-
英国文学简史完全版
A Concise History of
British Literature
Chapter 1 English
Literature of Anglo-Saxon Period
I.
Introduction
1. The historical
background
（
1
）
Before the Germanic invasion
（
2
）
During the Germanic invasion
a. immigration;
b.
Christianity;
c. heptarchy.
d. social classes structure: hide-
hundred; eoldermen
（
lord
）
–
thane - middle
class
（
freemen
）
- lower class
（
slave or bondmen:
theow
）
;
e. social
organization: clan or tribes.
f.
military Organization;
g. Church
function: spirit, civil service, education;
h. economy: coins, trade, slavery;
i. feasts and festival: Halloween,
Easter; j. legal system.
2. The
Overview of the culture
（
1
）
The mixture of pagan and Christian
spirit.
（
2
）
Literature: a. Poetry: two types; b.
prose: two figures.
II. Beowulf.
1. A general
introduction.
2. The content.
3. The literary features.
（
1
）
the use of alliteration
（
2
）
the use of metaphors and
understatements
（
3
）
the mixture of pagan and Christian
elements
III. The Old English Prose
1. What is prose?
s
（
1
）
The
Venerable Bede
（
2
）
Alfred the Great
Chapter 2
English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages
uction
1. The Historical Background.
（
1
）
The year 1066: Norman Conquest.
（
2
）
The social situations soon after the
conquest.
A. Norman nobles and serfs;
B. restoration of the church.
（
3
）
The 11th century.
A. the
crusade and knights.
B. dominance of
French and Latin;
（
4
）
The 12th century.
A. the
centralized government;
B. kings and the church
（
Henry II and
Thomas
）
;
（
5
）
The 13th century.
A. The
legend of Robin Hood;
B. Magna Carta
（
1215
）
;
C. the beginning of the Parliament
D. English and Latin: official
languages
（
the
end
）
（
6
）
The 14th century.
a.
the
House
of
Lords
and
the
House
of
Commons
—
conflict
between
the
Parliament and Kings;
b. the
rise of towns.
c. the change of Church.
d. the role of women.
e. the
Hundred Years' War
—
starting.
f. the development of the trade:
London.
g. the Black Death.
h. the Peasants'
Revolt
—
1381.
i.
The translation of Bible by Wycliffe.
（
7
）
The 15th century.
a. The
Peasants Revolt
（
1453
）
b. The War of Roses between Lancaster
and Yorks.
c. the printing-
press
—
William Caxton.
d. the starting of Tudor Monarchy
（
1485
）
2. The Overview
of Literature.
（
1
）
the stories from the Celtic lands of
Wales and Brittany
—
great
myths of
the Middle Ages.
（
2
）
Geoffrye of
Monmouth
—
Historia Regum
Britanniae
—
King Authur.
（
3
）
Wace
—
Le Roman de
Brut.
（
4
）
The romance.
（
5
）
the second half of the 14th century:
Langland, Gawin poet, Chaucer.
II. Sir
Gawin and Green Knight.
1. A general
introduction.
2. The plot.
III. William Langland.
1.
Life
2. Piers the Plowman
IV
. Chaucer
1.
Life
2. Literary Career: three periods
（
1
）
French period
（
2
）
Italian period
（
3
）
master period
3. The
Canterbury Tales
A. The Framework;
B. The General Prologue;
C. The Tale Proper.
4. His Contribution.
（
1
）
He introduced from France the rhymed
stanza of various types.
（
2
）
He is the first great poet who wrote in
the current English language.
（
3
）
The
spoken
English
of
the
time
consisted
of
several
dialects,
and
Chaucer
did
much
in
making
the
dialect
of
London
the
standard
for
the
modern English speech.
V
. Popular Ballads.
VI. Thomas Malory and English Prose
VII. The beginning of English Drama.
1. Miracle Plays.
Miracle
play
or
mystery
play
is
a
form
of
medieval
drama
that
came
from
dramatization of the
liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed
from
the
10th
to
the
16th
century,
reaching
its
height
in
the
15th
century.
