A Concise History of British Literature
A Concise History of British Literature
Chapter 1 English Literature of Anglo-Saxon Period
I. Introduction
1. The historical background
(1) Before the Germanic invasion
(2) During the Germanic invasion
a. immigration;
b. Christianity;
c. heptarchy.
d. social classes structure: hide-hundred; eoldermen (lord) – thane - middle class (freemen) - lower class (slave or bondmen: theow);
e. social organization: clan or tribes.
f. military Organization;
g. Church function: spirit, civil service, education;
h. economy: coins, trade, slavery;
i. feasts and festival: Halloween, Easter; j. legal 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 general introduction.
2. The content.
3. The literary features.
(1) the use of alliteration
(2) the use of metaphors and understatements
(3) the mixture of pagan and Christian elements
III. The Old English Prose
1. What is prose?
2. figures
(1) The Venerable Bede
(2) Alfred the Great
Chapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages
I. Introduction
1. The Historical Background.
(1) The year 1066: Norman Conquest.
(2) The social situations soon after the conquest.
A. Norman nobles and serfs;
B. restoration of the church.
(3) The 11th century.
A. the crusade and knights.
B. dominance of French and Latin;
(4) The 12th century.
A. the centralized government;
B. kings and the church (Henry II and Thomas);
(5) The 13th century.
A. The legend of Robin Hood;
B. Magna Carta (1215);
C. the beginning of the Parliament
D. English and Latin: official languages (the end)
(6) The 14th century.
a. the House of Lords and the House of Commons—conflict between the Parliament and Kings;
b. the rise of towns.
c. the change of Church.
d. the role of women.
e. the Hundred Years’ War—starting.
f. the development of the trade: London.
g. the Black Death.
h. the Peasants’ Revolt—1381.
i. The translation of Bible by Wycliff.
(7) The 15th century.
a. The Peasants Revolt (1453)
b. The War of Roses between Lancasters and Yorks.
c. the printing-press—William Caxton.
d. the starting of Tudor Monarchy(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 Monmouth—Historia Regum Britanniae—King Authur.
(3) Wace—Le Roman de Brut.
(4) The romance.
(5) the second half of the 14th century: Langland, Gawin poet, Chaucer.
II. Sir Gawin and Green Knight.
1. a general introduction.
2. the plot.
III. William Langland.
1. Life
2. Piers the Plowman
IV. Chaucer
1. Life
2. Literary Career: three periods
(1) French period
(2) Italian period
(3) master period
3. The Canterbury Tales
A. The Framework;
B. The General Prologue;
C. The Tale Proper.
4. His Contribution.
(1) He introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types.
(2) He is the first great poet who wrote in the current English language.
(3) The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.
V. Popular Ballads.
VI. Thomas Malory and English Prose
VII. The beginning of English Drama.
1. Miracle Plays.
Miracle play or mystery play is a form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of 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 enlarged by the addition of dialogue and dramatic action. Eventually the performance was moved to the churchyard and the marketplace.
2. Morality Plays.
A morality play is a play enforcing a moral truth or lesson by means of the speech and action of characters which are personified abstractions – figures representing vices and virtues, qualities of the human mind, or abstract conceptions in general.
3. Interlude.
The interlude, which grew out of the morality, was intended, as its name implies, to be used more as a filler than as the main part of an entertainment. As its best it was short, witty, simple in plot, suited for the diversion of guests at a banquet, or for the relaxation of the audience between the divisions of a serious play. It was essentially an indoors performance, and generally of an aristocratic nature.
Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance
I. A Historical Background
II. The Overview of the Literature (1485-1660)
Printing press—readership—growth of middle class—trade-education for laypeople-centralization of power-intellectual life-exploration-new impetus and direction of literature.
Humanism-study of the literature of classical antiquity and reformed education.
Literary style-modeled on the ancients.
The effect of humanism-the disseminatiogogoible attitude of its classically educated adherents. 1. poetry
The first tendency by Sidney and Spenser: ornate, florid, highly figured style.
The second tendency by Donne: metaphysical style—complexity and ingenuity.
The third tendency by Johgogotyle.
The fourth tendency by Milton: central Christian and Biblical tradition.
2. Drama
a. the gogoical examples.
b. the drama stands highest in popular estimation: Marlowe – Shakespeare – Jonson.
3. Prose
a. translation of Bible;
b. More;
c. Bacon.
II. English poetry.
1. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard (courtly makers)
(1) Wyatt: introducing sonnets.
(2) Howard: introducing sonnets and writing the first blank verse.
2. Sir Philip Sidney—poet, critic, prose writer
(1) Life:
a. English gentleman;
b. brilliant and fascinating personality;
c. courtier.
(2) works
a. Arcadia: pastoral romance;
b. Astrophel and Stella (108): sonnet sequence to Penelope Dvereux—platonic devotion. Petrarchan conceits and original feelings-moving to creativeness—building of a narrative story; theme-love originality-act of writing.
c. Defense of Poesy: an apology for imaginative literature—beginning of literary criticism.
3. Edmund Spenser
(1) life: Cambridge - Sidney’s friend - ―Areopagus‖ – Ireland - Westminster Abbey.
(2) works
a. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry in Renaissance.
b. Amoretti and Epithalamion: sonnet sequence
c. Faerie Queene:
l The general end--A romantic and allegorical epic—steps to virtue.
l 12 books and 12 virtues: Holiness, temperance, justice and courtesy.
l Two-level function: part of the story and part of allegory (symbolic meaning)
l Many allusions to classical writers.
l Themes: puritanism, nationalism, humanism and Renaissance Neoclassicism—a Christian humanist.
(3) Spenserian Stanza.
