英专八级人文重要考点总结——英美文学
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英语专业八级人文知识——英国文学
Part one Old and Medieval English Literature
1. Old English Poetry and “Beowulf”(贝奥武浦)
• “Beowulf ” → the national epic of the Anglo-Saxon and English people → Alliteration( 头韵）
national epic: 国家史诗（赞颂一个国家的丰功伟绩 ）
2.Middle English Literature and the Canterbury Tales
①The Romance( describing the life and adventures of a noble hero) 浪漫传奇
• King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. 《亚瑟王与他的圆桌骑士》
②Geoffrey Chaucer 乔叟
→ the “_ father of English poetry__________________”,
→“The Canterbury Tales” is Chaucer’s masterpiece (stories narrated by Pilgrims朝圣者)
→ he introduced rhymed couplet to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse.
• (Couplet: A stanza of two lines, usually rhyming. )couplet: 对句，对联 stanza:诗的一节
Renaissance (1485—1660) 文艺复兴
→ The Background: the society was in its transition from the feudalism to capitalism.
→ Revival or rebirth of classical arts, culture and philosophy after the dark ages of medieval
→ The key word for it is _ humanism_, emphasized secular concerns , express the interests of the
rising
bourgeoisie.
→ Shakespeare, Spenser, and Marlowe are all famous literary figures in this period
Thomas More (1478-1535) Utopia (socialism) The definition of Utopia is "no place."
• Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) “A poet’s poet” The Faerie Queen 《仙后》
Francis Bacon培根 (1561-1626)
1 “Advancement of Learning” 学术的推进:
2 “New Instrument” :新工具 the inductive method of reasoning
3. “New Atlantics” : an ideal society 新大西岛
4. “Essays” / 58 essays论说文集
A wide variety of subjects: love, truth, friendship, beauty, studies, riches…
His style: clearness, brevity, force of expression
☆ his essays is an important landmark in the development of English prose
Christopher Marlowe(1564-1593)
1.University wits, the greatest pioneer of English drama
2. blank verse Verse consisting of unrhymed lines, usually of iambic pentameter(五步抑扬格). 无韵诗，素体诗
3. Doctor Faustus《浮士德》
William Shakespeare： the greatest English poet and dramatist
①154 sonnets（十四行诗） （商籁体）,
②37 plays, including 14 comedies, 12 tragedies, and 11 historical plays, ③2 long poems.
☆But for such a great writer, we have very little definite knowledge about his life.
Shakespeare’s Tragedies
(1) Hamlet (2) Othello (3) King Lear (4) Macbeth
Shakespeare’s Comedies
(1) The Merchant of Venice (2) A Midsummer Night's Dream (3) As You Like It 《皆大欢喜》 (4) Twelfth night
The Merchant of Venice to praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia a heroine of
great beauty, wit and loyalty, to expose the insatiable greed and brutality (Shylock)
Hamlet hesitate between fact and fiction, language and action
→To be, or not to be - to live on in this world or to die; to suffer or to take action
Soliloquy or monologue - fully reveal the inner conflict of the characters （独白）
Poetry
1. Narrative poetry ①the epic ②the romance ③popular ballads
2.Lyric poetry
① the elegy: a lyric poem lamenting the death of an individual. 挽歌
②the ode: a lyric poem of considerable length to sing in honor a person or a thing. It is serious in subject and formal
in style. 颂歌
3.Dramatic poetry : dialogue in the drama
Sonnet
A 14-line verse form usually having one of several conventional rhyme schemes.
Rhyme: abab cdcd efef gg
☆3 quatrains(3 four-line stanza )+ 1 couplet(2 lines)quatrains:四行诗
The period of the English Bourgeois Revolution
→ Historical background :
two revolutions: puritan revolution and glorious revolution
the transition from the absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy
→ 1. two literary schools of poets
① the school of Metaphysical 玄学 ②the school of Cavaliers. 骑士
2. the most important poet: John Milton Metaphysical Poetry（玄学派诗歌)
It is the poetry of John Donne and other seventeenth-century poets who wrote in a similar style.
dislike traditional poem Scholar, Highly abstract or theoretical;
John Milton约翰·弥尔顿
the last great poems
Paradise Lost失乐园 Paradise Regained复乐园 Samson Agonistes力士参孙 .
→The two most essential things: Puritanism and his republicanism.
Paradise Lost →the only generally acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf.
→ the main idea of the poem is a revolt against God’s authority
→ Satan is the real hero of the poem. Satan led a rebellion against God with his unconquerable will.
John Bunyan (1628-1688)班扬
Puritan author His best known work, 天路历程 a religious allegory（宗教预言）
18世纪英国文学Cultural Background
1. Enlightenment Movement 启蒙运动
⑴A progressive intellectual movement
⑵Enlighteners considered “Enlightenment” or “education” of the people to be their chief objective.