The
simple
lyric
character
of
the
early
texts
was
enlarged
by
the
addition
of
dialogue and dramatic action.
Eventually the performance was moved to the
churchyard and the marketplace.
2. Morality Plays.
A
morality play is a play enforcing a moral truth or
lesson by means of the
speech and
action of characters which are personified
abstractions
–
figures
representing
vices
and
virtues,
qualities
of
the
human
mind,
or
abstract
conceptions in
general.
3.
Interlude.
The
interlude,
which
grew
out
of
the
morality,
was
intended,
as
its
name
implies,
to be used more as filler than as the main part of
an entertainment. As
its best it was
short, witty, simple in plot, suited for the
diversion of guests at a
banquet,
or
for
the
relaxation
of
the
audience
between
the
divisions
of
a
serious
play.
It
was essentially
an
indoors
performance,
and generally
of
an
aristocratic nature.
Chapter
3 English Literature in the Renaissance I.A
Historical Background
II.
The Overview of the Literature
< br>（
1485-1660
）
Printing
press
—
readership
—
growth
of
middle
class
—
trade-
education
for
laypeople-
centralization
of
power-
intellectual
life-exploration-new
impetus
and direction of
literature.
Humanism-study
of
the
literature
of
classical
antiquity
and
reformed
education.
Literary style-modeled on the ancients.
The
effect
of
humanism-the
dissemination
of
the
cultivated,
clear,
and
sensible attitude of its
classically educated adherents.
1.
poetry
The
first
tendency
by
Sidney
and
Spenser:
ornate,
florid,
highly
figured
style.
The
second
tendency
by
Donne:
metaphysical
style
—
complexity
and
ingenuity.
The third tendency by
Johnson:
reaction
——
Classically pure
and restrained
style.
The
fourth tendency by Milton: central Christian and
Biblical tradition.
2. Drama
a. the native tradition and classical
examples.
b. the drama stands highest
in popular estimation: Marlowe
–
Shakespeare
–
Jonson.
3. Prose
a. translation of
Bible;
b. More;
c. Bacon.
II. English poetry.
1. Sir
Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard
（
courtly
makers
）
（
1
）
Wyatt: introducing sonnets.
（
2
）
Howard: introducing sonnets and writing
the first blank verse.
2. Sir Philip
Sidney
—
poet, critic, prose
writer
（
1
）
Life:
a. English gentleman;
b. brilliant and fascinating
personality;
c. courtier.
（
2
）
works
a. Arcadia: pastoral
romance;
b.
Astrophel
and
Stella
（
108
）
:
sonnet
sequence
to
Penelope
Dvereux
—
platonic
devotion.
Petrarchan conceits and
original feelings-moving to
creativeness
—
building of
a narrative story; theme-love
originality-act of writing.
c.
Defense
of
Poesy:
an
apology
for
imaginative
literature
—
beginning of
literary
criticism.
3. Edmund Spenser
（
1
）
life:
Cambridge
-
Sidney's
friend
-
―Areopagus‖
–
Ireland
-
Westminster Abbey.
（
2
）
works
a. The Shepherds
Calendar: the budding of English poetry in
Renaissance.
b. Amoretti and
Epithalamion: sonnet sequence
c. Faerie
Queen:
l The general
end
——
A romantic and
allegorical epic
—
steps to
virtue.
l 12 books and 12 virtues:
Holiness, temperance, justice and
courtesy.
l
Two-level
function:
part
of
the
story
and
part
of
allegory
（
symbolic
meaning
）
l Many allusions to classical writers.
L
Themes:
puritanism,
nationalism,
humanism
and
Renaissance
Neoclassicism
—
a
Christian humanist.
（
3
）
Spenserian Stanza.
III.
English Prose
1. Thomas More
（
1
）
Life
:
―Renaissance
man‖,
scholar,
statesman,
theorist,
prose
writer,
diplomat, patron of
arts
a. learned Greek at Canterbury
College, Oxford;
b. studies law at
Lincoln Inn;
c. Lord Chancellor;
d. beheaded.
（
2
）
Utopia: the first English science
fiction.