III. English Prose
1. Thomas More
(1) Life: ―Renaissance man‖, scholar, statesman, theorist, prose writer, diplomat, patron of arts
a. learned Greek at Canterbury College, Oxford;
b. studies law at Lincoln Inn;
c. Lord Chancellor;
d. beheaded.
(2) Utopia: the first English science fiction.
Written in Latin, two parts, the second—place of nowhere.
A philosophical mariner (Raphael Hythloday) tells his voyages in which he discovers a land-Utopia.
a. The part one is organized as dialogue with mariner depicting his philosophy.
b. The part two is a description of the island kingdom where gold and silver are worn by criminal, religious freedom is total and no one owns anything.
c. the nature of the book: attackigogo time.
d. the book and the Republic: an attempt to describe the Republic in a new way, but it possesses an modern character and the resemblance is in externals.
e. it played a key role in the Humanist awakening of the 16th century which moved away from the Medieval otherworldliness towards Renaissance secularism.
f. the Utopia
(3) the significance.
a. it was the first champion of national ideas and national languages; it created a national prose, equally adapted to handling scientific and artistic material.
b. a elegant Latin scholar and the father of English prose: he composed works in English, translated from Latin into English biography, wrote History of Richard III.
2. Francis Bacon: writer, philosopher and statesman
(1) life: Cambridge - humanism in Paris –knighted - Lord Chancellor –bribery - focusing on philosophy and literature.
(2) philosophical ideas: advancement of science—people:servants and interpreters of nature—method: a child before nature—facts and observations: experimental.
(3) ―Essays‖: 57.
a. he was a master of numerous and varied styles.
b. his method is to weigh and balance maters, indicating the ideal course of action and the practical one, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each, but leaving the reader to make the final decisions. (arguments)
IV. English Drama
1. A general survey.
(1) Everyman marks the beginning of modern drama.
(2) two influences.
a. the classics: classical in form and English in content;
b. native or popular drama.
(3) the University Wits.
2. Christopher Marlowe: greatest playwright before Shakespeare and most gifted of the Wits.
(1) Life: first igogoical poetry—then in drama.
(2) Major works
a. Tamburlaine;
b. The Jew of Malta;
c. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.
(3) The significance of his plays.
V. William Shakespeare
1. Life
(1) 1564, Stratford-on-Avon;
(2) Grammar School;
(3) Queen visit to Castle;
(4) marriage to Anne Hathaway;
(5) London, the Globe Theatre: small part and proprietor;
(6) the 1st Folio, Quarto;
(7) Retired, son—Hamnet; H. 1616.
2. Dramatic career
3. Major plays-men-centered.
(1) Romeo and Juliet--tragic love and fate
(2) The Merchant of Venice.
Good over evil.
Anti-Semitism.
(3) Henry IV.
National unity.
Falstaff.
(4) Julius Caesar
Republicanism vs. dictatorship.
(5) Hamlet
Revenge
Good/evil.
(6) Othello
Diabolic character
jealousy
gap between appearance and reality.
(7) King Lear
Filial ingratitude
(8) Macbeth
Ambition vs. fate.
(9) Antony and Cleopatra.
Passion vs. reason
(10) The Tempest
Reconciliation; reality and illusion.
3. Non-dramatic poetry
(1) Venus and Adonis; The Rape of Lucrece.
(2) Sonnets:
a. theme: fair, true, kind.
b. two major parts: a handsome young man of noble birth; a lady in dark complexion.
c. the form: three quatrains and a couplet.
d. the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
VI. Ben Jonson
1. life: poet, dramatist, a Latin and Greek scholar, the ―literary king‖ (Sons of Ben)
2.contribution:
(1) the idea of ―humour‖.
(2) an advocate of classical drama and a forerunner of classicism in English literature.
3. Major plays
(1) Everyone in His Humour—‖humour‖; three unities.
(2) V olpone the Fox
Chapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century
I. A Historical Background
II. The Overview of the Literature (1640-1688)
1. The revolution period
(1) The metaphysical poets;
(2) The Cavalier poets.
(3) Milton: the literary and philosophical heritage of the Renaissance merged with Protestant political and moral conviction
2. The restoration period.
(1) The restoration of Charles II ushered in a literature characterized by reason, moderation, good taste, deft management, and simplicity. (school of Ben Jonson)
(2) The ideals of impartial investigation and scientific experimentation promoted by the newly founded Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge (1662) were influential igogoe as an instrument of rational communication.
(3) The great philosophical and political treatises of the time emphasize rationalism.
(4) The restoration drama.
(5) The Age of Dryden.
III. John Milton
1. Life: educated at Cambridge—visiting the continent—involved into the revolution—persecuted—writing epics.
2. Literary career.
(1) The 1st period was up to 1641, during which time he is to be seen chiefly as a son of the humanists and Elizabethans, although his Puritanism is not absent. L'Allegre and IL Pens eroso (1632) are his early masterpieces, in which we find Milton a true offspring of the Renaissance, a scholar of exquisite taste and rare culture. Next came Comus, a masque. The greatest of early creations was Lycidas, a pastoral elegy on the death of a college mate, Edward King.
(2) The second period is from 1641 to 1654, when the Puritan was in 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 Puritan in him alone ruled his writing. He sacrificed his poetic ambition to the call of the liberty for which Puritans were fighting.
(3) The third period is from 1655 to 1671, when humanist and Puritan have been fused into an
exalted entity. This period is the greatest in his literary life, epics and some famous sonnets. The three long poems are the fruit of the long contest within Milton of Renaissance tradition and his Puritan faith. They form the greatest accomplishments of any English poet except Shakespeare. In Milton alone, it would seem, Puritanism could not extinguish the lover of beauty. In these works we find humanism and Puritanism merged in magnificence.
