英国文学史-名词解释教学资料

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》】The English Bible: The first complete English Bible was translated by John Wycliffe(约翰?威克里夫). The Authorized Version is King James Bible made in 1611. The result is a monument of English language and English literature.Renaissance: Renaissance or the birth of letters is an intellectual movement. Its two features are a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature and the keen interest in the activities of humanity. Humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance.William Caxton威廉.卡克斯顿: He is the first English printer and invented in England the profession of publisher.Thomas More托马斯.莫尔: The greatest of the English humanists was Thomas More, the author of Utopia《乌托邦》. He is also one of such “giants”(巨匠) of the Renaissance. He distinguished himself as a learned scholar, a master of Latin, a witty talker, a lover of music, an honest statesman , and a man of noble character, modest but steadfast(坚定的), to his convictions. He was a far-sighted thinker, aspired for a totally new society with happy, classless, and free from poverty and exploitation. He was one of the forerunners of modern socialist thought.Utopia: It is More’s masterpiece, written in the form of a conservation between More and Hythloday, a returned voyager. It is divided into two books. The first book contains a long discussion on the social conditions of England. In the second book is described in detail an ideal communist society, Utopia. The name “Utopia”comes from Greek words meaning “no place”and was adopted by More as the name of his ideal commonwealth.Philip Sidney菲利普.锡德尼: He is well-known as a poet and critic of poetry. His collection of love sonnets, Astrophel and Stella《爱星者与星》, was published in 1591.Edmund Spenser埃德蒙.斯宾塞(莎翁之前最杰出的英国诗人)：The poet’s poet of the period was ES who was buried beside Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. ES has held his position as a model of poetical art among the Renaissance English poets, and his influence can be traced in the works of Milton, Shelley, and Keats. ES is the first master to make that language the natural music of his poetic effusions(感情的流露). His sonnets in Amoretti, together with Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella and Shakespeare’s sonnets ,are the most famous sonnet sequences of the Elizabeth Age. 【In 1579 he wrote The Shepherd’s Calendar《牧人日记》which marked the budding(萌芽) of the Renaissance flower in the northern island of England. The faerie Queen 《仙后》is his greatest work which was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.】Francis Bacon: He is the founder of English materialist philosophy and the founder of modern science in England. His New Instrument is called the Inductive Method of reasoning. He is also the first English essayist. To give a few, “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark..”“Studies serve for delight.”“Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”Drama: The Miracle Play圣迹剧The Morality Play道德剧寓意剧The Interlude幕间节目Christopher Marlowe克里斯托弗.马洛: The most gifted of the “university wits”was Christopher Marlowe. His best work include 3 of his plays, Tamburlaine《帖木儿大帝》(1587), The Jew of Malta《马耳岛的犹太人》(1592), and Doctor Faustus《浮士德博士》(1588). He was the greatest of the pioneers of English drama. His work paved the way for the plays of the greatest English dramatist——Shakespeare——whose achievements were the monument of the English Renaissance.【His plays show the spirit of the rising bourgeoisie, its eager curiosity for knowledge, its towering pride, its insatiable(不知足的) appetite for power won by military, might, knowledge, or gold. The theme of his plays is the praise of individuality freed from the restraints of medieval dogmas and law, and the conviction of the boundless possibility of human efforts in conquering the universe. The heroes in his plays are merely individualists, their individualistic ambition often brings ruin to the world and sometimes to themselves.】William Shakespeare: Shakespeare is one of the founders of realism in world literature. His dramatic creation often used the method of adaptation（改革）. Shakespeare long experience with the stage and his intimate knowledge of dramatic art thus acquired make him a master hand for playwriting. Shakespeare was skilled in many poetic forms: the song, the sonnet, the couplet, and the dramatic blank verse. He was especially at home with the blank verse. Shakespeare was a great master of the English language. Shakespeare has been universally acknowledged to be the summit of the English Renaissance, and one of the greatest writers over the world.①The great comedies: A Midsummer Might’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Twelfth Night.②The great tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth.The Merchant of Venice: 威尼斯富商安东尼奥Antonio为了成全好友巴萨尼奥Bassanio的婚事，向犹太人高利贷者夏洛克Shylock借债。