Written in Latin, two parts,
the second
—
place of nowhere.
A philosophical mariner
（
Raphael
Hythloday
）
tells
his voyages in which he
discovers a
land-Utopia.
a.
The
part
one
is
organized
as
dialogue
with
mariner
depicting
his
philosophy.
b. The part two is a description of the
island kingdom where gold and silver
are worn by criminal, religious freedom
is total and no one owns anything.
c.
the nature of the book: attacking the chief
political and social evils of his
time.
d. the book and the Republic: an
attempt to describe the Republic in a new
way, but it possesses an modern
character and the resemblance is in externals.
e. it played a key role in the Humanist
awakening of the 16th century which
moved
away
from
the
Medieval
otherworldliness
towards
Renaissance
secularism.
f. the Utopia
（
3
）
the significance.
a.
it
was
the
first
champion
of
national
ideas
and
national
languages;
it
created
a
national
prose,
equally
adapted
to
handling
scientific
and
artistic
material.
b. a elegant Latin scholar and the
father of English prose: he composed works
in
English,
translated
from
Latin
into
English
biography,
wrote
History
of
Richard III.
2. Francis
Bacon: writer, philosopher and statesman
（
1
）
life: Cambridge - humanism in Paris
–
knighted - Lord Chancellor
–
bribery -
focusing on philosophy and literature.
（
2
）
philosophical
ideas:
advancement
of
science
—
people:
servants
and
interpreters
of
nature
—
method:
a
child
before
nature
—
facts
and
observations:
experimental.
（
3
）
―Essays‖: 57.
a.
he was a master of numerous and varied styles.
b. his method is to weigh and balance
maters, indicating the ideal course of
action and the practical one, pointing
out the advantages and disadvantages of
each, but leaving the reader
to make the final decisions.
（
arguments
）
IV
. English Drama
1. A general survey.
（
1
）
Everyman marks the beginning of modern
drama.
（
2
）
two influences.
a. the
classics: classical in form and English in
content;
b. native or popular drama.
（
3
）
the University Wits.
2.
Christopher
Marlowe:
greatest
playwright
before
Shakespeare
and
most
gifted
of the Wits.
（
1
）
Life: first interested in classical
poetry
—
then in drama.
（
2
）
Major works
a. Tamburlaine;
b. The Jew of Malta;
c. The
Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.
（
3
）
The significance of his plays.
V
. William Shakespeare
1. Life
（
1
）
1564, Stratford-on-Avon;
（
2
）
Grammar School;
（
3
）
Queen visit to Castle;
（
4
）
marriage to Anne Hathaway;
（
5
）
London, the Globe Theatre: small part
and proprietor;
（
6
）
the 1st Folio, Quarto;
（
7
）
Retired,
son
—
Hamlet; H. 1616.
2. Dramatic career
3. Major plays-men-
centered.
（
1
）
Romeo and
Juliet
——
tragic love and fate
（
2
）
The Merchant of Venice.
Good
over evil.
Anti-Semitism.
（
3
）
Henry IV
.
National unity.
Falstaff.
（
4
）
Julius Caesar
Republicanism
vs. dictatorship.
（
5
）
Hamlet
Revenge
Good/evil.
（
6
）
Othello
Diabolic character
jealousy
gap between
appearance and reality.
（
7
）
King Lear
Filial ingratitude
（
8
）
Macbeth
Ambition vs. fate.
（
9
）
Antony and Cleopatra.
Passion vs. reason
（
10
）
The Tempest
Reconciliation;
reality and illusion.
3. Non-dramatic
poetry
（
1
）
Venus and Adonis; The Rape of Lucrece.
（
2
）
Sonnets:
a. theme: fair,
true, kind.
b.
two
major
parts:
a
handsome
young
man
of
noble
birth;
a
lady
in
dark
complexion.
c. the form:
three quatrains and a couplet.
d. the
rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
VI.
Ben Jonson
1. life: poet, dramatist, a
Latin and Greek scholar, the ―literary king‖
（
Sons
of
Ben
）
bution:
（
1
）
the idea of
―
humor
‖.
