punched英国文学史期末复习重点

2021年1月20日发(作者：537)
英国文学史

Part one: Early and Medieval English Literature

Chapter 1 The Making of England

1. The early inhabitants in the island now we call England were Britons, a tribe of Gelts.
2. In 55 B.C., Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar.


The Roman occupation lasted for about 400 years.


It was also during the Roman role that Christianity was introduced to Britain.


And in 410 A.D., all the Roman troops went back to the continent and never returned.
English Conquest


At the same time Britain was invaded by swarms of pirates(
海盗
). They were three tribes from
Northern Europe: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.

And
by
the
7th
century
these
small
kingdoms
were
combined
into
a
United
Kingdom
called
England, or, the land of Angles.

And the three dialects spoken by them naturally grew into a single language called Anglo-Saxon,
or Old English.
4. The Social Condition of the Anglo-Saxon


Therefore, the Anglo-Saxon period witnessed a transition from tribal society to feudalism.
5. Anglo-Saxon Religious Belief and Its Influence


The Anglo-Saxons were Christianized in the seventh century.
Chapter 2 Beowulf

1. Anglo-Saxon Poetry


But there is one long poem of over 3,000 lines. It is
Beowulf,
the national epic of the English
people. Grendel is a monster described in
Beowulf
.
3. Analysis of Its Content
Beowulf
is a folk lengend brought to England by Anglo-Saxons from their continental homes. It
had been passed from mouth to mouth for hundreds of
years before it was written down in the
tenth century.
4. Features of
Beowulf



The
most
striking
feature
in
its
poetical
form
is
the
use
of
alliteration,
metaphors
and
understatements.
Chapter 3 Feudal England
1) The Norman Conquest

2. The Norman Conquest


The French-speaking Normans under Duke William came in 1066. After defeating the English
at Hastings, William was crowned as King of England.


The Norman Conquest marks the establishment of feudalism in England.
3. The Influence of the Norman Conquest on the English Language


By
the
end
of
the
fourteenth
century,
when
Normans
and
English
intermingled,
English
was
once more the dominant speech in the country.
3) The Romance

1. The Content of the Romance


The most prevailing kind of literature in feudal England was the romance.
4. Malory
’
s
Le Morte D
’
Arthur


The adventures of the Knights of the Round Table at Arthur
’
s court
Chapter 5 The English Ballads
2. The Ballads


The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad. A ballad is a story told in
song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.
Of paramount importance are the ballads of Robin Hood.
3. The Robin Hood Ballads
Chapter 6 Chaucer
1. Life


Geoffrey Chaucer, the founder/father of English poetry.
3.
Troilus and Criseyde

Troilus and Criseyde
is Chaucer’s longest complete poem and his greatest artistic achievement.



But the poet shows some sympathy for her, hitting that her fault springs from weakness rather
than baseness of character.
4.
The Canterbury Tales

The
Canterbury
Tales
is
Chaucer’s
masterpiece
and
one
of
the
monumental
works
in
English
literature.
6. His Language



Chaucer’s language, now called Middle English, is vivid and exact.



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 meter(the
“the heroic couplet”)to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo
-Saxon alliterative verse.


The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in making
dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.
Part Two: The English Renaissance
Chapter 1 Old England in Transition
1. The New Monarchy


The century and a half following the death of Chaucer was full of great changes.

And
Henry
7,
taking
advantage
of
this
situation,
founded
the
Tudor
dynasty,
a
centralized
monarchy
of
a
totally
new
type,
which
met
the
needs
of
the
rising
bourgeoisie
and
so
won
its
support.
2. The Reformation



Protestantism


The bloody religious persecution came to a stop after the church settlement of Queen Elizabeth.
3. The English Bible


William Tyndall
Then appeared the Authorized Version, which was made in 1611 under the auspicesof James I and
so was sometimes called the King James Bible.


The result is a monument of English language and English literature.


The standard modern English has been fixed and confirmed.
4. The Enclosure Movement
5. The Commercial Expansion
Chapter 2 More
1. Life


Thomas More
2.
Utopia

Utopia

is More’s masterpiece, written in the form of a conversation between More and Hythlody,
a returned voyager.

The name “Utopia” comes from two Greek words meaning “no place”.

3.
Utopia
, Book One


Book One of
Utopia
is a picture of contemporary England with forcible exposure of the poverty
among the laboring classes.
4.
Utopia
, Book Two


In
Book
Two
we
have
a
sketch
of
an
ideal
commonwealth
in
some
unknown
ocean,
where
property is held in common and there is no poverty.
Chapter 3 The Flowering of English Literature
3. Edmund Spenser
1) Life


The Poet’s Poet of the period was Edmund Spenser.

In 1579 he wrote
The Shepher’
s Calendar
, a pastoral poem in twelve books, one for each month
of the year.
2)
The Faerie Queene
(masterpiece)
Spenser
’
s greatest work,
The Faerie Queene
(published in 1589-1596), is a long poem planned in
12 books, of which he finished only 6.
iambic feet

Spenserian Stanza
4. Francis Bacon (father/founder of English essay)
the founder of English English materialist philosophy


Bacon is also famous for his
Essays
. When it included 58 essays.


Bacon is the first English essayist.
Chapter 4 Drama
7. The Playwrights



There
was
a
group
of
so-
called
“university
wits”

(Lyly,
Peele,
Marlowe,
Greene,
Lodge
and
Nash).
Chapter 5 Marlowe
1. Life


The most gifted of the “university wits” was Christopher Marlowe.

2. Work


Marlowe’
s best includes three of his plays,
Tamburlaine
,
The Jew of Malta
and
Doctor Faustus.
3
. Doctor Faustus



Marl
owe’s mas
terpiece is
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.
5
. Marlowe’s Literary Achievement



Marlowe was the greatest of the pioneers of English drama.

