英美文学背诵精华篇

Name/CN Name

Writer's Features

Writings / CN Writings

Writing's Features

English Literature

The Renaissance Period

1. age: 1500-1660

2. background: stimulated by the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek classic; England's Golden Age, especially in literature; the Church of England broke away

from the Catholic Church

3. features:

(1)New poetical forms introduced, e.g. blank verse and sonnet;

(2) the English drama based itself on the models of Roman and Greek classics and the precedents from Italy and Spain

(3)the universal tend of humanism in emphasizing man's dignity and his worldly happiness

William Shakespeare

The greatest playwright and the most popular sonnet writer; a

Sonnets

1. 154 poems; English form

威廉

.

creation of characters; skillful plot construction; irony; a good use

十四行詩

2. The traditional theme of the play is to praise the

of a language; skilled in various poetic forms; of three quatrains

The Merchant of V

enice

friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to

and a couplet(

三节四行诗加一节偶句

); national unity under a

威尼斯商人

idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and

mighty and just sovereign is a necessity

—“The King?s government

Hamlet

loyalty, and to expose the insatiable greed and

must be carried on” (

在一个强大英明 的君主统治下的国家，

统一

哈姆雷特

brutality of the Jew. Many people today tend to

是非常必要的

)

(Venus and Adonis

维纳斯和安

regard the play as a satire of the Christians'

(Each hero has his weekness of nature: Hamlet, the melancholic

东尼斯

; The Rape of Lucrece

鲁

hypocrisy and their false standards of friendship and

scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind;

克丽斯受辱记

;romantic

love, their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and

Othello?s inner weakness is made use of by the outside evil force;

tragicomedies

浪漫悲喜

their unreasoning prejudice against Jews (Shylock).

the old king Lear who is unwilling to totally give up his power

剧

;Romeo and Juliet;

3. A man of contemplation rather than action; has the

makes himself suffer from treac

hery and infidelity; and Macbeth?s

Shakespeare's greatest tragedies

qualities of a “blood

-and-

thunder” thrill

er and a

lust for power stirs up his ambition and leads him to incessant

are : Hamlet, Othello, King Lear,

philosophical exploration of life and death

crimes.)

and Macbeth)

literature should be a combination of beauty, kindness and truth,

and should reflect nature and reality

John Milton

A versatile writer; fight for freedom in all aspects as a Christian

Paradise Lost

Satan, after being defeated in his rebel against God,

約翰

.

彌爾頓

humanist

失樂園

tempts Adam and Eve to eat the apples from the

Forbidden Tree, and causes the Fall of Man

The Neoclassical Period

1

1. age: 1660-1798

2. background: The English society of the neoclassical period was a turbulent one. Fast development of England as a nation; the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of

Reason

3. features:

(1)a furtherance of the Renaissance

–

the Enlightenment Movement, advocated universal education

(2)reason,

(3)reviving the interest in old classical works (neoclassicism)

(4)keep to order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy

(5)had specific rules for almost every genre of literature

Daniel Defoe

A very good story-teller; his sentences are sometimes short, crisp

Robinson Crusoe

Adventure on a deserted island; depicts a hero grows

丹尼爾

.

笛弗

and plain, and sometimes long and rambling, which leave on the

鲁宾逊漂流记

from an inexperienced youth onto a shrewd and

reader an impression of casual narration

hardened man; a song of courage, wisdom, struggle

Smootheasycolloquialmostly vernacular

against the hostile natural environment

Jonathan Swift

Is almost unsurpassed in the writing of simple, direct, precise

Gulliver

’

s Travels

Four places: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, the flying island;

喬納森

.

斯威特

prose; “proper words in proper places”

格列佛遊記

Houyhnhnm

Clearsimpleconcrete dictionuncomplicated sentence

structureeconomy and conciseness of language

Henry Fielding

First of all the 18th century English novelist to write the

Tom Jones

亨利

.

菲爾丁

epic in prose

湯姆

.< /p>

琼

斯

style; use the third-person narration;

“

Father of the English

Novel

”; “the just copies of human manners”

Easyunlabouredfamiliarextremely vivid and vigorous logic and

rhythm

The Romantic Period

1. age: 1798-1870

2. background: coming along with the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution

3. features:

(1)contrary with the neoclassicism: emphasize that man have in common, focuses on the special qualities of individual mind

(2)tend to probe into the inner world of the human spirit rather narrate daily happenings of the human world

(3)employ rural scenery, legendary and mythological, stories of ancient times, figures from country and Orientals

(4)produce a number of great poets, the Romantic period is an age of poetry

2