（
2
）
an
advocate
of
classical
drama
and
a
forerunner
of
classicism
in
English literature.
3. Major
plays
（
1
）
Everyone in His
Humor
—―
humor
‖;
three unities.
（
2
）
V
olpone the Fox
Chapter
4
English
Literature
of
the
17th
Century
I.A
Historical
Background
II. The Overview
of the Literature
（
1640-1688
）
1. The
revolution period
（
1
）
The metaphysical poets;
（
2
）
The Cavalier poets.
（
3
）
Milton: the literary and philosophical
heritage of the Renaissance
merged with
Protestant political and moral conviction
2. The restoration period.
（
1
）
The restoration of Charles II ushered
in a literature characterized by
reason, moderation, good taste, deft
management, and simplicity.
（
school
of Ben
Jonson
）
（
2
）
The ideals of impartial investigation
and scientific experimentation
promoted
by the newly founded Royal Society of London for
Improving
Natural Knowledge
（
1662
）
were influential in the development of
clear
and simple prose as an instrument
of rational communication.
（
3
）
The
great
philosophical
and
political
treatises
of
the
time
emphasize rationalism.
（
4
）
The restoration drama.
（
5
）
The Age of Dryden.
III. John
Milton
1. Life: educated at
Cambridge
—
visiting the
continent
—
involved into the
revolution
—
persec
uted
—
writing epics.
2. Literary
career.
（
1
）
The 1st period was up to 1641, during
which time he is to be seen
chiefly
as
a
son
of
the
humanists
and
Elizabethans,
although
his
Puritanism is not absent. L'Allegre and
IL Pens eroso
（
1632
）
are his
early
masterpieces,
in
which
we
find
Milton
a
true
offspring
of
the
Renaissance,
a
scholar
of
exquisite
taste
and
rare
culture.
Next
came
Comus,
a masque. The greatest of early creations was
Lycidas, a pastoral
elegy on the death
of a college mate, Edward King.
（
2
）
The second period is from 1641 to 1654,
when the Puritan was in
such
complete
ascendancy
that
he
wrote
almost
no
poetry.
In
1641,
he
began a long period of pamphleteering
for the puritan cause. For some 15
years, the Puritan in him alone ruled
his writing. He sacrificed his poetic
ambition to the call of the liberty for
which Puritans were fighting.
（
3
）
The third period is from 1655 to 1671,
when humanist and Puritan
have been
fused into an exalted entity. This period is the
greatest in his
literary life, epics
and some famous sonnets. The three long poems are
the
fruit
of
the
long
contest
within
Milton
of
Renaissance
tradition
and
his
Puritan
faith.
They
form
the
greatest
accomplishments
of
any
English
poet
except
Shakespeare.
In
Milton
alone,
it
would
seem,
Puritanism
could
not
extinguish
the
lover
of
beauty.
In
these
works
we
find
humanism and Puritanism merged in
magnificence.
3. Major Works
（
1
）
Paradise Lost
a. the plot.
b. characters.
c. theme:
justify the ways of God to man.
（
2
）
Paradise Regained.
（
3
）
Samson Agonistes.
4.
Features of Milton's works.
（
1
）
Milton is one of the very few truly
great English writers who is also
a
prominent
figure
in
politics,
and
who
is
both
a
great
poet
and
an
important
prose writer. The two most essential things to be
remembered
about him are his Puritanism
and his republicanism.
（
2
）
Milton
wrote
many
different
types
of
poetry.
He
is
especially
a
great master of blank verse. He learned
much from Shakespeare and first
used
blank verse in non-dramatic works.
（
3
）
Milton is a great stylist. He is famous
for his grand style noted for
its
dignity
and
polish,
which
is
the
result
of
his
life-long
classical
and
biblical study.
（
4
）
Milton has always been admired for his
sublimity of thought and
majesty of
expression.
IV
.John Bunyan
1. Life:
（
1
）
puritan age;
（
2
）
poor family;
（
3
）
parliamentary army;
（
4
）
Baptist society, preacher;
（
5
）
prison, writing the book.
