英国文学史1~4章课件文本Chapter IOld English Period and Beowulf (450-1066)Teaching aims:The general situation of Old English LiteratureThe types and features of Old English poetryThe analysis of epic BeowulfTerms: epic, alliterationThe Stonehenge in c.1400-1800 BCc.600BC: Iron replaces bronze, Iron Age begins; construction of Old Sarum began; Celts began to migrate to the British Islesc.500BC: Evidence of the spread of Celtic customs and artifacts across Britain; They probably gradually infiltrated into British society through trade and other contact over a period of several hundred years;c.150BC : Metal coinage comes into use; widespread contact with continent.Ⅰ.Old English Perio d(450-1066 AD)1) The historical situation600 BC Celts (tribal)(Britons is a branch of Celts) began to migrate to the British IslesInfluence:Cult of mistletoe②55 BC-407 AD Julius Caesar invaded Britain, defeated Celts, and began nearly four centuries of Roman occupation Influence:Latin, Christianity,London③450 AD The “Saxons”(the Teutonic or Germanic tribes ofAngles, Saxons, Jutes) ( originally seafaring people along the coast of Denmark and Germany)came to the British Isles and drove the Celts to Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and settle down themselves and named the central part of the island “England”, became the masters of England and the ancestors of the English people.Influence:ancestor④Late 8-9th century Viking (the Danes from Scandinavia ) invasions and be defeated by the Wessex King, Alfred the Great (849-c899)Influence:Little influence⑤1066 Norman (from Normandy in northern France) Conquest: William, Duke of Normandy, defeated Harold (the last Saxon king) in the battle of Hastings and became the King of England.Influence:Language, culture3.Chief literary achievements1)Pagan literature (Old English poetry in the form of oral sagas)(30,000 lines)Widsith: the first English poetMaldon: the last about a battle before 1000A.D.Beowulf: long epic poem2)Christian literature (writings developed with the teachings of the monks) (since the arrival of Saint Augustine in 597 AD.)◆(south) Roman influence : turn to saintly heroes◆(north) Celtic influence : lyric, subjective◆Anglo-Saxon achievements:(Northumbrian school of Celtic influence)Caedmon: the first religious poet, the father of English song, poetic paraphrase of the Bible)Venerable Bede: Father of English History, wrote The Ecclesiastical History of the English People《英吉利人民宗教史》?Cynewulf: the didactic poem The ChristKing Alfred the Great (848-901, ruled 871-899) :(1)translated a number of Latin books into West Saxon dialect.(2)wrote The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles《盎格鲁-撒克逊编年史》—the first and the best monument of the old English prose, which records the main happenings of Anglo-Saxon period.(3)created an Anglo- Saxon prose style which was not obscureⅡ. Beowulf1. Genre: national heroic epic2. Time: 8th century .3. Structure: 3182 lines in 2 parts.4. SignificanceIt is the oldest surviving epic poem, the primary work of English literature, and one of the four European heroic epics, with the other three being:The Song of Roland (French: La Chanson de Roland ),The Song of the Cid (Spanish:El Cantor de mio Cid ),The Lay of Igor's Host (Russian: СловоопълкуИгоревь)Term: EpicDefinition: a long narrative poemcelebrating the great deeds ofone or more legendary heroes ina grand ceremonious style.Example: Iliad, Odyssey5. Plot summary6. Artistic features1) Rhetorical devicesAlliterationKenningSimileParallelism2) Other featuresVarious in presentationComparisonMood: Solemn and animatedDescription: vigorous, picturesque and exactTerm: AlliterationDefinition: Alliteration is therepetition of initial sounds inneighboring words.Examples: sweet smell of successAnd sings a solitary songThat whistles in the wind.Term: KenningExcerpts:So the lord's men lived in joys,happily, until one beganto execute atrocities, a fiend in hell;en this ghastly demon was named Grendel,infamous stalker in the marches, he who held the moors, fen and desolate strong-hold; the land of marsh-monsters the wretched creature ruled for a timesince him the Creator had condemnedwith the kin of Cain; (Lines 99-107)That from home heard Hygelac's thane,a good man of the Geats, of Grendel's deeds;he was of mankind of the greatest strength,on that day in this life,noble and mighty; he ordered them a wave-crosser (sea-wood , foamy-necked floater )--a good one-- prepare; he said: the war-kingover swan-road (sea-street, water?s ridge)he wished to seek, that mighty clan-chief, since he was in need of men; (Lines94-201)--for him was the venture of Beowulf,brave seafarer's, a source of great displeasure,because he did not grant that any other manever glorious deeds the more on middle-earthheeded under the heavens than he himself--: (Lines 501-505)a bard sang from time to timeclear in Heorot; there was joy of heroes (Line 495)they praised his heroic deeds and his works of courage, exalted his majesty. As it is fitting,that one his friend and lord honours in words, cherish in one's spirit, when he must forth from his body be led; thus bemourned the people of the Geatstheir lord's fall, his hearth-companions:they said that he was, of all kings of the world,the most generous of men, and the most gracious,the most protective of his people, and the most eager for honour.(Lines 3173-3182)Chapter 2Middle English Period and Chaucer(1066-1485)I. Middle-English Period1. Historical Situation/doc/b72997598.html,nguage Development1. English became richer and more mature after absorbing French and Latin words .2. Old Anglo-Saxon flexions disappeared.3. After the wars, English language went through a process of unification. Changes occur in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. London dialect became the basis of new English, Middle English.3. Literary Achievements1)Romance3)Other genresPoem: Hymn, legend, visionDrama: Mystery play, miracle play, morality playProse: John Wycliff 约翰·威克里夫—Father of English prosetranslation of the BibleAllegory: William Langland?s The Vision of Piers Plowman威廉?兰格伦《农夫皮尔斯之幻象》●John WycliffThe Vision of Piers Plowman :A long middle English(14th century) alliterative allegorical poem with a complex variety of religious themes. One of the major achievements of Piers Plowman is that it translates the language and conceptions of the cloister into symbols and images that could be understood by the layman.Term: Romance传奇A fictional story in verse or prose that relates improbableadventures of idealized characters in some remote or enchanted setting.Term: Ballad民谣A folksong or orally transmitted poem telling in a direct and dramatic manner some popular story usually derived from a tragic incident in local history or legend. The story is told simply, impersonally and often with vivid dialogue and often in quatrains with alternating four-stress and three-stress lines, the second and fourth lines rhyming.II. Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400)Contributions●Father of English literature●Father of English poetry (a great narrative poet)●The greatest poet of the Middle Ages●The first writer of humanistic concern●Creator of Middle English by using London dialect●The first poet to have been buried in Poet?s Corner of Westminster Abbey Being the first realistic writerLife and Literary CareerDant?Alighieri●the Supreme Poet●Father of the Italian language●The first of “the three fountains” or “the three crowns”: The Divine Comedy 《神曲》●The greatest and the masterpiece of Italian language.●A culmination of the medieval world view.●Be of humanistic concerns.●He influenced all the later western literary writers.Giovanni Boccaccio薄迦邱●The third of the Three Crowns of Italian literature;●The great master and model of classic Italian prose;●The greatest of modern story-tellers.Decameron 《迪卡麦伦十日谈》●A frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people.●The bawdy tales of love range from the erotic to the tragic.●Tales of wit, practic al jokes, and life lessons contribute to the mosaic.●It documents the life in 14 century Italy.Book of the Duchess《公爵夫人之书》●Genre: elegy in a dream vision●The earliest of Chaucer?s poems;●The book is intended to lament the death of Blanche, the Duchess, an d to console her husband, and Chaucer?s patron, John the Duke.●In the poem, he dreamed a man in black and grief. He shared the man?s grief and helped him out of the sorrow.Term: elegy哀歌，哀悼诗●A song or poem of mourning, pervaded by a tone of deep melancholyThe House of Fame 《声誉之宫》●A poem of over 2000 lines in dream vision.●Upon falling asleep the poet finds himself in a glass temple adorned with images of the famous and their deeds. With an eagle as a guide, he meditates on the nature of fame and the trustworthiness of recorded renown. This allows Geoffrey to contemplate the role of the poet in reporting the lives of the famous and how much truth there is in what can be told.The Legend of Good Women《贤妇传说》●A poem in a dream vision form.