英国文学整理

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Chapter One

The Northumbrian School

Caedmon (the first Anglo-Saxon poet)--- he turns the stories in the Bible into verse form . the title of the work is Paraphrase

Venerable Bede---- The Ecclesiatical History of the English People earned for him the title of “father of English history”

the Song of Beowulf----England’s national epic

Epic

? Definition: An extended ?narrative poem in ?elevated(严肃的） or ?dignified(尊严的，高贵的) language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.

Features of An Epic

? The hero is a figure of imposing(难忘的，壮丽的） stature, of national or international importance, and of great historical or legendary significance;

? The setting is vast in scope, covering great nations, the world, or the universe;

? The action consists of deeds of great valor (bravery) or requiring superhuman courage; ? Supernatural forces ---gods, angels, and demons--- interest themselves in (participate in) the action and inter?vene from time to time; （Grendel)

? A style of sustained elevation (崇高，庄严） and grand simplicity is used;

? The epic poet recounts the deeds of the heroes with objectivity.

Beowulf

? creation time: written in 10-th century (p.6)

? plot and theme: fight with Grendel

fight with Grendel?s mother

fight with firedrake

death and funeral (p.6-7)

a Kenning is a metaphor usually composed of two words, which becomes the formula for a special object. For example, “helmet bearer” stands for “warrior”, “swan road” for “the sea”, “the world candle” for “the sun”.

? Alliteration.

? Alliteration is a form of initial rhyme, or “head rhyme”. It is the repetition of the same sound or sounds at the beginning of two or more words that are next to or close to each other.

(Alliteration is a characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry, notably the epic Beowulf; it is still used,

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with modifications, by modern poets.) 押头韵的例子在诗歌里数见不鲜，比如：英国玄学派诗人约翰.邓恩（John Donne）的诗集Songs and Sonnets（《歌与十四行诗》），其题目本身就用了押头韵技巧。苏格兰诗人罗伯特.彭斯(Robert Burns )有一首名诗，题目就叫做“O My Luve ?s Like a Red Red Rose”（《我的爱像一朵红红的玫瑰》），

? The significance of Beowulf

? a. This glorious epic pre?sents us a vivid picture of the life of Anglo-Saxon people and highly praises the brave and courageous spirit of the fighting against the elemental forces （自然力）. ? b. The epic reflects the situations the epoch（时代） of pagan tribalism and of the era of the Christianized feudal society.

? c. The epic gives the vivid portrayal of a great national hero, strong and courageous people and his kinfolk.

Chapter Two

? Romance—

Essential Features of the Romances

? It lacks a general resemblance to truth or reality;

? It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtues;

? It contains perilous（危险的） adventures more or less remote from ordinary life; ? It lays emphasis on supreme devotion to a fair lady;

? The central character of the romance is the knight, who is devoted to the church and the king; ? It is only for the noble class.

? Romance: the heroic adventure for adventures? sake

? Beowulf: to help the hero?s kinsfolk out of the distress or to protect them from disaster ? Medieval romances or tales in verse, can be divided into three classes, according to subject matters.

? a. the Matter of France

? b. the Matter of Rome

? c. the Matter of Britain

The Matter of France

? The term is used to refer to those romances based on stories about and his circle. ? Charlemagne —King of the Franks (768-814) and founder of the first empire in western Europe after the fall of Rome.

? 查理曼大帝(742-814, 世称 Charles the Great或Charles I, 768-814为法兰克王, 800-814为西罗马帝国皇帝)

The Matter of Rome

? The term is used to refer to those romances concerned with classical (ancient Greek and Roman) stories, as distinct from Ar?thurian or Charlemagne legends.

The Matter of Britain

? The term is used to describe the subject matter of the romances concerned with the Ar?thurian

? Arthur represented the Golden Age of Chivalry. His band of warriors, known as the Knights

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of the Round Table, became just as famous as the legendary king. There were the Lancelot and Gawain, Merlin and many more. The culmination of Arthurian Legends:

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

? a. the plot

? 1) Feast in the palace

? 2) journey for the green chapel

? 3) test in the castle

? 4) blow in the chapel

b. Motif:

? the tests of faith, courage and purity----nobility of hero

? the human weakness for self-preservation（自卫）-----humanness（人性）

Significance of

? This romance is one of the most delightful old romances in any language. In form, it is an interesting combination of French and Saxon elements. It is written in an elaborate stanza combining meter and alliteration. At the end of each stanza there is a rimed refrain.