01. Humanism(人文主义)1>Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.2> it emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life. Humanists voiced their beliefs that man was the center of the universe and man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of the present life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders.02. Renaissance(文艺复兴)1>The word “Renaissance”means “rebirth”, it meant the reintroduction into western Europe of the full cultural heritage of Greece and Rome.2>the essence of the Renaissance is Humanism. Attitudes and feelings which had been characteristic of the 14th and 15th centuries persisted well down into the era of Humanism and reformation.3> the real mainstream of the English Renaissance is the Elizabethan drama with William Shakespeare being the leading dramatist.03. Metaphysical poetry(玄学派诗歌)1>Metaphysical poetry is commonly used to name the work of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne.2>with a rebellious spirit, the Metaphysical poets tried to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry.3>the diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan or the Neoclassical periods, and echoes the words and cadences of common speech.4>the imagery is drawn from actual life.04. Classicism(古典主义)Classicism refers to a movement or tendency in art, literature, or music that reflects the principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Classicism emphasizes the traditional and the universal, and places value on reason, clarity, balance, and order. Classicism, with its concern for reason and universal themes, is traditionally opposed to Romanticism, which is concerned with emotions and personal themes.05. Enlightenment(启蒙运动)1>Enlightenment movement was a progressive philosophical and artistic movement which flourished in France and swept through western Europe in the 18th century.2> the movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance from 14th century to the mid-17th century.3>its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas.4>it celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science. It advocated universal education.5>famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers like Alexander pope. Jonathan Swift. etc.06.Neoclassicism(新古典主义)1>In the field of literature, the enlightenment movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works.2>this tendency is known as neoclassicism. The Neoclassicists held that forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers such as Homer and Virgil and those of the contemporary French ones.3> they believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity.07. The Graveyard School(墓地派诗歌)1>The Graveyard School refers to a school of poets of the 18th century whose poems are mostly devoted to a sentimental lamentation or meditation on life. Past and present ,with death and graveyard as themes.2>Thomas Gray is considered to be the leading figure of this school and his Elegy written in a country churchyard is its most representative work.08. Romanticism(浪漫主义)1>In the mid-18th century, a new literary movement called romanticism came to Europe and then to England.2>It was characterized by a strong protest against the bondage of neoclassicism, which emphasized reason, order and elegant wit. Instead, romanticism gave primary concern to passion, emotion, and natural beauty.3>In the history of literature. Romanticism is generally regarded as the thought that designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and experience. 4> The English romantic period is an age of poetry which prevailed in England from 1798 to 1837. The major romantic poets include Wordsworth, Byron and Shelley.09. Byronic Hero(拜伦式英雄)1>Byronic hero refers to a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin.2> with immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic Hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt 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.3> Byron’s chief contribution to English literature is his creation of the “Byronic Hero”10. Critical Realism(批判现实主义)1>Critical Realism is a term applied to the realistic fiction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.2> It means the tendency of writers and intellectuals in the period between 1875 and 1920 to apply the methods of realistic fiction to the criticism of society and the examination of social issues.3> Realist writers were all concerned about the fate of the common people and described what was faithful to reality.4> Charles Dickens is the most important critical realist.11. Aestheticism（美学主义）1>The basic theory of the Aesthetic movement--- “art for art’s sake” was set forth by a French poet, Theophile Gautier, the first Englishman who wrote about the theory of aestheticism was Walter Pater.2> aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life should imitate art, not art imitate life.3> According to the aesthetes, all artistic creation is absolutely subjective as opposed to objective. Art should be free from any influence of egoism. Only when art is for art’s sake, can it be immortal. They believed that art should be unconcerned with controversial issues, such as politics and morality, and that it should be restricted to contributing beauty in a highly polished style.4> This is one of the reactions against the materialism and commercialism of the Victorian industrial era, as well as a reaction against the Victorian convention of art for morality’s sake, or art for money’s sake.美学运动的基本原则”为艺术而艺术”最初由法国诗人西奥费尔.高缔尔提出,英国运用该美学理论的第一人是沃尔特.佩特.美学主义崇尚艺术高于生活,认为生活应模仿艺术,而不是艺术模仿生活.在美学主义看来,所有的艺术创作都是绝对主观而非客观的产物.艺术不应受任何功利的影响,只有当艺术为艺术而创作时,艺术才能成为不朽之作.他们还认为艺术不应只关注一些热点话题如政治和道德问题,艺术应着力于以华丽的风格张扬美.这是对维多利亚工业发展时期物质崇拜的一种回应,也是向艺术为道德或为金钱而服务的维多利亚传统的挑战.12.The Victorian period(维多利亚时期)1>In this period, the novel became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of progressive thought. While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the 18th century realist novel, novelists in this period carried their duty forward to criticism of the society and the defense of the mass.2> although writing from different points of view and with different techniques, they shared one thing in common, that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the common people. They were angry with the inhuman social institutions, the decaying social morality as represented by the money-worship and Utilitarianism, and the widespread misery, poverty and injustice.3>their truthful picture of people’s life and bitter and strong criticism of the society had done much in awakening the public consciousness to the social problems and in the actual improvement of the society.4> Charles Dickens is the leading figure of the Victorian period.13. Modernism(现代主义)1>Modernism is comprehensive but vague term for a movement , which begin in the late 19th century and which has had a wide influence internationally during much of the 20th century.2> modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical case.3> the term pertains to all the creative arts. Especially poetry, fiction, drama, painting, music and architecture.4> in England from early in the 20th century and during the 1920s and 1930s, in America from shortly before the first world war and on during the inter-war period, modernist tendencies were at their most active and fruitful.5>as far as literature is concerned, Modernism reveals a breaking away from established rules, traditions and conventions. fresh ways of looki ng at man’s position and function in the universe and many experiments in form and style. It is particularly concerned with language and how to use it and with writing itself.14. Stream of consciousness(意识流)(or interior monologue)In literary criticism, Stream of consciousness denotes a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes. Stream of consciousness writing is strongly associated with the modernist movement. Its introduction in the literary context, transferred from psychology, is attributed to May Sinclair. Stream of consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing as they do a character’s fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings. Famous writers to employ this technique in the English language include James Joyce and William Faulkner.学术界认为意识流是一种通过直接描述人物思维过程来寻求个人视角的文学写作技巧。