3. Major Works
(1) Paradise Lost
a. the plot.
b. characters.
c. theme: justify the ways of God to man.
(2) Paradise Regained.
(3) Samson Agonistes.
4. Features of Milton’s works.
(1) Milton is one of the very few truly great English writers who is also a prominent figure in politics, and who is both a great poet and an important prose writer. The two most essential things to be remembered about him are his Puritanism and his republicanism.
(2) Milton wrote many different types of poetry. He is especially a great master of blank verse. He learned much from Shakespeare and first used blank verse in non-dramatic works.
(3) Milton is a great stylist. He is famous for his grand style noted for its dignity and polish, which is the result of his life-long classical and biblical study.
(4) Milton has always been admired for his sublimity of thought and majesty of expression.
IV. John Bunyan
1. 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 Poets and Cavalier Poets.
1. Metaphysical Poets
The term ―metaphysical poetry‖ is commonly used to designate the works of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. Pressured by the harsh, uncomfortable and curious age, the metaphysical poets sought to shatter myths and replace them with new philosophies, new sciences, new words and new poetry. They tried to break away from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry, and favoured in poetry for a more colloquial language and tone, a tightness of expression and the single-minded working out of a theme or argument.
2. Cavalier Poets
The other group prevailing in this period was that of Cavalier poets. They were often courtiers who stood on the side of the king, and called themselves ―sons‖ of Ben Jonson. The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elegant, amorous and gay, but often superficial. Most of their verses were short songs, pretty madrigals, love fancies characterized by lightness of heart and of morals. Cavalier poems have the limpidity of the Elizabethan lyric without its imaginative flights. They are lighter and neater but less fresh than the Elizabethan’s.
VI. John Dryden.
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 Laureate
2. His influences.
(1) He established the heroic couplet as the fashion for satiric, didactic, and descriptive poetry.
(2) He developed a direct and concise prose style.
(3) He developed the art of literary criticism in his essays and in the numerous prefaces to his poems.
Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th Century
I. Introduction
1. The Historical Background.
2. The literary overview.
(1) The Enlightenment.
(2) The rise of English novels.
When the literary historian seeks to assign to each age its favourite form of literature, he finds no difficulty in dealing with our own time. As the Middle Ages delighted in long romantic narrative poems, the Elizabethans in drama, the Englishman of the reigns of Anne and the early Georges in didactic and satirical verse, so the public of our day is enamored of the novel. Almost all types of literary production continue to appear, but whether we judge from the lists of publishers, the statistics of public libraries, or general conversation, we find abundant evidence of the enormous preponderance of this kind of literary entertainment in popular favour.
(3) Neo-classicism: a revival in the seventeenth agogo of order, balance, and harmony in literature. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major expogogochool.
(4) Satiric literature.
(5) Sentimentalism
II. Neo-classicism. (a general description)
1. Alexander Pope
(1) Life:
a. Catholic family;
b. ill health;
c. taught himself by reading and translating;
d. friend of Addison, Steele and Swift.
(2) three groups of poems:
e. An Essay on Criticism (magogom);
f. The Rape of Lock;
g. Translation of two epics.
(3) His contribution:
h. the heroic couplet—finish, elegance, wit, pointedness;
i. satire.
(4) weakness: lack of imagination.
2. Addison and Steele
(1) Richard Steele: poet, playwright, essayist, publisher of newspaper.
(2) Joseph Addison: studies at Oxford, secretary of state, created a literary periodical ―Spectator‖ (with Steele, 1711)
(3) Spectator Club.
(4) The significance of their essays.
a. Their writings in ―The Tatler‖, and ―The Spectator‖ provide a new code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie.
b. They give a true picture of the social life of England in the 18th century.
c. In their hands, the English essay completely established itself as a literary genre. Using it as a form of character sketching and story telling, they ushered in the dawn of the modern novel.
3. Samuel Johnson—poet, critic, essayist, lexicographer, editor.
(1) Life:
a. studies at Oxford;
b. made a living by writing and translating;
c. the great cham of literature.
(2) works: poem (The Vanity of Human Wishes, London); criticism (The Lives of great Poets); preface.
(3) The champion of neoclassical ideas.
III. Literature of Satire: Jonathan Swift.
1. Life:
(1) born in Ireland;
(2) studies at Trinity College;
(3) worked as a secretary;
(4) the chief editor of The Examiner;
(5) the Dean of St. Patrick’s in Dublin.
2. Wo rks: The Battle of Books, A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal, Gulliver’s Travels.
3. Gulliver’s Travels.
Part I. Satire—the Whig and the Tories, Anglican Church and Catholic Church.
Part II. Satire—the legal system; condemnation of war.
Part III. Satire—ridiculous scientific experiment.
Part IV. Satire—mankind.
IV. English Novels of Realistic tradition.
1. The Rise of novels.
(1) Early forms: folk tale –fables –myths –epic –poetry –romances –fabliaux –novelle - imaginative nature of their material. (imaginative narrative)
(2) The rise of the novel
a. picaresque novel in Spain and England (16th century): Of or relating to a genre of prose fiction that originated in Spain and depicts in realistic detail the adventures of a roguish hero, often with satiric or humorous effects.
b. Sidney: Arcadia.
c. Addison and Steele: The Spectator.
(plot and characterization and realism)
(3) novel and drama (17the century)
2. Daniel Defoe—novelist, poet, pamphleteer, publisher, merchant, journalist.)
(1) Life:
a. business career;
b. writing career;
c. interested in politics.
(2) Robinson Cusoe.
a. the story.
b. the significance of the character.
c. the features of his novels.
d. the style of languag
e.
3. Henry Fielding—novelist.
(1) Life:
a. unsuccessful dramatic career;
b. legal career; writing career.