●The third longest after The Canterbury Tales and Troilus andCriseyde.●The first significant to use the iambic pentameter●The poet recounts ten stories of virtuous women in nice sections.The Parliament of Fowls《百鸟会议》●Approximately 700 lines.●In the form of a dream vision●First refer to the idea that St. Valentine?s Day was a special day of lovers.Troilus and Criseyde《特罗伊拉斯和克莱西得》●A finished long poem●Set against the Siege of Troy.●Regarded by some as the finest byChaucer.Term: AllegoryIt is a story or description in which the abstract qualities or ideas, such as patience, purity, or truth, are personified as characters in the story so the characters and events symbolize some deeper underlying meaning, and serve to spread moral teaching.2.The Canterbury T ales (1386-1400)1) Structure:2) Artistic FeaturesTerm: Heroic couplet英雄双韵体It is a rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter lines. It was established by Chaucer as a major English verse-form for narrative and other kinds of non-dramatic poetry.Term: iambic pentameter 五步抑扬格A metrical verse line having five main stresses, or a line of five feet and 10 syllables, with every foot (basic metrical unit)comprising 2 syllables, one unstressed followed by one stressed.Characters:●A colorful gallery of 29 pilgrim s who cover a great range of social life.●They include a knight, a squire, a prioress, a friar, a merchant,a clerk, a sergeant of the law, a Franklin, a doctor, the wife of Bath,a plowman, a miller, a summoner, a pardoner, and so on.●Chaucer and the in n host joined them, the inn host acting as the judge about the best story-teller.Themes:●It presents a picturesque panorama of his contemporary England and shows his realistic tendency, subtle irony and freedom of views.●He believes in the right of man to earthly happiness and opposes superstitions and a blind belief in fate. He praises man?s energy, intellect, quick wit and the love for life and mocks at the Roman Catholic authorities who exploit the English people.●He is the avant-garde of the Age of Renaissance.The Prologue●When the sweet showers of April fall and shoot●Down through the drought of March to pierce the root,●…●And the small fowls are making melody●That sleep away the night with open eye●…●In Southwark, at The Tabard, as I lay●Ready to go on pilgrimage and start●For Canterbury, most devout at heart,●At night there came into that hostelry●Some nine and twenty in a company●And promised to rise early and take the way ●To Canterbury, as you heard me say●But none the less, whil e I have time and space, ●Before my story takes a further pace,●It seems a reasonable thing to say●What their condition was, the full arrayOf each of them, as it appeared to me, According to profession and degree,And what apparel they were riding in;And at a Knight I therefore will begin.…There also was a Nun, a Prioress;Simple her way of smiling was and coy.Her greatest oath was only “By St Loy!”And she was known as Madam Eglantyne.And when she sang a service, with a fine Intoning through her nose, as was most seemly, And she spoke daintily in French, extremely, After the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe; French in the Paris style she did not know.At meat her manners were all taught withal; No morsel from her lips did she let fall,Nor dipped her fingers in the sauce too deep; But she could carry a morsel up and keepThe smallest drop from falling on her breast. For courtliness she had s special zest.And she would wipe her upper lip so clean That not a trace of grease was to be seen Upon the cup when she had drunk; to eat,Se reached a hand sedately for the meat.She certainly was very entertaining,Pleasant and friendly in her ways, and straining To counterfeit a courtly kind of grace,A stately bearing fitting to her place,And to seem dignified in all her dealings.As for her sympathies and tender feelings,She was so charitably solicitousShe used to weep if she but saw a mouse Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding. And she had little dogs she would be feeding With roasted flesh, or milk, or fine white bread. Sorely she wept if one of them were deadOr someone took a stick and made it smart;She was all sentiment and tender heart.Her veil was gathered in a seemly wayHer nose was elegant, her