Elizabeth is a beautiful young lady in the Bennets.She is intelligent, contrasting her empty-headed, snobbish and vulgar mothe.r.She is a woman of distinct character. She is not passive, but pursues her true love bravely .She turns down the marriage proposal of the servile Mr. Collins＇s and seeking her happiness with Darcy , the one she possesses true affection for.She is also courageous. When Darcy＇s aunt lady de Bourgh comes to force her into a promise of never consenting to marry Darcy , she boldly challenges her authority ,contempt and arrogance .On the whole, Elizabeth is a typical image of the good, attractive lady in the 19th century.What is Epic?Epic is an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, like Homers Iliad and Odyssey. It usually celebrates the feats of one or more legendary or traditional heroes. The action is simple but magnificent. Today, some long narrative works, like novels that reveal an age and its people, are also called epic.What is Heroic Couplet?Heroic couplet is a rhyming couplet of iambic pentameter, often containing a complete thought. There is a fairly heavy pause at the end of the first line and a still heavier one at the end of the second.. Commonly there is a parallel or an antithesis within a line, or between the two lines .It is called heroic because in England,especially in the eighteenth century , it was much used for heroic (epic) poems .How to define the term Humanism?Humanism is a system of beliefs upheld by writers and artists of the Renaissance period in their fighting against medieval asceticism. It states that man is godly, that man is able to find truth, goodness and beauty, and that man is in control of the present life rather than being controlled by God. Briefly, humanism puts man at the center of their beliefs and takes man to be the measure of every thing while the former asceticism puts God at the center of their beliefs and takes personal salvation to be the most important thing on the earth for man.What is Critical Realism?Critical Realism is the main trend of the literary thoughts in the 19th century. It reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of cash upon human nature. Critical realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint of bourgeoisie reality. As far as the literary form or “genre”is concerned , the major contribution made by the 19th century critical realists lies in their perfection of the novels. Like the realists of the 18th century ,the 19th century critical realists made use of the form of novel for full and detailed representations so social and political events , and of the fate of individuals and of whole social classes.。