(2) works.
(3) Tom Jones.
a. the plot;
b. characters: Tom, Blifil, Sophia;
c. significance.
(4) the theory of realism.
(5) the style of language.
V. Writers of Sentimentalism.
1. Introduction
2. Samuel Richardson—novelist, moralist (One who is unduly concerned with the morals of
others.)
(1) Life:
a. printer book seller;
b. letter writer.
(2) Pamela, Virtue Rewarded.
a. the story
b. the significance
Pamela was a new thing in these ways:
a) It discarded the ―improbable and marvelous‖ accomplishments of the former heroic romances, and pictured the life and love of ordinary people.
b) Its intension was to afford not merely entertainment but also moral instruction.
c) It described not only the sayings and doings of characters but their also their secret thoughts and feelings. It was, in fact, the first English psycho-analytical novel.
3. Oliver Goldsmith—poet and novelist.
A. Life:
a. born in Ireland;
b. a singer and tale-teller, a life of vagabondage;
c. bookseller;
d. the Literary Club;
e. a miserable life;
f. the most lovable character in English literature.
B. The Vicar of Wakefield.
a. story;
b. the signicance.
VI. English Drama of the 18th century
1. The decline of the drama
2. Richard Brinsley Sheriden
A. life.
B. works: Rivals, The School for Scandals.
C. significance of his plays.
a. The Rivals and The School for Scandal are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy.
b. In his plays, morality is the constant theme. He is much concerned with the current moral issues and lashes harshly at the social vices of the day.
c. Sheridan’s greatness also lies igogo to have inherited from his paren ts a natural ability and inborn knowledge about the theatre. His plays are the product of a dramatic genius as well as of a well-versed theatrical man.
d. His plots are well-organized, his characters, either major or minor, are all sharply drawn, and his manipulation of such devices as disguise, mistaken identity and dramatic irony is masterly. Witty dialogues and neat and decent language also make a characteristic of his plays.
Chapter 6 English Literature of the Romantic Age
I. Introduction
1. Historical Background
2. Literary Overview: Romanticism
Characteristics of Romanticism:
(1) The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
(2) The creation of a world of imagination
(3) The return to nature for material
(4) Sympathy with the humble and glorification of the commonplace
(5) Emphasis upon the expression of individual genius
(6) The return to Milton and the Elizabethans for literary models
(7) The interest in old stories and medieval romances
(8) A sense of melancholy and loneliness
(9) The rebellious spirit
II. Pre-Romantics
1. Robert Burns
(1) Life: French Revolution
(2) Features of poetry
a. Burns is chiefly remembered for his songs written in the Scottish dialect.
b. His poems are usually devoid of artificial ornament and have a great charm of simplicity.
c. His poems are especially appreciated for their musical effect.
d. His political and satirical poems are noted for his passionate love for freedom and fiery sentiments of hatred against tyranny.
(3) Significance of his poetry
His poetry marks an epoch in the history of English literature. They suggested that the spirit of the Romantic revival was embodied in this obscure ploughman. Love, humour, pathos, the response to nature – all the poetic qualities that touch the human heart are in his poems, which marked the sunrise of another day – the day of Romanticism.
2. William Blake
(1) life: French Revolution
(2) works.
l Songs of Innocence
l Songs of Experience
(3) features
a. sympathy with the French Revolution
b. hatred for 18th century conformity and social institution
c. attitude of revolt against authority
d. strong protest against restrictive codes
(4) his influence
Blake is often regarded as a symbolist and mystic, and he has exerted a great influence on twentieth century writers. His peculiarities of thought and imaginative vision have in many ways proved far more congenial to the 20th century than they were to the 19th.
III. Romantic Poets of the first generation
1. Introduction
2. William Wordsworth: representative poet, chief spokesman of Romantic poetry
(1) Life:
a. love nature;
b. Cambridge;
c. tour to France;
d. French revolution;
e. Dorathy;
f. The Lake District;
g. friend of Coleridge;
h. conservative after revolution.
(2) works:
a. the Lyrical Ballads (preface): significance
b. The Prelude: a biographical poem.
c. the other poems
(3) Features of his poems.
a. Theme
A constant theme of his poetry was the growth of the human spirit through the natural description with expressions of inward states of mind.
b. characteristics of style.
His poems are characterized by a sympathy with the poor, simple peasants, and a passionate love of nature.
3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge: poet and critic
(1) Life:
a. Cambridge;
b. friend with Southey and Wordsworth;
c. taking opium.
(2) works.
l The fall of Robespierre
l The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
l Kubla Khan
l Biographia Literaria
(3) Biographia Literaria.
(4) His criticism
He was one of the first critics to give close critical attention to language. In both poetry and criticism, his work is outstanding, but it is typical of him that his critical work is very scattered and disorganized.
IV. Romantic Poets of the Second Generation.
1. Introduction
2. George Gordon Byron
(1) Life:
a. Cambridge, published poems and reviews;
b. a tour of Europe and the East;
c. left England;
d. friend with Shelley;
e. worked in Greece: national hero;
f. radical and sympathetic with French Revolution.
(2) Works.
l Don Juan
l When We Two Parted
l She Walks in Beauty
(3) Byronic Hero.
Byron introduced into English poetry a new style of character, which as often been referred to as ―Byronic Hero‖ of ―satanic spirit‖. People imagined that they saw something of Byron himself in these strange figures of rebels, pirates, and desperate adventurers.
(4) Poetic style: loose, fluent and vivid
3. Percy Bysshe Shelley: poet and critic
(1) Life:
a. aristocratic family;
b. rebellious heart;
c. Oxford;
d. Irish national liberation Movement;
e. disciple of William Godwin;
f. marriage with Harriet, and Marry;
g. left England and wandered in EUrope, died in Italy;
h. radical and sympathetic with the French revolution;
i. Friend with Byron
(2) works: two types – violent reformer and wanderer
(3) Characteristics of poems.
a. pursuit of a better society;
b. radian beauty;
c. superb artistry: imagination.
