Introduction: Old and Medieval English Literature1. source of the rise and growth of English literature: the cultural influences of the Anglo-Sexons conquest and the Norman conquest.盎格鲁撒克逊征服与诺曼征服2. Old English literature: 450—1066medieval period in English literature: with the Norman Conquest starts,covers about 4 centurries,3. Beowulf主题分析:Beowulf,a typical example of Old English poetry,is regarded as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. Thematically the poem presents a vivid picture of how the primitive people wage heroic struggles against the hostile forces of the natural world under a wise and mighty leader.The poem is an example of the mingling of nature myths and heroic legends.4. In the second half of the 14th century,English literature started to flourish with the appearance of writers like Geoffrey Chaucer (the greatest writer){Canterbury Tales}, William Langland (religious and social issues){Piers Plowman},John Gower (produces the best romance of the period){Sir Gawain and the Green Knight},and others.5. 骑士文学Romance which uses narrative verse or prose to sing knightly adventures or other heroic deeds is a popular literary form in the medieval period.It has developed the characteristic medieval motifs(主题) of the quest,the test,the meeting with the evil giant and the encounter with the beautiful beloved.6. Chaucer bore marks of humanism and anticipated a new era to come.7. 乔叟,押尾韵及英雄双韵体.Chaucer introduced from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English poetry to replace the Old English alliterative verse.And in The Canterbury Tales,Chaucer employed the heroic couplet with true ease and charm toe the first time in the history of English literature.8. 最早的现代小说: Chaucer’s Troilous and CriseydeJohn Dryden called Chaucer “the father of English poetry”. The English Homer.Chapter 1 The Renaissance Period1.RenaissanceIt refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th .It first started in Italy,with the flowering of painting,sculpture,and literature.The Renaissance,shich means rebirth or revival,is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events.Therefore,in essence,it is a historical period in which the European hunanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe,to introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie.It was not until the reign of Henry VIII that the Renaissance really began to show its effect in England.2.HumanismRenaissance humanists found in the classics a justification to exalt human nature and came to see that human beings were glorious creatures capable of individual development in the direction of perfection,and that the world they inhabited was theirs not to despise but to question,explore,and enjoy.Thus,by emphasizing the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life,they voiced their beliefs that man did not only have the right to enjoy the beautiful of this life,but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders.3.人文主义者代表(best English humanists): Thomas More, Chistopher Marloweand William Shakespeare.4.By the middle of Elizabeth’s reign,Protestantism had been firmly established,witha certain compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism.5.引进印刷术的英国第一人: William Caxton.印刷了The Canterbury Tales(Chaucer), Morte Darthur(Malory)6.Petrarch was regarded as the fountainhead of literature by the English writers..7. Wyatt and Surrey engraved the forms and graces of Italian poetry. (Petrachan sonnet, blank verse)8.John Donne and George Herbert.(玄学派诗人)9. The Elizabethan drama is the real mainstream of the English Renaissance.10.Lively,vivid native English material was put into the regular form of the Latincomedies of Plautus and Terence.Tragedies were in the style of Seneca.11. The most famous dramatists in the Renaissance in England: Chistopher Marlowe,William Shakespeare,and Ben Jonson.12.Francis Bacon,the first important English essayist,was also the founder of modernscience inEngland.A.2 Shakespeare’s drama career:a.The first period,one of apprenticeship.5 histoty plays: Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III, Richard III, and Titus Andronicus.4 comedies: The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Tamingof the Shrew, and Love’s Labour’s Lost.b.The second period,Shakespear’s style and approach became highlyindividualized.5 histories: Richard II, King John,Henry IV, Parts I, II, and Henry V.6 comedies: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much AdoAbout Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.2 tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar.c.The third period includes his greatest tragedies and his so-called dark comedies.Tragedies: Hamlet(most popular), Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus.2 comedies: All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure.d.The last period of Shakespeare’s(there’s a prevalent Christian teaching ofatonement [赎罪] ) work includes his principal romantic tragicomedies: Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest.2 final place: Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen.A.3 历史剧:Shakespeare’s history plays are mainly written under the priciple that national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity. The first and second parts of Henry IV are undoubtedly the most widely read among his history plays.A.4 The successful romantic tragedy is Romeo and Juliet, which eulogizes(赞美)the faithfulness of love and the spirit of pursuing happiness.A.5 四大悲剧的共性:(Greatest tragedies have some characteristic in common) Each portrays some noble hero,who faces the injustice of human life and is caught in a dufficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation. Each hero has his weakness of nature. Along with the portrayal of the weakness or bias of the hero,we see the sharp conflicts between the individual and the evil force in the society, which shows that Shakespeare is a great realist in the true sense.A.6 The Tempest is a typical example of his pessimistic view towards human life and society in his late years.He affirms the importance of the feudal system in order to uphold social order. A.7 莎士比亚的学观Shakespeare has accepted the Renaissance views on literature.He holds that literature should be a combination of beauty, kindness and truth, and should reflect nature and reality. The end of the dramatic creation is to give faithful reflection of the social realities of the time. Shakespeare also states that literary words which have truly reflected nature and reality can reach immortality.A.8 莎士比亚的物刻画Shakespeare’s major characters are neither merely individual ones nor type ones; they are individuals representing certain types.Each character has his or her own personailities; meanwhile, they may share features with others.Shakespeare also protrays his characters in pairs.Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to his characters.A.9 莎士比亚的节设计Shakespeare’s plays are well-known for their adroit (巧妙的)plot constraction.He seldom invents his own plots.In order to play more lively and compact, he would shorten the time and intensify the story.A.10 莎士比亚的语言特色Shakespeare can write skillfully in different poetic forms.He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary and idiom.His coinage of new words and disortion of the meaning of the old ones also create stricking effects on the reader.B.1 米尔顿的三类文学成就Three groups:the early poetic works, the middle prose pamphlets and the last great poems.B.2 Lycidas(early period)Lycidas is composed for a collection of elegies dedicated to Edward King.It begins with grief and a feeling of immaturity; then the grief is deepen by the sense of irrecoverable loss in the silencing of a young poet.With this bitter sense of loss,Milton asks why the just and good should suffer.The climax of the poem is the blistering attack on the clergy,who are corrupted by self-interest.B.3 Areopagitica(middle period)is a great plea for freedom of the press.B.4 three major poetical works:Paradise lost, Pparodise regained and Samson AgonistesB.5 Paradise regained shows how mankind, in the person of Christ, withstands thetemper and is established once more in the divine favor. Crist’s temptation in the wilderness in the theme, and Milton follows the account in the fourth chapter of Matthew’s gospel(福音).B.6 米尔顿的艺术特色a. Milton’s style is distinguished by its rich and complex texture, the multiplicityof its classical references, its wealth of ornament and decoration.b. Milton’s subjects are lofty and magnificent. The theme of Samson Agonistes istragic and sublime.c. The great epic, which resounds with the grandear and multiplicity of the world,is also a poem, the central actions of which take place inwardly.d. Finally, his endinds are lifelike.13.玄学派诗人MetaphysicalIt refers to the school of poets that appeared in the Revolutionary period in England by using quite unconventional and often surprising conceits; the metaphysical poets wrote poems full of wit and humor. John Donne and Andrew Marvell are the representative metaphysical poets.14. 十四行诗SonnetIt is a basic lyric form, consisting of 14 lines of iambic pentameter rhymed in various patterns. Milton made a new kind of use of the Petrarchan form, and the Romantic poets continued in the Miltonic tratition.。