1.Classicism(古典主义):A movement or tendency in art, literature, or music th at reflects the principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Cl assicism emphasizes the traditional and the universal, and places value on reas on, clarity, balance, and order.2. Critical Realism 批判现实主义: Realism is a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully an a ctual way of life. The term refers, sometimes confusingly, both to a literary meth od based on detailedaccuracy1of description (i. e. verisimilitude) and to a more gene ral attitude that rejects idealization, escapism, and other extravagant qualities of roma nce in favor of recognizing soberly the actual problems oflife.4. Enlightenment 启蒙主义: Enlightenment is an intellectual movement in Europe in 18th century. It w as an expression of the struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlightener s fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other feudal survivals. I t was so called because it considered the chief means for the betterment of the societ y was the enlightenment or—educationof the people. 5. Renaissanee文艺复兴：Re naissance marks a transition from the medieval to the modern world. Generally, it ref ers to the period between the 14th and mid 17th centuries. It first started in Italy, wit h the flowering of painting, sculpture and literature. From Italy the movement went t o embrace the rest of Europe. Twofeatures are striking of this movement. The one i s a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature. Another feature of the Renaissance i s the keen interest in the activities of humanity. Hence, humanism, which reflected th e new outlook of the rising bourgeois class, is the key-note of the Renaissance. The gr eatest of the English humanists were Thomas More and William Shakespeare.6 Soliloquy( 独白)： Soliloquy, in drama, means a moment when a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud.. 7. Neoclassicism 新古典主义:th e Enlightenment brought about a revival of interest in Greek and Roman works. This t endency is known as Neoclassicism.8. Romanticism 浪漫主义: imagination, emoti on and freedom are certainly the focal points of romanticism. The particularcharacteri stics of the literature of romanticism include: subjectivity and an emphasis on individu alism; freedom from rules; solitary life rather then life in society; the beliefs that imag ination is superior to reason; and love of and worship of nature9. . Sentimentalism 感伤主义:it came into being as a result of a bitter discontent on thepart of certain En lighteners in social reality. (The representatives of sentimentalismcontinued to strug gle against feudalism but they vaguely sensed at the same time the contradictions of b ourgeois progress that brought with it enslavement and ruinto the people. ) The phil osophy of the enlighteners, through rational and materialistic in its essence, did not ex clude senses, or sentiments, as a means of perception and learning. Moreover, the cul tof nature and, a cult of a "natural man" whose feelings display themselves in a mos t human and natural manner, contrary to the artful and hypocritical aristocrats1.0. So nnet 十四行诗:Sonnet is a type of poem consisting of one single fourteen-line stanz a. It was perfected by the Italian poet in the 13th century and introduced into Englan d in the early 16th century. English sonnets in terms of structure, largely fall into tw o classes: Italian form (It consists of 14 iambic pentameterlines: the first 8 lines for m the octet, which rhymes, the remaining 6 lines) and the Shakespearian (or English f orm) form. The former divides its 14 lines of iambic pentameters into two parts: one o ctet--- abbaabba and the other sestet--cdecde; while the latter consists of three quatrai ns （abab cdcd efef） and afinal coupl（et gg）. The three quatrains develop thepoem's s ubject consistently and the couplet condenses the emotion into an epigram. Shakespea re and Milton are very good at sonnet1.1.Heroic couplet （英雄双韵体） A heroic coup let is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic and narrative poet ry; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentame ter lines. Traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic andnarrative p oetry, a sequence of rhyming paris of iambic pentamete1r.1. Metaphysical poetry 玄学派: Metaphysical poetry is a kind of realistic, oftenironic and witty, verse combi ning intellectual ingenuity and psychological insight written partly in reaction to the c onventions of Elizabethan love poetry by such seventeenth-century poets as John Don ne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, ThomasTraherne, and Andrew Marvell. One o f its hallmarks is the metaphysical conceit, a particularly arresting and ingenious typ e of metaphor. The features of the school: philosophical poems, complex rhythms an d strange images.12. The Victorian period（维多禾U亚时期）In this period, the novel became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging express ion of progressive thought. While sticking to the principle of faithful representa tion of realist novel, novelistsin this period carried their duty forward to critic ism of the society and the defense of the mass. They were all concerned abou t the fate of the common people. They were angry with the inhuman social in stitutions, the decaying social morality, and the widespread misery, poverty andinjustice.3>Their truthful picture of people 'lisfe and bitter and strongcriticis m of the society had done much in awakening the public consciousnessto the social problems and in the actualim provement of the society.4> Charles Dick ens is the leading figure of the Victorian period. 13. University Wits（大学才子） :refer to a group of scholars during the Elizabethan Age who graduated fr om either oxford or Cambridge. They came to London with the ambition to be come professional writers. Some of them later became famous poets and playw rights.They were called ”niversity Wits ”4. Gothic novel（哥特式小说）:Gothi c novel, a type of romantic fiction that predominated in the late eighteenth century, w as one phase of the Romantic movement. It is futile to struggle against one's fate. Th e mysterious element plays an enormous rolein the Gothic novel; it is so replete wit h bloodcurdling scenes and unnatural feelings that it is justly called "a novel of ho rror". Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatura1l.5. Historical novel（历史小说）：A novel in which the action takes place during a specitic hi storical well before the time of writing. And in which some attempt to make t o depict accuratlly the customs and mentality of the period. The central charac ter---real or imagined--- is usually subject to divided loyalties within a larger h istoric conflict of which readers know the outcome, the pioneers of this genre were walter scott and cooper. 16.Dramatic monologue （戏居U独白）is a typeof poe m writing style in which a character, at some specific and critical moment, addresse s an identifiable but silent audience, thereby unintentionallyrevealing his or her essen tial temperament and personality.3. ChaucerHis career can be divided into several periods：The Canterbury tales <坎特伯雷故事集>He got his stories from various sources, Greek authors, Roman authors, Italian, Frenc h, but there is no doubt about Chaucer's originality. He retells the stories in his own w ay. The stories are told by a group of people on their way to and back from Canterbur y. Pilgrims tell stories to pass the time. Thejourney is used as a kind of device to unit e the various tales。