(4) Defense of Poetry.
4. John Keats.
(1) Life:
a. from a poor family;
b. Cockney School;
c. friend with Byron and Shelley;
d. attacked by the conservatives and died in Italy.
(2) works.
(3) Characteristics of poems
a. loved beauty;
b. seeking refuge in an idealistic world of illusions and dreams.
V. Novelists of the Romantic Age.
1. Water Scott. Novelist and poet
(1) Life:
a. Scotland;
b. university of Edindurgh;
c. poem to novel;
d. unsuccessful publishing firm;
e. great contribution: historical novel.
(2) three groups of novels
(3) Features of his novels.
(4) his influence.
2. Jane Austen
(1) Life:
a. country clergyman;
b. uneventful life, domestic duties;
(2) works.
(3) features of her writings.
Austen’s novels are britened by their witty conversation and omnipresent humour. Her stories are skillfully woven together; her plots never leave the path of realism, and have always been sensible. Her language shines with agogo, elegant and refined, but never showy. She herself compared her work to a fine engraving made up on a little piece of ivory only two inches square. The comparison is true. The ivory surface is small enough, but the lady who made the drawings of human life on it was a real artist.
(4) rationalism, neoclassicism, romanticism and realism.
VI. Familiar Essays.
1. Introduction
2. Charles Lamb: essayist and critic
(1) life:
a. poor family;
b. friend of Coleridge;
c. sister Mary;
d. worked in the East India House;
e. a miserable life;
f. a man of mild character.
g. a Romanticist of the city.
(2) works: Essays of Elia. Three groups.
(3) Features.
a. The most striking feature of his essays is his humour.
b. Lamb was especially fond of old writers.
c. His essays are intensely personal.
d. He was a romanticist.
Chapter 7 English Literature of the Victorian Age
I. Introduction
1. Historical Background
(1) An age of expansion
(2) The conditions of the workers and the chartist movement
(3) Reforms
(4) Darwin’s theory of evolution and its influence
(5) The women question
2. Literary Overview: critical realism.
In Victorian period appeared a gogoh critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the 40s and in the early 50s. It found its expression in the form of gogot of whom were novelists, described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint.
II. gogo.
1. Charles Dickens.
(1) Life:
a. clerk family;
b. a miserable childhood;
c. a clerk, a reporter, a writer;
d. a man of hard work.
(2) works of three periods.
a. optimize
b. frustration
c. pessimism
(3) Features of his works.
a. character sketches and exaggeration
b. broad humour and penetrating satire
c. complicated and fascinating plot
d. the power of exposure
2. William Makepeace Thackeray
(1) Life:
a. born in India;
b. studied in Cambridge;
c. worked as artist and illustrator and writer.
(2) work: The Vanity Fair
(3) Thackeray and Dickens – features
a. Just like Dickens, Thackeray is ogogo of the 19th century Europe. He paints life as he has seen it. With his precise and thorough observation, rich knowledge of social life and of the human heart, the pictures in his novels are accurate and true to life.
b. Thackeray is a satirist. His satire is caustic and his humour subtle.
c. Besides being a realist and satirist, Thackeray is a moralist. His aim is to produce a moral
impression in all his novels.
3. The Bronte Sisters
(1) Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre
(2) Emily Bronte and The Wuthering Heights.
4. George Eliot.
(1) Life:
a. Mary Ann Evans;
b. the rural midland;
c. abandoned religion;
d. interested in social philosophical problems;
e. editor of the Westminster Review;
f. George Henry Lewis.
(2) works
l Adam Bede
l Silas Marner
l Middlemarch
(3) Features of works.
As a moralist, she shows in each of her characters the action and reaction of universal forces and believes that every evil act must bring inevitable punishment to the man who does it. Moral law was to her as inevitable and automatic as gravitation.
5. Thomas Hardy: novelist and poet
(1) Life:
a. Dorchester—‖Wexssex;
b. close to peasantry;
c. belief in evolution.
(2) Works:
a. Romances and fantasies
b. novels of ingenuity
c. novels of characters and environment
(3) Ideas of Fate.
Unlike Dickens, most of Hardy’s novels are tragic. The cause of tragedy is man’s own behaviour or his own fault but the supernatural forces that rule his fate. According to Hardy, man is not the master of his destiny; he is at the mercy of indifferent forces which manipulate his behaviour and his relations with others.
III. English Poets of the Age
1. Alfred Tennyson
(1) life:
a. Cambridge;
b. friend with Hallem;
c. poet laureate.
(2) Works: In Memoriam; Idylls of the King.
2. Robert Browning.
(1) Life: married Elizabeth Barret, a poetess.
英国文学简史完全版 A Concise History of British Literature Chapter 1 English Literature of Anglo-Saxon Period I. Introduction 1. The historical background （1）Before the Germanic invasion （2）During the Germanic invasion a. immigration; b. Christianity; c. heptarchy. d. social classes structure: hide-hundred; eoldermen （lord）– thane - middle class （freemen）- lower class （slave or bondmen: theow）; e. social organization: clan or tribes. f. military Organization; g. Church function: spirit, civil service, education; h. economy: coins, trade, slavery; i. feasts and festival: Halloween, Easter; j. legal 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.