2.
The Pilgrim Progress
（
1
）
The allegory in dream form.
（
2
）
the plot.
（
3
）
the theme.
V
.
Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets.
1. Metaphysical Poets
The
term ―metaphysical poetry‖ is commonly used to
designate the works
of the 17th century
writers who wrote under the influence of John
Donne.
Pressured by the harsh,
uncomfortable and curious age, the metaphysical
poets
sought
to
shatter
myths
and
replace
them
with
new
philosophies,
new sciences, new words and new poetry.
They tried to break away from
the
conventional
fashion
of
Elizabethan
love
poetry,
and
favoured
in
poetry for a more colloquial language
and tone, a tightness of expression
and
the single-minded working out of a theme or
argument.
2. Cavalier Poets
The other group prevailing in this
period was that of Cavalier poets. They
were
often
courtiers
who
stood
on
the
side
of
the
king,
and
called
themselves ―sons‖ of Ben Jonson. The
Cavalier poets wrote light poetry,
polished
and
elegant,
amorous
and
gay,
but
often
superficial.
Most
of
their
verses were short songs, pretty madrigals, love
fancies characterized
by lightness of
heart and of morals. Cavalier poems have the
limpidity of
the Elizabethan lyric
without its imaginative flights. They are lighter
and
neater but less fresh than the
Elizabethan's.
VI. John Dryden.
1. Life:
（
1
）
the representative of classicism in the
Restoration.
（
2
）
poet, dramatist, critic, prose writer,
satirist.
（
3
）
changeable in attitude.
（
4
）
Literary
career
—
four decades.
（
5
）
Poet Laureate
2. His
influences.
（
1
）
He established the heroic couplet as
the fashion for satiric, didactic,
and
descriptive poetry.
（
2
）
He developed a direct and concise prose
style.
（
3
）
He developed the art of literary
criticism in his essays and in the
numerous prefaces to his poems.
Chapter 5 English Literature of the
18th Century
I.
Introduction
1. The Historical
Background.
2. The literary overview.
（
1
）
The Enlightenment.
（
2
）
The rise of English novels.
When the literary historian seeks to
assign to each age its favourite form
of literature, he finds no difficulty
in dealing with our own time. As the
Middle
Ages
delighted
in
long
romantic
narrative
poems,
the
Elizabethans
in
drama,
the
Englishman
of
the
reigns
of
Anne
and
the
early
Georges in didactic and satirical verse, so the
public of our day is
enamored of the
novel. Almost all types of literary production
continue to
appear, but whether we
judge from the lists of publishers, the statistics
of
public
libraries,
or
general
conversation,
we
find
abundant
evidence
of
the
enormous
preponderance
of
this
kind
of
literary
entertainment
in
popular favor.
（
3
）
Neo-classicism:
a
revival
in
the
seventeenth
and
eighteenth
centuries
of
classical
standards
of
order,
balance,
and
harmony
in
literature. John Dryden and Alexander
Pope were major exponents of the
neo-
classical school.
（
4
）
Satiric literature.
（
5
）
Sentimentalism
II. Neo-
classicism.
（
a general
description
）
1.
Alexander Pope
（
1
）
Life:
a. Catholic family;
b. ill health;
c. taught himself by reading and
translating;
d. friend of Addison,
Steele and Swift.
（
2
< br>）
three groups of poems:
e. An Essay on Criticism
（
manifesto of neo-
classicism
）
;
f.
The Rape of Lock;
g. Translation of two
epics.
（
3
）
His
contribution:
h. the heroic
couplet
—
finish, elegance,
wit, pointedness;
i. satire.
（
4
）
weakness: lack of imagination.
2. Addison and Steele
（
1
）
Richard Steele: poet, playwright,
essayist, publisher of newspaper.
（
2
）
Joseph
Addison:
studies
at
Oxford,
secretary
of
state,
created
a
literary periodical
―Spectator‖
（
with Steele,
1711
）
（
3
）
Spectator Club.
（
4
）
The significance of their essays.
a.