英国文学史简介英国文学史简介楼主一、中世纪文学（约5世纪-1485）英国最初的文学同其他国家最初的文学一样，不是书面的，而是口头的。

故事与传说口头流传，并在讲述中不断得到加工、扩展，最后才有写本。

公元5世纪中叶，盎格鲁、撒克逊、朱特三个日耳曼部落开始从丹麦以及现在的荷兰一带地区迁入不列颠。

盎格鲁-撒克逊时代给我们留下的古英语文学作品中，最重要的一部是《贝奥武甫》（beowulf），它被认为是英国的民族史诗。

《贝奥武甫》讲述主人公贝尔武甫斩妖除魔、与火龙搏斗的故事，具有神话传奇色彩。

这部作品取材于日耳曼民间传说，随盎格鲁-撒克逊人入侵传入今天的英国，现在我们所看到的诗是8世纪初由英格兰诗人写定的，当时，不列颠正处于从中世纪异教社会向以基督教文化为主导的新型社会过渡的时期。

因此，《贝奥武甫》也反映了7、8世纪不列颠的生活风貌，呈现出新旧生活方式的混合，兼有氏族时期的英雄主义和封建时期的理想，体现了非基督教日耳曼文化和基督教文化两种不同的传统。

二、文艺复兴时期文学（15世纪后期-17世纪初）相对于欧洲其他国家来说，英国的文艺复兴起始较晚，通常认为是在15世纪末。

文艺复兴时期形成的思想体系被称为人文主义，它主张以人为本，反对中世纪以神为中心的世界观，提倡积极进取、享受现世欢乐的生活理想。

托马斯·莫尔（Thomas more， 1478-1535）是英国最主要的早期人文主义者，他的《乌托邦》（utopia）批评了当时的英国和欧洲社会，设计了一个社会平等、财产公有、人们和谐相处的理想国。

utopia现已成为空想主义的代名词，但乌托邦是作者对当时社会状况进行严肃思考的结果。

《乌托邦》开创了英国哲理幻想小说传统的先河，这一传统从培根的《新大西岛》（the new Atlantis）、斯威夫特的《格列佛游记》（gulliver's travels）、勃特勒的《埃瑞璜》（erewhon）一直延续到20世纪的科幻小说。