考试课程：英国文学史及选读考核类型：A 卷 考试方式：闭卷出卷教师: XXX 考试专业：英语考试班级：英语xx班 I.Multiple choice (30 points, 1 point for each) select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement. 1._____，a typical example of old English poetry ,is regarded today as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. A.The Canterbury Tales B.The Ballad of Robin Hood C.The Song of Beowulf D.Sir Gawain and the Green Kinght 2._____is the most common foot in English poetry. A.The anapest B.The trochee C.The iamb D.The dactyl 3.The Renaissance is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, which one of the following is NOT such an event? A.The rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture. B.England’s domestic rest C.New discovery in geography and astrology D.The religious reformation and the economic expansion 4._____is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. A.The Pilgrims Progress B.Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners C.The Life and Death of Mr.Badman D.The Holy War 5.Generally, the Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries, its essence is _____. A.science B.philosophy C.arts D.humanism 6.“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”(Shakespeare, Sonnets18)What does“this”refer to ? A.Lover. B.Time. C.Summer. D.Poetry. 7.“O prince, O chief of my throned powers, /That led th’ embattled seraphim to war/Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds/Fearless, endangered Heaven’s perpetual king”In the third line of the above passage quoted from Milton’s Paradise Los t, the phrase“thy conduct”refers to _____conduct. A.God’s B.Satan’s C.Adam’s D.Eve’s
《英国文学史及选读》第一册复习要点 1. Beowulf: national epic of the English people; Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatements （此处可能会有填空，选择等小题） 2. Romance （名词解释） 3. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”: a famous roman about King Arthur’s story 4. Ballad（名词解释） 5. Character of Robin Hood 6. Geoffrey Chaucer: founder of English poetry; The Canterbury Tales (main contents; 124 stories planned, only 24 finished; written in Middle English; significance; form: heroic couplet) 7. Heroic couplet (名词解释)8. Renaissance（名词解释）9.Thomas More——Utopia 10. Sonnet（名词解释）11. Blank verse（名词解释）12. Edmund Spenser “The Faerie Queene” 13. Francis Bacon “essays” esp. “Of Studies”（推荐阅读，学习写正式语体的英文文章的好参照，本文用词正式优雅，多排比句和长句，语言造诣非常高，里面很多话都可以引用做格言警句，非常值得一读） 14. William Shakespeare四大悲剧比较重要，此外就是罗密欧与朱立叶了，这些剧的主题，背景，情节，人物形象都要熟悉，当然他最重要的是Hamlet这是肯定的。他的sonnet也很重要，最重要属sonnet18。（其戏剧中著名对白和几首有名的十四行诗可能会出选读） 15. John Milton 三大史诗非常重要，特别是Paradise Lost和Samson Agonistes。对于Paradise Lost需要知道它是blank verse写成的，故事情节来自Old Testament，另外要知道此书theme和Satan的形象。 16. John Bunyan——The Pilgrim’s Progress 17. Founder of the Metaphysical school——John Donne; features of the school: philosophical poems, complex rhythms and strange images. 18. Enlightenment（名词解释） 19. Neoclassicism（名词解释） 20. Richard Steele——“The Tatler” 21. Joseph Addison——“The Spectator”这个比上面那个要重要，注意这个报纸和我们今天的报纸不一样，它虚构了一系列的人物，以这些人物的口气来写报纸上刊登的散文，这一部分要仔细读。 22. Steel’s and Addison’s styles and their contributions 23. Alexander Pope: “Essay on Criticism”, “Essay on Man”, “The Rape of Lock”, “The Dunciad”; his workmanship (features) and limitations 24. Jonathan Swift: “Gulliver’s Travels”此书非常重要，要知道具体内容，就是Gulliver游历过的四个地方的英文名称，和每个部分具体的讽刺对象; （我们主要讲了三个地方）“A Modest Proposal”比较重要，要注意作者用的irony 也就是反讽手法。 25. The rise and growth of the realistic novel is the most prominent achievement of 18th century English literature. 26. Daniel Defoe: “Robinson Crusoe”, “Moll Flanders”, 当然是Robinson Crusoe比较重要，剧情要清楚，Robinson Crusoe的形象和故事中蕴涵的早期黑奴的原形，以及殖民主义的萌芽。另外注意Defoe的style和feature，另外Defoe是forerunner of English realistic novel。 27. Samuel Richardson——“Pamela” (first epistolary novel), “Clarissa Harlowe”, “Sir Charles Grandison” 28. Henry Fielding: “Joseph Andrews”, “Jonathan Wild”, “Tom Jones”第一个和第三个比较重要，需要仔细看。他是一个比较重要的作家，另外Fielding也被称为father of the English novel. 29. Laurence Sterne——“Tristram Shandy”项狄传 30. Richard Sheridan——“The School for Scandal” 31. Oliver Goldsmith——“The Traveller”(poem), “The Deserted V illage” (poem) (both two poems were written by heroic couplet), “The Vicar of Wakefield” (novel), “The Good-Natured Man” (comedy), “She stoops to Conquer” (comedy),
····································密························封························线································ 学生答题不得超过此线
····································密························封························线································ 学生答题不得超过此线
····································密························封························线································ 学生答题不得超过此线
班级_________________学号姓名考试科目英美文学史及作品选读【（1）】B卷闭卷共 5 页 学生答题不得超过此线····································密························封························线································
班级_________________学号姓名考试科目英美文学史及作品选读【（1）】B卷闭卷共 5 页 学生答题不得超过此线····································密························封························线································
刘炳善《英国文学简史》（第3版）模拟试题及详解（二） I.Fill in the blanks 1.Two English poets,_____and_____published a book of poems Lyrical Ballads.【答案】William Wordsworth;Samuel Taylor Coleridge 【解析】1798年，华兹华斯和柯勒律治联合出版了《抒情歌谣集》，标志着英国浪漫主义的诞生。 2.Samson Agonistes was written by_____. 【答案】John Milton 【解析】《力士参孙》是英国作家John Milton的一部悲剧。 3.Of the four novels that Charlotte Bront?wrote,_____has achieved lasting fame.【答案】Jane Eyre 【解析】在夏洛特·勃朗特所写的四部小说中，《简·爱》获得了持久的名声。 4.Through the military life experience of Guy,and disillusionment of his dream of elimination of the evils through just wars,Evelyn Waugh explores in his work, _____,the nature of war. 【答案】Unconditional Surrender 【解析】伊夫林·沃在小说《无条件投降》（Unconditional Surrender）写到，盖伊希望通过战争消除罪恶的梦想最终破灭，从而以此来探索自己对战争本质的认识。