Their writings in ―The
Tatler‖, and ―The Spectator‖ provide a new code
of social morality for the rising
bourgeoisie.
b.
They
give
a
true
picture
of
the
social
life
of
England
in
the
18th
century.
c.
In
their
hands,
the
English
essay
completely
established
itself
as
a
literary genre.
Using it as a form of character sketching and
story telling,
they ushered in the dawn
of the modern novel.
3. Samuel
Johnson
—
poet, critic,
essayist, lexicographer, editor.
（
1
）
Life:
a.
studies at Oxford;
b. made a living by
writing and translating;
c. the great
cham of literature.
（
2
）
works: poem
（
The
Vanity of Human Wishes,
London
）
; criticism
（
The Lives of great
Poets
）
; preface.
（
3
）
The champion of neoclassical ideas.
III. Literature of Satire: Jonathan
Swift.
1. Life:
（
1
）
born in Ireland;
（
2
）
studies at
Trinity College;
（
3
）
worked as a secretary;
（
4
）
the
chief editor of The Examiner;
（
5
）
the
Dean of St. Patrick's in Dublin.
2.
Works:
The
Battle
of
Books,
A
Tale
of
a
Tub,
A
Modest
Proposal,
Gulliver's
Travels.
3. Gulliver's Travels.
Part
I.
Satire
—
the
Whig
and
the
Tories,
Anglican
Church
and
Catholic
Church.
Part II.
Satire
—
the legal system;
condemnation of war.
Part III.
Satire
—
ridiculous scientific
experiment.
Part IV
.
Satire
—
mankind.
IV
. English Novels of
Realistic tradition.
1. The Rise of
novels.
（
1
）
Early forms: folk tale
–
fables
–
myths
–
epic
–
poetry
–
romances
–
fabliaux
–
novella - imaginative
nature of their material.
（
imaginative
narrative
）
（
2
）
The
rise of the novel
a. picaresque novel
in Spain and England
（
16th
century
）
: Of or relating
to a genre of prose fiction that
originated in Spain and depicts in realistic
detail
the
adventures
of
a
roguish
hero,
often
with
satiric
or
humorous
effects.
b. Sidney: Arcadia.
c.
Addison and Steele: The Spectator.
（
plot and characterization
and realism
）
（
3
）
novel and drama
（
17the
century
）
2.
Daniel
Defoe
—
novelist,
poet,
pamphleteer,
publisher,
merchant,
journalist.
）
（
1
）
Life:
a. business career;
b.
writing career;
c. interested in politics.
（
2
）
Robinson Crusoe.
a. the
story.
b. the significance of the
character.
c. the features of his
novels.
d. the style of language.
3. Henry
Fielding
—
novelist.
（
1
）
Life:
a. unsuccessful dramatic career;
b. legal career; writing career.
（
2
）
works.
（
3
）
Tom Jones.
a. the plot;
b. characters: Tom, Blifil, Sophia;
c. significance.
（
4
）
the theory of realism.
（
5
）
the style of language.
V
. Writers of
Sentimentalism.
1. Introduction
2.
Samuel
Richard
son
—
novelist,
moralist
concerned with the
morals of others.
）
（
1
）
Life:
One
who
is
unduly
（
a. printer book
seller;
b. letter writer.
（
2
）
Pamela, Virtue Rewarded.
a.
the story
b. the significance
Pamela was a new thing in these ways:
a
）
It
discarded the ―improbable and marvelous‖
accomplishments of the
former heroic
romances, and pictured the life and love of
ordinary people.
b
）
Its
intension was to afford not merely entertainment
but also moral
instruction.
c
）
It
described not only the sayings and doings of
characters but their
also
their
secret
thoughts
and
feelings.
It
was,
in
fact,
the
first
English
psycho-analytical novel.
3.
Oliver Goldsmith
—
poet and
novelist.
A. Life:
a. born
in Ireland;
b. a singer and tale-
teller, a life of vagabondage;
c.
bookseller;
d. the Literary Club;
e. a miserable life;
f. the
most lovable character in English literature.
B. The Vicar of Wakefield.