The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem The Faerie Queene. Each stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single 'Alexandrine' line in iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme of these lines is "ababbcbcc."A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative and set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later North America, Australia and North Africa. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century it took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and the term is now often used as synonymous with any love song.The sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found in lyric poetry from Europe. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song". By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. The conventions associated with the sonnet have evolved over its history. The writers of sonnets are sometimes referred to as "sonneteers," although the term can be used derisively. One of the best-known sonnet writers is William Shakespeare, who wrote 154 of them (not including those that appear in his plays). A Shakespearean, or English, sonnet consists of 14 lines, each line containing ten syllables and written in iambic pentameter, in which a pattern of an unemphasized syllable followed by an emphasized syllable is repeated five times. The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is ababcdcdefef gg; the last two lines are a rhyming couplet.Traditionally, English poets employ iambic pentameter when writing sonnets. In the Romance languages, the hendecasyllable and Alexandrine are the most widely used metres.Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution.[1] In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature,[2] and was embodied in the visual arts, music, and literature.The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror andterror and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, and argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language and customary usage.Romanticism reached beyond the rational and Classicist ideal models to elevate a revived medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived to be authentically medieval, in an attempt to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl, and industrialism, and it also attempted to embrace the exotic, unfamiliar, and distant in modes more authentic than chinoiserie, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape.The modern sense of a romantic character may be expressed in Byronic ideals of a gifted, perhaps misunderstood loner, creatively following the dictates of his inspiration rather than the mores of contemporary society.Although the movement is rooted in the German Sturm und Drang movement, which prized intuition and emotion over Enlightenment rationalism, the ideologies and events of the French Revolution laid the background from which Romanticism and the Counter-Enlightenment emerged. The confines of the Industrial Revolution also had their influence on Romanticism, which was in part an escape from modern realities; indeed, in the second half of the 19th century, "Realism" was offered as a polarized opposite to Romanticism.[3] Romanticism elevated the achievements of what it perceived as heroic individualists and artists, which would elevate society. It also legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority which permitted freedom from classical notions of form in art. There was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas.The word carol is derived from the Old French word carole, a circle dance accompanied by singers (in turn derived from the Latin choraula). Carols were very popular as dance songs from the 1150s to the 1350s, after which their use expanded as processional songs sung during festivals, while others were written to accompany religious mystery plays (such as the Coventry Carol, written in 1591).[1]Following the Protestant Reformation (and the banning of many religious festivities during the British Puritan Interregnum), carols went into a decline due to Calvinist aversion to "nonessential" things associated with Roman Catholicism. However, composers such as William Byrd composed motet-like works for Christmas that they termed carols; and folk-carols continued to be sung in rural areas. Nonetheless, some famous carols were written in this period, including 'The Holly and the Ivy' and they were more strongly revivedfrom the nineteenth century and began to be written and adapted by eminent composers.[2]In modern times, songs that may once have been regarded as carols are now classified as songs (especially Christmas songs), even those that retain the traditional attributes of a carol - celebrating a seasonal topic, alternating verses and chorus, and danceable music.Some writers of carols, such as George Ratcliffe Woodward who wrote Ding Dong Merrily on High and William Morris who wrote Masters in this Hall, reverted to a quasi-mediaeval style; this became a feature of the early twentieth century revival in Christmas Carols.Some composers have written extended works based on carols. Examples include Benjamin Britten (A Ceremony of Carols), Ralph Vaughan Williams (Fantasia on Christmas Carols) and Victor Hely-Hutchinson (Carol Symphony).In the philosophy of perception, critical realism is the theory that some of our sense-data (for example, those of primary qualities) can and do accurately represent external objects, properties, and events, while other of oursense-data (for example, those of secondary qualities and perceptual illusions) do not accurately represent any external objects, properties, and events.Contemporary critical realism most commonly refers to a philosophical approach associated with Roy Bhaskar. Bhaskar's thought combines a general philosophy of science (transcendental realism) with a philosophy of social science (critical naturalism) to describe an interface between the natural and social worlds. Critical realism can, however, refer to several other schools of thought, such as the work of the American critical realists (Roy Wood Sellars, George Santayana, and Arthur Lovejoy). The term has also been appropriated by theorists in the science-religion interface community. The Canadian Jesuit Bernard Lonergan developed a comprehensive critical realist philosophy and this understanding of critical realism dominates North America's Catholic Universities.。

英国文学史一、中世纪文学古英语文学英格兰岛的早期居民凯尔特人和其他部族,没有留下书面文学作品。

5世纪时，原住北欧的三个日耳曼部落——盎格鲁、撒克逊和朱特——侵入英国，他们的史诗《贝奥武甫》传了下来。

诗中的英雄贝奥武甫杀巨魔、斗毒龙，并在征服这些自然界恶势力的过程中为民捐躯。

它的背景和情节是北欧的，但掺有基督教成分，显示出史诗曾几经修改，已非原貌。

按照保存在一部10世纪的手抄本里的版本来看，诗的结构完整，写法生动，所用的头韵、重读字和代称体现了古英语诗歌的特点。

14世纪后半叶，中古英语文学达到了高峰。

这时期的重要诗人乔叟的创作历程，从早期对法国和意大利作品的仿效，进到后来英国本色的写实，表明了英国文学的自信。

他的杰作《坎特伯雷故事集》用优美、活泼的韵文，描写了一群去坎特伯雷朝圣的人的神态言谈；他们来自不同阶层和行业,各人所讲的故事或雅或俗,揭示了多方面的社会现实。

二文艺复兴时期英国文艺复兴时期最杰出的作家是威廉·莎士比亚（William Shakespeare， 1564-1616），他的全部作品包括两首长诗，154首十四行诗和38部（一说39部）戏剧。

莎士比亚的主要剧作有喜剧《仲夏夜之梦》（A Midsummer Night's Dream）、《威尼斯商人》（The Merchant of Venice），悲剧《罗密欧与朱丽叶》（Romeo and Juliet）、《哈姆莱特》（Hamlet）、《奥赛罗》（Othello）、《李尔王》（King Lear）、《麦克白》（Macbeth），历史剧《亨利四世》（Henry IV），传奇剧《暴风雨》（The Tempest）等。

