Part One: Early and Medieval English Literature
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)
Part Two: The English Renaissance
8. The Authorized Version of English Bible and its significance（填空选择）
9. Renaissance（名词解释）
10.Thomas More——Utopia
11. Sonnet（名词解释）
12. Blank verse（名词解释）
13. Edmund Spenser
“The Faerie Queene”; Amoretti (collection of his sonnets)
Spenserian Stanza（名词解释）
14. 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）
15. Christopher Marlowe (“Doctor Faustus” and his achievements)
16. William Shakespeare可以说是英国文学史中最重要的作家，一定要看熟了。四大喜剧，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，当然他最重要的喜剧作品是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）
Lecture 1
Part 1 Early and Medieval English Literature
“Early” h ere means English literature in primitive and slavery society.
“Medieval period” is a quite special period in English history. In Chinese “Medieval” or “The Middle Age” means “中世纪”. You may hear something about this period. It was called “The Middle Age” b ecause it was considered as the time between ancient world and the modern world. Here “Medieval” means English literature in feudal England before the Renaissance.
I. Early English Literature (Anglo-Saxon Literature)
1, Historical Background
1 The earliest inhabitants of the British Isles were Britons, a tribe of Celts. Today most Celts lived in Scotland and Wales.
2 From 55 B.C. to 410 A. D. Romans conquered the Great Britain. The Roman army was led by Julius Caesar, who was a very famous figure in ancient Rome. He was a famous general and conquered lot of places in Europe and then he became dictator of Rome. He had famous words “I came, I saw, I conquered”. You can see how strong this man’s will is.
Consequence of Roman conquest: a network of highways; scores of towns, including London; Roman lifestyle
3 English Conquest
•Shortly after Romans’ retreat, the Britain was invaded by Anglos, Saxons and Jutes. And by the 7th century Old English emerged.
•Anglo-Saxon period witnessed a transition from tribal society to feudalism.
•Anglo-Saxons were Christianized in the 7th century. Before Christianization, Anglo-Saxons believed in old northern European mythologies. If you are interested in old Britain mythologies you may read the famous novel “The Lord of the Rings”, which was a collection of old northern European mythologies. The Christianization of Anglo-Saxons influenced the record of old English literature.
2, Beowulf —— National epic of English people
1 Definition of epic: an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero
2 Story of Beowulf
•Ask students to read the story of Beowulf on textbook by themselves and then ask them “What are the three adventures mentioned in the story?”
•The story of Beowulf includes three adventures: killing monster Grendel, killing Grendel’s mother and killing a fire dragon.
3 Some important points
•“Beowulf” is a folk legend brought to England by Anglo-Saxons from their continental homes. However it also reflected the features of the tribal society in Britain.
•Originally Beowulf, the great epic, was in oral form and it must be a collective creation.•Beowulf in the epic is a legendary figure. In formal history you can not find a man named Beowulf.
④Artistic fea tures of “Beowulf”
•Using alliteration
Definition of alliteration: a rhetorical device, meaning some words in a sentence begin with the same consonant sound（头韵）
Some examples on P5
•Using metaphor and understatement
Definition of understatement: expressing something in a controlled way
Understatement is a typical way for Englishmen to express their ideas. You may find some examples on P6
⑤Epic tradition in Europe
long narrative verse, part-historical and part-legendary origin
This tradition can be traced back to Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. Similar works in Europe are “Edda” and “Saga” from Iceland etc. (referring to 《欧洲文学史》)
3, “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”
• The book was conceived by King Alfred the Great. He also organized and supervised the writing process of the book.
•This book is a very important historical document and specimen of Anglo-Saxon prose.
II, Medieval English Literature
1, Historical Background