It
is
Marlowe
who
first
made
blank
verse
(rhymeless
iambic
pentameter)
the
principal
instrument of English drama.
Chapter 6 Shakespeare
1. Life


William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon.


After
his
death,
two
of
his
above- mentioned
fellow-actors,
Herminge
and
Condell,
collected
and
published
Shakespeare
’
s
plays
in
1623. To
this
edition,
which
has
been
known
as
the
First
Folio.
4. The Great Comedies



A Midsummer Night’
s Dream
,
The Merchant of Venice
,
As You Like It
and
Twelfth Night
have been
called Shakespeare
’
s
“
great comedies
”
.

6. The Great Tragedies

Shakespeare created his great tragedies,
Hamlet
,
Othello
,
King Lear
and
Macbeth
.
7.
Hamlet
the son of the Renaissance
9. The Poems

1)
Venus and Adonis
2)
The Rape of Lucrece

3)
Shakespeare’s Sonnets

10
. Features of Shakespeare’s Drama



Shakespeare and the Authorized Version of the English Bible are the two greatest treasuries of
the English language.


Shakespeare has been universally acknowledged to be the summit of the English Renaissance.
Part Three: The Period of the English Bourgeois Revolution
Chapter 1 The English Revolution and the Restoration
5. The Bourgeois Dictatorship and the Restoration
in1688 Glorious Revolution

6. The Religious Cloak of the English Revolution
Puritanism
was
the
religious
doctrine
of
the
revolutionary
bourgeoisie
during
the
English
Revolution. It preached thrift, sobriety, hard work and unceasing labour in whatever calling one
happened to be, but with no extravagant enjoyment of the fruits of labour.
Chapter 2 Milton
and Work

Paradise Lost
,
Paradise Regained
and
Samson Agonistes
.
2.
Paradise Lost
1)
Paradise Lost


Paradise Lost
is Milton’s masterpiece.

blank verse.
Chapter 3 Bunyan

1. Life
The Pilgrim’
s Progress
was published in 1678.

2.
The Pilgrim’
s Progress

1)
The Pilgrim’
s Progress
is a religious allegory.
Chapter 4 Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets

a school of poets called “Metaphysical” by Samuel Johnson
.
bymysticism in content and fantasticality in form


John Donne, the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry.
Chapter 6 Restoration Literature

2. John Dryden

The most distinguished literary figure of the Restoration Period was John Dryden.


Dryden was the forerunner of the English classical school of literature in the next century.

Part Four: The Eighteenth Century
Chapter 1 The Enlightenment and Classicism in English Literature
1. The Enlightenment and 18th Century England
2) The Enlightenment in Europe

The 18th century marked the beginning of an intellectual movement in Europe, known as the
Enlightenment,
which
was,
on
the
whole,
an
expression
of
struggle
of
the
bourgeoisie
against
feudalism.
The
enlighteners
fought
against
class
inequality,
stagnation,
prejudices
and
other
survivals of feudalism.
3) The English Enlighterners


The representatives of the Enlightenment in English literature were Joseph Addison and Richard
Steele, the essayists, and Alexander Pope, the poet.
Chapter 2 Addison and Steele
1. Steele and
The Tatler

Richard Sreele
In
1709,
he
started
a
paper,
The
Tatler
,
to
enlighten,
as
well
as
to
entertain,
his
fellow
coffeehouse- goers.
His
appeal
was
made
to
“
coffeehouses,
”

that
is
to
say,
to
the
middle
classes,
for
whose
enlightenment he stood up.
“
Issac Bickerstaff
”

2. Addison and
TheSpectator

The general purpose is
“
to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.
”

They ushered in the dawn of modern English novel.
Chapter 3 Pope
1. Life


Alexander Pope, the most important English poet in the first half of the 18th century.
3. Workmanship and Limitation


Pope was an outstanding enlightener and the greatest English poet of the classical school in the
first half of the 18th century.


Pope is the most important representative of the English classical poery.
But he lacker the lyrical gift.
Chapter 4 Swift

3. Bickersta f f Almanac (1708)
Swift wrote his greatest work
Gulliver’
s Travels
in Ireland.
Chapter 5 Defoe and the Rise of the English Novel
1. The Rise of the English Novel
the realistic novel: Defoe, Swift, Richardson and Fielding


Swift’s world
-famous novel
Gulliver’
s Travel
s
Defoe
’
s
Robinson Crusoe
(the forerunner of the English realistic novel)


Richardson:
Pamela
,
Clarissa
and
Sir Charles Grandison



Fielding was the real founder of the realistic novel in England.


The novel of this period
…
spoke the truth about life with an uncompromising courage.
”
The
novelists of this period understood that
“
the job of a novelist was to tell the truth about life as he
saw it.
”
(Ibid.) This explains the achievement of the English novel in the 18th century.
4.
Robinson Crusoe

1) Today Defoe is chiefly remembered as the author of
Robinson Crusoe
, his masterpiece.
Chapter 6 Richardson

Samuel Richardson
Pamela
was, in fact, the first English psycho-analytical novel.


After
Pamela
,
Richardson
wrote
two
other
novels:
Clarissa
Harlowe

and
Sir
Charles
Grandison
.
Clarissa
is the best of Richardson’s novel.

Chapter 7 Fielding (the father of English novel)

1. Life
His first novel
Joseph Andrews
was published in 1742.



His
Jonathan Wild
appeared in 1743. It is a powerful political satire.
In 1749, he finished his great novel
Tom Jones
.


Amelia
was his last novel. It is inferior to
Tom Jones
, but has merits of its own.
3.
Joseph Andrews