莎士比亚塑造了性格鲜明的人物形象，展现了封建制度和资本主义制度交替时期波澜壮阔的历史画面，宣扬了人文主义和个性解放。

他的剧作思想内容深刻，艺术表现手法精湛，历经几个世纪，长演不衰。

莎士比亚是语言大师，他娴熟地运用英语，将英语的丰富表现力推向极致。

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》】The English Bible: The first complete English Bible was translated by John Wycliffe(约翰?威克里夫). The Authorized Version is King James Bible made in 1611. The result is a monument of English language and English literature.Renaissance: Renaissance or the birth of letters is an intellectual movement. Its two features are a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature and the keen interest in the activities of humanity. Humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance.William Caxton威廉.卡克斯顿: He is the first English printer and invented in England the profession of publisher.Thomas More托马斯.莫尔: The greatest of the English humanists was Thomas More, the author of Utopia《乌托邦》. He is also one of such “giants”(巨匠) of the Renaissance. He distinguished himself as a learned scholar, a master of Latin, a witty talker, a lover of music, an honest statesman , and a man of noble character, modest but steadfast(坚定的), to his convictions. He was a far-sighted thinker, aspired for a totally new society with happy, classless, and free from poverty and exploitation. He was one of the forerunners of modern socialist thought.Utopia: It is More’s masterpiece, written in the form of a conservation between More and Hythloday, a returned voyager. It is divided into two books. The first book contains a long discussion on the social conditions of England. In the second book is described in detail an ideal communist society, Utopia. The name “Utopia”comes from Greek words meaning “no place”and was adopted by More as the name of his ideal commonwealth.Philip Sidney菲利普.锡德尼: He is well-known as a poet and critic of poetry. His collection of love sonnets, Astrophel and Stella《爱星者与星》, was published in 1591.Edmund Spenser埃德蒙.斯宾塞(莎翁之前最杰出的英国诗人)：The poet’s poet of the period was ES who was buried beside Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. ES has held his position as a model of poetical art among the Renaissance English poets, and his influence can be traced in the works of Milton, Shelley, and Keats. ES is the first master to make that language the natural music of his poetic effusions(感情的流露). His sonnets in Amoretti, together with Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella and Shakespeare’s sonnets ,are the most famous sonnet sequences of the Elizabeth Age. 【In 1579 he wrote The Shepherd’s Calendar《牧人日记》which marked the budding(萌芽) of the Renaissance flower in the northern island of England. The faerie Queen 《仙后》is his greatest work which was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.】Francis Bacon: He is the founder of English materialist philosophy and the founder of modern science in England. His New Instrument is called the Inductive Method of reasoning. He is also the first English essayist. To give a few, “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark..”“Studies serve for delight.”“Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”Drama: The Miracle Play圣迹剧The Morality Play道德剧寓意剧The Interlude幕间节目Christopher Marlowe克里斯托弗.马洛: The most gifted of the “university wits”was Christopher Marlowe. His best work include 3 of his plays, Tamburlaine《帖木儿大帝》(1587), The Jew of Malta《马耳岛的犹太人》(1592), and Doctor Faustus《浮士德博士》(1588). He was the greatest of the pioneers of English drama. His work paved the way for the plays of the greatest English dramatist——Shakespeare——whose achievements were the monument of the English Renaissance.【His plays show the spirit of the rising bourgeoisie, its eager curiosity for knowledge, its towering pride, its insatiable(不知足的) appetite for power won by military, might, knowledge, or gold. The theme of his plays is the praise of individuality freed from the restraints of medieval dogmas and law, and the conviction of the boundless possibility of human efforts in conquering the universe. The heroes in his plays are merely individualists, their individualistic ambition often brings ruin to the world and sometimes to themselves.】William Shakespeare: Shakespeare is one of the founders of realism in world literature. His dramatic creation often used the method of adaptation（改革）. Shakespeare long experience with the stage and his intimate knowledge of dramatic art thus acquired make him a master hand for playwriting. Shakespeare was skilled in many poetic forms: the song, the sonnet, the couplet, and the dramatic blank verse. He was especially at home with the blank verse. Shakespeare was a great master of the English language. Shakespeare has been universally acknowledged to be the summit of the English Renaissance, and one of the greatest writers over the world.①The great comedies: A Midsummer Might’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Twelfth Night.②The great tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth.The Merchant of Venice: 威尼斯富商安东尼奥Antonio为了成全好友巴萨尼奥Bassanio的婚事，向犹太人高利贷者夏洛克Shylock借债。