①Beowulf: The national heroic epic of the English people. It has over 3,000 lines. It describes the battles between the two monsters and Beowulf, who won the battle finally and dead for the fatal wound. The poem ends with the funeral of the hero. The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use if alliteration. Other features of it are the use of metaphors(暗喻) and of understatements(含蓄). ②Alliteration: In alliterative verse, certain accented(重音) words in a line begin with the same consonant sound(辅音). There are generally 4accents in a line, 3 of which show alliteration, as can be seen from the above quotation. ③Romance: The most prevailing(流行的) kind of literature in feudal England was the Romance. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse(诗篇), sometimes in prose(散文), describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, usually a knight, as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournament(竞赛), or fighting for his lord in battle and the swearing of oaths. ④Epic: An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significantly to a culture or nation. The first epics are known as primacy, or original epics. ⑤Ballad: The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad which is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas(诗节), with the second and fourth lines rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various in kind, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters and class struggle. The paramount(卓越的) important ballad is Robin Hood(《绿林好汉》). ⑥Geoffrey Chaucer杰弗里.乔叟: He was an English author, poet, philosopher and diplomat. He is the founder of English poetry. He obtained a good knowledge of Latin, French and Italian. His best remembered narrative is the Canterbury Tales(《坎特伯雷故事集》), which the Prologue(序言) supplies a miniature(缩影) of the English society of Chaucer’s time. That is why Chaucer has been called “the founder of English realism”. Chaucer affirms men and women’s right to pursue their happiness on earth and opposes(反对) the dogma of asceticism(禁欲主义) preached(鼓吹) by the church. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man’s energy, intellect, quick wit and love of life. Chaucer’s contribution to English poetry lies chiefly in the fact that he introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic(抑扬格) meter(the “heroic couplet”) to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. ⑦【William Langland威廉.朗兰: Piers the Plowman《农夫皮尔斯》】
英国文学史资料British Writers and Works I. Old English Literature & The Late Medieval Ages
Part 1. Old and medieval Beowulf 贝尔武甫(the national epic of the English people) stricking feature: alliteration, metaphors and understatements. 1.William Langland 威廉。兰格伦: Piers the Plowman耕者皮尔斯 1.Geoffrey Chaucer杰佛利·乔叟1340-1400: 长诗：The House of Fame声誉之堂; Troilus and Criseyde特罗勒斯与克丽西德小说：Canterbury Tales坎特伯雷故事集----英国文学史上现实主义第一部杰作（他是最早有人文主义思想的作家，现实主义文学的奠基人）his contribution to English poetry: introduced from France the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic meter (the heroic couplet), is the first great poet who wrote in the English language. Who making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech. Part 2. The English renaissance 1.Thomas More托马斯。莫尔：Utopia乌托帮 1.Philip Sidney菲力普。锡德尼：Astrophel and Stella Apology for Poetry诗辩3.Edmond Spenser埃德蒙。斯宾塞: The Faerie Queen仙后The Shepherds’s Calender 牧羊人日历 4.Francis Bacon培根1561-1626: Advancement of Learning学术的进展; Novum Organum新工具; New Atlantic新大西岛; Essays论文集（Of Studies论学习;Of Wisdom for a Man’s Self） The founder of English materialist philosophy 5.Christopher Marlowe克里斯托夫。马洛: Tamburlaine铁木耳大帝Dr.Faustus 浮士德的悲剧The Jew of Malta马耳他的犹太人The Passionate Shepherd多情的牧羊人致情人 6.William Shakespeare莎士比亚1564-1616: The Tempest暴风风雨;The Two Gentlemen of Veronaz维罗纳二绅士;The Mercy Wives of Windsor温莎的风流妇人;Measure for Measure恶有恶报;The Comedy of Errors错中错;Much Ado about Nothing无事自扰;Love’s Labour’s Lost空爱一场;A Midsummer Night’s Dream仲夏夜之梦;The Merchant of Venice威尼斯商人;As You Like It如愿;The Taming of the Shrew驯悍记;All’s Well That Ends Well皆大欢喜;Twelfth Night第十二夜;The Winter’s Tale冬天的故事;The Life and Death of King John/Richard the Second/Henry the Fifth/Richard the Third约翰王/理查二世/亨利五世/理查三世;The First/Second Part of King Henry the Fourth亨利四世（上、下）;The First/Second/Third Part of King Henry the Sixth亨利六世（上、中、下）;The Life of King Henry the Eighth亨利八世；Troilus and Cressida脱爱勒斯与克莱西达;The Tragedy of Coriolanus考利欧雷诺斯;Titus Andronicus泰特斯·安庄尼克斯;Romeo and Julet罗密欧与朱丽叶；Timon of Athens雅典的泰门;The Life and Death of Julius Caesar;朱利阿斯·凯撒；The Tragedy of Macbeth麦克白;The Tragedy of Hamlet哈姆雷特/王子复仇记;King Lear李尔王;Othello奥塞罗;Antony and Cleopatra安东尼与克利欧佩特拉;Cymbeline辛白林;Pericles波里克利斯;Venus and Adonis维诺斯·阿都尼斯;Lucrece露克利斯;The Sonnets十四行诗 The Great Comedies:A Midsummer Night’s Dream仲夏夜之梦;The Merchant of Venice威尼斯商人;As You Like It如愿;;Twelfth Night第十二夜;
名词解释 ENGLISH LITERATURE--DEFINITION OF TERMS 1 were passed down from generation to generation. 3) Robin Hood is a famous ballad singing the goods of Robin Hood. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 19th century English ballad. 2Critical Realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the beginning of fifties.2)The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils.3) Charles Dickens is the most important critical realist. 3With the advent of the 18th century, in England, as in other European countries, there sprang into life a public movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment on the whole, was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeois against feudalism. The social inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual deeds and requirements of the people. 启蒙主义：启蒙主义是在18世纪在英国发生的。总体上，启蒙主义是当时的资产阶级对封建主义，社会的不平等、死寂、偏见和其他的封建残余的一种反对。通过将科学的各个分支与人民的日常生活和需要联系起来，启蒙主义者们努力将他们变成为人民大众服务的工具 4-of-Consciousness” or “interior monologue”, is one of the modern literary techniques. It is the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character experiences them. It was first used in 1922 by the Irish novelist James Joyce. 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. The modern American writer William Faulkner successfully advanced this technique. In his stories, action and plots were less important than the reactions and inner musings of the narrators. Time sequences were often dislocated. The reader feels himself to be a participant in the stories, rather than an observer. A high degree of emotion can be achieved by this technique.
