2021年1月23日发(作者：curse什么意思)

The Survey of British Literature

计科
1102
班张健

学号
2011013762










Literature is
a term
used to
describe written or spoken material.
Broadly
speaking, it is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical
or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to
works of the
creative
imagination,
including
works
of
poetry,
drama,
fiction,
and
nonfiction. The survey of British literature can

be devided into 7 periods.

















Old and Medieval periods (450
---
1066)



After the fall of the Roman Empire and the withdrawal of Roman troops from
Albion , the aboriginal Celtic population of the larger part of the island was soon
conquered

and

almost totally exterminated by the Teutonic tribes of Angles ,

Saxons and Jutes who came from the continent and settled in the island , naming its
central part Anglia , or England.
For nearly four hundred years prior to the coming of

the English , Britain had
been a Roman province . In 410 A.D.

the Romans withdrew their legions from
Britain to

protect

Rome herself against swarms of Teutonic invaders . About 449 a
band of Teutons , called Jutes , left Denmark , landed on the Isle

of Thanet .
Warriors from the tribes of the Angles and the Saxons soon followed , and drove
westward the original inhabitants.

The literature of this period

falls

naturally

into

two divisions ,
---Religious and Secular . In

reading

the

earliest poetry of England it is well to
remember that all of it was copied by the monks , and seems to have been more or
less altered

to give it a religious coloring.

The Song of Beowulf
can be

justly

termed

England
’
s national epic and its
hero Beowulf ---one of the national heroes of the English people .

The only existing manuscript of
The Song of Beowulf
was written by an
unknown scribe at the

beginning

of

the

10
th
century and was not discovered
until 1750 .


The

Song


was

composed much earlier , and reflects events which
took

place

on

the Continent approximately at the beginning of

the

6
th


century , when the forefathers of the Jutes lived in the southern part of the
Scandinavian

peninsula

and

maintained

close

relations with kindred tribes ,
e.g. with the Danes who lived

on the other side of the straits.














Medieval periods (1066
---
mid-14
th
century)






In the year 1066 , at the battle of Hastings , the Normans headed by William ,
Duke of Normandy , defeated the Anglo-Saxons.





The Normans were originally a hardy race of sea rovers inhabiting Scandinavia .
In the tenth century they
conquered a part of northern France , which is
still called
Normandy , and rapidly adopted French civilization and the French language . Their
conquest of Anglo-Saxon England under William , Duke of Normandy , began with
the battle of Hastings in 1066 .

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The
literature
which
they
brought
to
England
is
remarkable
for
its
bright
,
romantic
tales
of
love
and
adventure
,
in
marked
contrast
with
the
strength
and
somberness of Anglo-Saxon poetry . During the strength three centuries Anglo-Saxon
speech simplified itself by dropping of its Teutonic inflection , absorbed eventually a
large
part
of
the
French
vocabulary
,
and
became
the
English
language .
English
literature is also a combination of French and Saxon elements .














The Renaissance Period (mid-14
th
---mid-17
th
century)






The 16
th
century in English was a period of the breaking up of feudal relations
and the establishing of the foundations of capitalism .






Manufactories
were
developing
and
the
wool
trade
was
rapidly
growing
in
bulk .
The
enclosure
of
commons
drove
thousands
of
peasants
off
their
lands
and
many of them settled in towns .







New
social
and
economic
conditions
brought
about
great
changes
in
the
development of science and art .






Together with the development of bourgeois relationships and formation of the
English national state this period is marked by a flourishing of national culture known
as the Renaissance .







The greatest of all English authors , William Shakespeare belongs to those rare
geniuses
of
mankind
who
have
become
landmarks
in
the
history
of
world
culture .
The
works
of
William
Shakespeare
are
a
great
landmark
in
the
history
of
world
literature
for
he
was
one
of
the
first
founders
of
realism
,
a
masterhand
at
realistic
portrayal of human characters




and relations .







His first original play written in about 1590 was
King

Henry
Ⅵ

,parts two and
three
,
the
first
part
having
been
written
earlier
by
another
dramatist
and
only
retouched
by
Shakespeare .
During
the
twenty-two
years
of
his
literary
work
he
produced 37 plays , two narrative poems and 154 sonnets .







His
literary
work
may
be
divided
into
three
major
periods
:
the
first
period
from 1590 to 1600 , the second from 1601 to 1608 , and the third from 1609 to 1612 .







Hamlet
is
considered
to
be
summit
of
Shakespeare
’
s
art .
It
was
written
in
1602-1620
and
first
published
in
1603 .
Shakespeare
took
a
certain
story
of
Prince
Amleth from old sources which can be traced to the 12
th
century .







Under
Shakespeare
’
s
pen
the
medieval
story
assumed
new
meaning
and
significance . Danish names could not hide from the spectators and readers the fact
that it was English which the great writer described in his play . The whole tragedy is
permeated
with
the
spirit
of
Shakespeare
’
s
own
time .
Hamlet

is
the
profoundest
expression of Shakespeare
’
s humanism and his criticism of contemporary life .







A study of Bacon takes us beyond the limits of the reign of Elizabeth , but not
beyond
the
continued
influences
of
that
reign
.
Bacon
belongs
with
Sidney
and
Raleigh in that group of Elizabethans who aimed to be men of affairs , politicians ,
reformers ,explorers , rather than writers of prose or poetry . He was of noble birth ,
and from an early age was attached to Elizabeth
’
s court . Bacon was the son of Sir
Nicholas Bacon , Lord Keeper of the Seal , and of the learned Ann Cook ,sister-in-law
to Lord Burleigh , greatest of the queen
’
s statesmen . From these connections , as well
as
from
native
gift
,
he
was
attracted
to
the
court
,
and
as
a
child
was
called
by
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