最新英国文学史期末复习重点

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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.

3. The 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

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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 ch

iefly 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.

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3. The English Bible

William Tyndall

Then appeared the Authorized Version, which was made in 1611 under the auspices of 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).

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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 masterpiece 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

in 1688 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.

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Chapter 2 Milton

1. Life 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

.

by mysticism 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

“

< br>coffeehouses,

”

that

is

to

say,

to

the

middle

classes,

for

whose

enlightenment he stood up.

“

Issac Bickerstaff

”

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2. Addison and

The Spectator

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

Gullive

r’

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

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