? Refrain—A phrase, verse, or group of verses repeated at intervals throughout a song or poem, especially at the end of each stanza. (副歌，迭句，复唱)

? Chapter Three the Age of Chaucer(1350-1400)

? Main figures of this period( John Wycliff, William Langland)

? John Wycliff(1324-1384)

John Wycliff was important because:

? He was one of the first figures who demanded to reform the church in order to do away with corruption and rottenness. (p.26) He was called the “Morning star of the Reformation”. ? He was the first man who translated the Bible into standard English. His work earned him the title of Father of English Prose.

William Langland(朗格兰)

English poet who is regarded as the authorship of Piers Plowman（耕者皮尔斯）, a medieval religious allegory. (中古宗教寓言诗) Allegory

? A literary, dramatic, or pictorial device in which characters and events stand for abstract ideas, principles, or forces, so that the literal sense has or suggests a parallel, deeper symbolic sense.

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? Chaucer is best known as the author of The Canterbury Tales.（乔叟是英语诗歌之父）

? 三个时期：

? The French Period(1360-1372)

e.g. The Romaunt of the Rose --- a free translation

His chief works during this time: the

? The Italian Period(1372 -1386)

e.g. Troilus and Cryseyde

The Parliament of Fowls

The House of Fame

The British Period(1386 --- 1400) (Mature Period)

e.g. The Canterbury Tales

? Significance of Canterbury Tales 书上P30-32重点

Chaucer’s Contributions

? Father of English poetry

Chaucer used for the first time the （乔叟的诗行以五步抑扬格为基本节奏，每两行押韵，被称为“英雄双韵体”）

? Chapter Four The Fifteenth Century(1400-1550)（ballad民谣Popular Ballads A ballad is a folk song or orally transmitted poem telling in a direct and dramatic manner. Some popular stories in ballads usually derive from tragic incidents in local history or legend. The stories are told simply, impersonally(客观的), and often with vivid dialogue. The Characteristics of the Popular Ballads(书上P50-51)重点

大众民谣：三只乌鸦（P55）重点

Chapter Five The English Renaissance重点

major figures in the literary world

poetry: Thomas Wyatt

Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey

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Edmund Spenser

Shakespeare

prose: Thomas More( Utopia)

Francis Bacon( Essays)

drama: Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593)

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

? Humanism was the keynote(主旨) of the renaissance, reflecting the new outlook of the rising bourgeois class. The humanists ?advocated the emancipation of man, and they tried to have the new evaluation of man and his powers and fought for equality and justice, opposed feudal tyranny and obscurantism and religious obstinacy.（P51）

Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)

? The most interesting lyric poet of the first half of the sixteenth century;

? The first, along with Surrey, to introduce the sonnet into English,

? Wyatt and Surrey often share the title "father of the English sonnet"

Henry Howard, Earl of Surry(苏莱伯爵 )

? The first to give the sonnet its English form—three quatrains(四行诗) with different rhyme schemes, followed by a (对句) (abab cdcd efef gg)—later known as Shakespearean Sonnet

? The first to introduce from Latin poetry into English poetry

? A ?unit of verse consisting of two successive lines, usually rhyming and having the same meter and often forming a complete thought or syntactic unit.

? Verse consisting of unrhymed lines, usually of iambic pentameter (五步抑扬格) First

introduced by Henry Howard, Earl of Surry, into English from Latin poetry, and then popular among many great poets and dramatists. 莎士比亚的戏剧和弥尔顿的Paradise Lost 都是用blank verse写成的。 押韵的诗叫rhymed verse。

? Spenserian Stanza 斯宾塞式诗节：由爱德蒙·斯宾塞于仙后 中首创押韵方式为 ababbcbcc

The Faerie Queene ：an combining the medieval Arthurian legend with religious and Platonic idealism and political co The Shepherd’s Calendar(1579; Amoretti (1595), a series of sonnets

Epithalamion(颂歌) (1594

? Thomas More's Utopia