History and Anthology of English Literature Part One The Anglo-Saxon Period Beowulf Questions: 1.The earliest literature falls into two divisions ___________, and_______________. 2.Christianity brings England not only __________ and___________but also the wealth of a new language. 3.Who is Beowulf? And What is Beowulf? 4.How did Beowulf come into being? 5.Who is Grendel? And what is the result of Grendel?s fight with Beowulf? 6.How did the Jutes hold the funeral for him? Key points of this part: The most important work of old English literature is Beowulf------- the national epic of the English people. It is of Germanic heritage, perhaps the greatest Germanic epic and contains evidently pre-Christian elements existing at first in an oral tradition, the poem was passed from mouth to mouth for generations before it was written down. The manuscript preserved today was written in the Wessex tongue about 1000A.D., consisting altogether of 3183 lines. There are three episodes related to the career of Beowulf: 1.the fight with the monster, Grendel. 2.The fight with Grendel?s mother, a still more frightful she-monster. 3.The moral combat with the fire Dragon. The significance lies in the vivid portrayal of a great national hero, who is brave, courageous, selfless, and ever helpful to his people. There are three important features:: 1.Alliteration (words beginning with the same consonant sound). This is characteristic of all old English verse. 2.Metaphors and understatements. There are many compound words used in the poem to serve as indirect metaphors that are sometimes very picturesque. , e.g. “riging-giver”is used for King; “hearth-companions “for his attendant warriors; “Whale?s road” for the sea; “spear-fighter” for soldier etc. And as understatement we can see: “not troublesome”for welcome; “need not praise”for a right to condemn. This quality is often regarded as characteristic of the English people and their language. 3.Mixture of pagan and Christian elements: the observing of omen, cremation, blood-revenge, and the praise of worldly glory.
《英国文学简史》刘炳善中文版 《英国文学简史》刘炳善中文版2010-09-09 21：00第一部分：早期和中世纪英国文学 第一章：英国的组成 1、大不列颠人(英国人) 在开始学习英国文学史之前，了解一下英国这个民族是很必要的。英国这个民族是一个混血族。早期居住在这个岛上的居民是凯尔特人的一个部落，我们现在称它为大不列颠人。大不列颠人把这个岛屿命名为大不列颠岛，凯尔特人是其原始居民。他们分为几十个小部落，每个部落都以小屋群居为主。"最古老的凯尔特人法律今天归结起来显示出氏族任然充满着生命力"。英国人曾生活在部落社会。 2、罗马人的占领 在公元前55年，大不列颠岛被罗马征服者凯撒入侵，而这是的凯撒刚刚占领了高卢。但是罗马人刚登上大不列颠岛海岸时，就遭到了在首领领导下的大不列颠人的狮子般疯狂的反击，随着罗马将领来来往往的这个世纪，直到公元78年英国从被于罗马帝国完全征服过。伴随着罗马人的侵略占领，罗马式的生活方式也开始融入英国。罗马式剧院和澡堂很快的在城镇中兴起。而这些高雅的文明只不过是罗马侵略者的娱乐享受方式罢了，大不列颠人民却像奴隶一样被压迫着。罗马人的占领持续了将近400年，在这期间，罗马人因其军事目的在岛上修建了后来被称之为罗马路的纵横交错的公路，这些公路在后期发展中起到了很大的作用。沿着这些公路开始建立起大量的城镇，伦敦就是其中之一，开始成为重要的贸易中心城市。罗马的占领也带来了基督教文化。但是在15世纪初期，罗马帝国处于逐渐的衰落阶段。公元410年，所有罗马军队撤回欧洲大陆再也没有返回。因此，也标志这罗马人占领的结束。 3、英国人的占领 同时，大不列颠也被成群的海盗给侵略着。他们是来自北欧的三个部落：盎格鲁人，撒克逊人和朱特人民族。这三个部落在大不列颠海岸登路，把大不列颠人民赶到西部和北部，然后自己定居下来。朱特人占领了岛屿东南部的肯特。撒克逊人占领了岛屿南部地区，并建立起像韦塞克斯，埃塞克斯和东萨塞克斯这样的小王国。盎格鲁人席卷了东部中部地区，并在东英吉利亚建立