is determined to carve out a place for herself in Vanity Fair. She succeeds in establishing herself in Vanity Fair at the cost of lives of two men and the alienation of all her friends and family. But she enjoys the battle.●The characteristics of Thackeray’s novels(1)Thackeray is one of the greatest critical realists of the 19th-century Europe .(2)Thackeray is a satirist. He is noted for realistic depiction, the ironic and sarcastic tone and constant comment and criticism.(3)Thackeray is a moralist. His aim is to produce a moral impression in all his novels.(4)He is good at describing the life of the upper class, which he is familiar with.●The theme of Vanity Fair.(1)Vanity Fair describes the life of the upper society of England in the early 19th century, and exposes the craftiness, snobbishness and vanity of the ruling classes.(2)Life is portrayed in this novel as a vanity fair where everything can be sold and bought, and money-grubbing was the main motive for the members of the upper classes.(3)Becky Sharp is a perfect example of this money-grubbing instinct. She is a subtle embodiment of duplicity, ambition and selfishness.(4)When we discuss the theme of the novel, disillusionment is the key word. At the end of the novel, nobody is happy.George Eliot (1819-1880) — Mary Ann Evans“It was really George Eliot who started it all. It was she started putting action inside.”-- D.H. Lawrence’ evaluation on George Eliot●Eliot’s Major WorksNovelsRemarkable ones:Adam Bede, 1859 《亚当.比德》---rural lifeThe Mill on the Floss, 1860《弗洛斯河上的磨房》--moral problemsSilas Marner, 1861《织工马南》 - psychological studies of charactersOthers:Romola, 1863 《罗慕拉》 --problems of religion &moralityFelix Holt, the Radical, 1866《费力可斯.霍尔特》Middlemarch, 1871–72《米德尔马契》Daniel Deronda, 1876《丹尼尔.德龙达》●The characteristics of Eliot’s literary worksShe wrote about rural life influenced by the industrial revolution.She shows a particular concern for the destiny of women.She leads in the direction of both the naturalistic and psychological novel.She shows the interest in the interior life of human beings, moral problems and strains.Religion is concerned in her novels.Bronte Sisters●The story of the three Bronte sisters, Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1848), Anne (1820-1849),all literary, all talented and all dying young, is one of the saddest pages in the history of English literature.They were the daughters of a poor clergyman in the little village of Haworth, Yorkshire, in northern England.Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)●She is one of the three Bronte sisters. Her works are all about the struggle of an individual consciousnesstowards self-realization, about some lonely and neglected young women with a fierce longing for love, understanding and a full, happy life. Al her heroines’ highest joy arises from some sacrifice of self or some human weakness overcome.●Major works“The Professor” (1846, 1857) 《教师》“Jane Eyre” (1847) 《简·爱》“Shirley” (1849)《雪莉》“Villette”(1853) 《维莱特》●The Analysis of Jane Eyre(1)Jane Eyre is Charlotte’s masterpiece, and also one of the most popular and important novels of the Victorian Age.(2)It is noted for its sharp criticism of the existing society, e.g. the religious hypocrisy of charity institutions such as Lowood School.(3)It traces the passionate love between Jane Eyre and Rochester.(4)The success of the novel is also due to its introduction to the English novel the first governess heroine, Jane Eyre.(5)Jane Eyre is an orphan child with a fiery spirit and a longing to love and be loved, a poor, plain,。
班扬 John Bunyan A. 作品风格 a. Bunyan's style was modeled after that of the English Bible. b. He used concrete and living language and vivid details. c. He made it possible for the reader of the least education to share the pleasure of reading his novel. B. 代表作 a. The Pilgrim's Progress is the most successful religious allegory in the English language b. Its predominant metaphor- life as a journey- is simple and familiar. 蒲柏 Alexander Pope A. 现实批评观 a. He upheld the existing social system as an ideal one, but he was not entirely blind to the rapid moral, political and cultural deterioration. b. He published The Rape of the Lock and use the mock epic form to retell the cutting of the lock, to ridicule the trivial incident and to satirize the foolish, meaningless life of the lords and ladies in the aristocratic bourgeois society of the eighteenth century England. B. ⽂学观He strongly advocated neoclassicism. C. 代表作品 An Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad,An Essay on Man. The translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The edition of Shakespeare's plays. 笛福 Daniel Defoe A. 主要作品 a. The first novel: Robinson Crusoe. b. four other novels: Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack and Roxana. c. The pseudo-factual account of Great Plague: A Journal the Plague Year. B. 代表作 a. Robinson Crusoe, an adventure story very much in the spirit of the time, is universally considered his masterpiece. b. Robinson is here a real her a typical eighteenth-century English middle-class man. c. He is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. In describing Robinson's life on the island, Defoe glorifies human labor and the Puritan fortitude. 斯威夫特 Jonathan Swift A. 创作: a. The works to establish his name: A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books established his name as a satirist. b. The Drapier's letters He published, under the pseudonym of Drapier, a series of letters. Even today Swift is still respected as a national hero in Ireland. c. The greatest satiric work: He wrote and published his greatest satiric work, Gulliver's Travels. B. 代表作 a. Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan's best fictional work. The book contains four parts: His experience in Lilliput, Alone in Brobdingnag, Visit to the Flying Island and Account of his discoveries in the Houyhnhnm land. In structure, the four parts make an organic whole. b. Gulliver gives an account of some aspects of Lilliputian life and obviously alludes to the similar ridiculous practices or tricks of the English government. 费尔丁 Henry Fielding A. 戏剧创作 The best known are The coffee-House Politician, The Tragedy of Tragedies, Pasquin, and The Historical Register for the Year1736. B. ⼩说创作 a. The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his friend Mr. Abraham Adams, the book quickly turns into a great novel of the open road, a "comic epic in prose". b. The History of Jonathan Wild the Great, points out the Great Man is no better than a great gangster. c. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling and The History of Amelia. The former is a masterpiece on the subject of human nature and the latter the story of the unfortunate life of an idealized woman.。