英国文学史知识点英国文学的历史就像一场漫长而精彩的旅程，充满了各种有趣的故事和令人惊叹的作品。

咱们先来说说乔叟吧，这位老兄在 14 世纪就开始崭露头角啦。

他的《坎特伯雷故事集》那可是相当有名。

想象一下，一群来自不同阶层、有着不同性格和经历的人，一起踏上朝圣之路，一路上互相讲故事。

这场景，是不是有点像咱们现在的旅行团，大家凑一块儿分享自己的经历？乔叟就通过这些故事，展现了当时社会的各种风貌，有贵族的奢华生活，也有平民的艰苦日子。

到了文艺复兴时期，那更是群星璀璨。

比如说莎士比亚，这位大神简直就是英国文学史上的超级巨星！他的戏剧作品，从浪漫的爱情悲剧《罗密欧与朱丽叶》到充满权谋斗争的《哈姆雷特》，从搞笑的喜剧《威尼斯商人》到展现历史风云的《亨利五世》，那真是涵盖了人生的方方面面。

我记得有一次在课堂上，老师让我们分组表演《罗密欧与朱丽叶》的片段。

我们那组的小伙伴们可认真了，有的负责背台词，有的负责设计动作，还有的负责准备道具。

虽然最后表演得有点小瑕疵，但那种沉浸在经典作品中的感觉，真的太棒了！17 世纪的时候，弥尔顿的《失乐园》横空出世。

这部史诗级的作品讲述了亚当和夏娃被逐出伊甸园的故事。

弥尔顿用他那雄辩的语言和深刻的思考，探讨了人类的原罪、自由意志和上帝的权威等重大问题。

读起来虽然有点费脑子，但一旦读懂了，就会觉得特别有成就感。

18 世纪的英国文学也很有看头，像笛福的《鲁滨逊漂流记》。

鲁滨逊在荒岛上的求生经历，让我们看到了人类的坚韧和智慧。

我小时候读这本书的时候，还幻想过自己也能像鲁滨逊一样，在一个无人的小岛上创造出一个属于自己的世界。

19 世纪，那可是英国文学的黄金时代。

勃朗特姐妹的作品，《简·爱》和《呼啸山庄》，一个充满了女性的独立精神，一个则充满了强烈的情感和神秘的氛围。

还有狄更斯的《大卫·科波菲尔》，讲述了一个小男孩的成长历程，里面的人物形象鲜明得就像我们身边的朋友一样。

进入 20 世纪，英国文学继续展现着它的多样性和创新性。

英国文学史简介英国文学史简介楼主一、中世纪文学（约5世纪-1485）英国最初的文学同其他国家最初的文学一样，不是书面的，而是口头的。

故事与传说口头流传，并在讲述中不断得到加工、扩展，最后才有写本。

公元5世纪中叶，盎格鲁、撒克逊、朱特三个日耳曼部落开始从丹麦以及现在的荷兰一带地区迁入不列颠。

盎格鲁-撒克逊时代给我们留下的古英语文学作品中，最重要的一部是《贝奥武甫》（beowulf），它被认为是英国的民族史诗。

《贝奥武甫》讲述主人公贝尔武甫斩妖除魔、与火龙搏斗的故事，具有神话传奇色彩。

这部作品取材于日耳曼民间传说，随盎格鲁-撒克逊人入侵传入今天的英国，现在我们所看到的诗是8世纪初由英格兰诗人写定的，当时，不列颠正处于从中世纪异教社会向以基督教文化为主导的新型社会过渡的时期。

因此，《贝奥武甫》也反映了7、8世纪不列颠的生活风貌，呈现出新旧生活方式的混合，兼有氏族时期的英雄主义和封建时期的理想，体现了非基督教日耳曼文化和基督教文化两种不同的传统。

二、文艺复兴时期文学（15世纪后期-17世纪初）相对于欧洲其他国家来说，英国的文艺复兴起始较晚，通常认为是在15世纪末。

文艺复兴时期形成的思想体系被称为人文主义，它主张以人为本，反对中世纪以神为中心的世界观，提倡积极进取、享受现世欢乐的生活理想。

托马斯·莫尔（Thomas more， 1478-1535）是英国最主要的早期人文主义者，他的《乌托邦》（utopia）批评了当时的英国和欧洲社会，设计了一个社会平等、财产公有、人们和谐相处的理想国。

utopia现已成为空想主义的代名词，但乌托邦是作者对当时社会状况进行严肃思考的结果。

《乌托邦》开创了英国哲理幻想小说传统的先河，这一传统从培根的《新大西岛》（the new Atlantis）、斯威夫特的《格列佛游记》（gulliver's travels）、勃特勒的《埃瑞璜》（erewhon）一直延续到20世纪的科幻小说。