eyes glass-gray;Her mouth was very small, but soft and red,And certainly she had a well-shaped head Almost a span across the brows, I own;She was indeed by no means undergrown.Her cloak, I noticed, had graceful charm.She wore a coral trinket on a her arm,A set of beads, the gaudies tricked in green Whence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheen On which there first was graven a crowned A, And lower, Amor vincit omnia.Her cloak, I noticed, had graceful charm.She wore a coral trinket on a her arm,A set of beads, the gaudies tricked in greenWhence hung a golden brooch of brightest sheenOn which there first was graven a crowned A,And lower, Amor vincit omnia.Term: Irony●The use of words to express something other than or opposite of the literary meaning, and also a humourous or sardonic literary style or form characterised by irony.Term: satire●A mode of writing that eposes the failings of individuals, institutions, or societies to ridicule and scorn.Term: frame(d) story/ frame(d) narrative●A story in which another story is enclosed or embedded asa tale within a tale, or which contains several such tales●E.g. Boccaccio?s Decameron(1353) and Chaucer?s The Canterbury Tales(c. 1390) and Emily Bront??s Wuthering Heights, and Mary Shelley?s Frankenstein.Chapter 3English Renaissance Literature(1485-1616)Tudor, House of (1458-1603)an English dynasty descended from Owen Tudor; Tudor monarchs ruled from Henry VII to Elizabeth I (from 1485 to 1603 ) English RenaissanceHenry VIIIElizabeth I (1558-1603)Humanism1)Thomas More (1478-1535)2)Edmund SpencerLifeWorksThe Shepheardes Calender (1579)《牧人日记》pastoral poem of 12 parts,set the pastoral fashion, ushered in lyrical poetryThe Faerie Queene (1596)《仙后》allegorical romance in verse,Spenserian stanza: stanza of 9 lines in iambic pentameter, the ninth an alexandrine with 6 iambic feet, rhyming scheme is ababbcbcc.Term: Pastoral poemDefinition:A highly conventional mode of poem form that celebrates the innocent life of shepherds and shepherdesses.Pastoral literature describes the loves and sorrows of musical shepherds, usually in an idealized rustic innocence and idleness; paradoxically, it is an elaborately artificial cult of simplicity and virtuous frugality.3)Philip SidneyLifeWorksA Defence of Poesy《诗辩》The Arcadia 《阿卡迪亚》University Wits4)John Lyly5)Thomas Lodge6)Thomas Nashe7)Robert Greene8)Francis Bacon (1561-1626)9)Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)Term: Blank VerseDefinition:Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.10) Ben JonsonLife and SignificanceContemporary of ShakespeareThe first poet Laureate“sons of Ben”“O rare Ben Jonson”Comedy of HumoursWorksEvery Man in His Humour (1598) )《人各有癖》Every Man out of His Humour (1599)《人各无癖》Volpone(1606)《狐狸》The Alchemist (1610)《炼金术士》Term: Three UnitiesDefinition:In the 1500s and 1600s, critics of drama expanded Aristotle?s ideas in the Poetics to create the rule of the "three unities." A good play, according to this doctrine, must have three traits. The first is unity of action (realistic events following a single plotline and a limited number of characters . The second is unity of time, meaning that the events should be limited to the two or three hours it takes to view the play, or at most to a single day of twelve or twenty-four hours compressed into those two or three hours. The third is unity of space, meaning the play must take place in a single setting or location.Term: HumorDefinition:The bodily fluids to which medieval medicine attributed the various types of human temperament, according to the predominance of each within the body.The comedy of humors, best exemplified by Ben Jonson?sEvery Man in His Humor, is based on the eccentricities of characters whose temperaments are distorted in ways similar to an imbalance among the bodily humours.DanteDa VinciMultiple ChoiceTo be continued…Blank FillingTo be continued…Chapter 4William Shakespeare(1564-1616)Life and Literary CareerKing Edward VI Grammar School at StratfordShakespeare?s HomeLiterary ProductionsHe authored altogether 37 plays and154 sonnets, which were created in 3 phases generally.I. Apprenticeship and growth: History plays and comedies ( 1590-1600)II. Gloom and depression: Tragedies (1601-1608)III. Restored serenity: Dramatic romances (1609-1612)Artistic Features●Represented the t rend of history in giving voice to the desires and aspirations of the people.●Reflected the humanist spirit of his age.●Was most successful in characterization.●Instilled into old materials a new spirit that gives new life to his plays●Was good at poem writing, which were rich in images,conceit, metaphors and symbols.●Was a master of the English language.Contributions●Break the strict drama principle of three unities.●Breaks the division between tragedy and comedy and creates realistic plays that have both tragic and comic elements.History Plays●Richard III●Henry IV (most significant one)●Henry V (Prince Hal, ideal monarch)●Henry VI●Julius Caesar (about Roman history)Comedies●A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream●As You Like It●The Twelfth Night (most careful plotted)（Problem plays）●Measure for Measure●The Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of Venice●Theme: To praise the gallant friendship and the good gentleman in Antonio and reveal the miserable conditions of the Jews in a Christian world.●Que stions for discussion:What humanist values are demonstrated in this work?What is Shakespeare?s attitude towards money?●Antonio: I know not why I am so sad: It wearies me; you say it wearies me. But how I caught it, found it; or came by it. What stuff it is made of, whereof it is born, I am to learn, such a want wit sadness makes of me, that I have much ado to know myself.●Salarino: Your mind is tossing on the ocean,…and every object that might make me fear misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt would make me sad.Tragedies●Hamlet《哈姆雷特》●King Lear《李尔王》●Macbeth《麦克白》●Othello《奥赛罗》Tragicomedy 悲喜剧●A kind of drama representing some action in which serious and comic scenes are blended; a composition partaking of the nature both of tragedy and comedy.Term：Farce 闹剧●A light dramatic work in which highly improbable plot situations, exaggerated characters, and often slapstick elements are used for humorous effect.Hamlet《哈姆雷特》●A revenge story similar to Thomas Kyd?s The Spanish Tragedy.●Expressed the noble q uality of Prince Hamlet as a representative of humanist philosophical thinkers and his disillusionment with the corrupt and degenerated society in which he lived, as well as the humanistic search for the value of man and the disappointment of such ideals.Act IIIScene 1●HAMLETTo be, or not to be: that is the question,Whether?tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep;No more; and by a sleep to say we endThe heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, …tis a consummation●Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep.●To sleep, perchance to dream; ay, there?s the rub;●For in that sleep of death what dreams may come ●When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,●Must give us pause. There?s the respect●That makes calamity of so long life●For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,●Th?oppressor?s wrong, the proud man?s contumely,●The pangs of despised love,the la w?s delay,●The insolence of office, and the spurns●That patient merit of th?unworthy takes,●When he himself might his quietus make●With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,To grunt and sweat under a weary life,But that the dread of something after death,The undiscover'd country from whose bourn●No traveller returns, puzzles the willAnd makes us rather bear those ills we haveThan fly to others that we know not of?Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;And thus the native hue of resolutionIs sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,And enterprises of great pith and momentWith this regard their currents turn awry,And lose the name of action.The romantic drama传奇剧●the kind of drama whose aim is to present a tale or history in scenes, and whose plays (like those of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and others) are stories told in dialogue by actors on the stage.Dramatic Romances●Pericles《培里克利斯》●Cymbeline《辛白林》●The Winter’s Tale《冬天的故事》●The Tempest《暴风雨》Significance: No malice or bloody conflicts, demonstrate author?s good will for mankind and the wish for a peaceful and harmonious human world in allegorical or fairy-tale romances.Soliloquy戏剧独白●A dramatic speech uttered by one character speaking aloud while alone on the stage or while under the impression of being alone to reveal his or her inner thoughts and feelings to the audience.Shakespearean Sonnets●Contents●StructureSonnet 18To be continued…To be continued…To be c ontinued…。
