最新英國文學史期末復習重點

1、精品文檔英國文學史Part one: Early and Medieval English LiteratureChapter 1 The Making of England1. 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

2、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 ConquestAt the same time Britain was invaded by swarms of pirates（ 海盜 ）. They were three tribes from Northern Europe: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes

3、.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-SaxonTherefore, the Anglo-Saxon

4、period witnessed a transition from tribal society to feudalism.5. Anglo-Saxon Religious Belief and Its InfluenceThe Anglo-Saxons were Christianized in the seventh century. Chapter 2 Beowulf1. Anglo-Saxon PoetryBut there is one long poem of over 3,000 lines. It is Beowulf, the national epic of the En

5、glish people. Grendel is a monster described in Beowulf.3. Analysis of Its ContentBeowulf is a folk lengend brought to England by Anglo-Saxons from their continental homes. It had been passed from mouth to mouth for hundreds ofyears before it was written down in thetenth century.4. Features of Beowu

6、lfThe most striking feature in its poetical form is the use of alliteration, metaphors and understatements.Chapter 3 Feudal England1）The Norman Conquest2. The Norman ConquestThe French-speaking Normans under Duke William came in 1066. After defeating the English at Hastings, William was crowned as K

7、ing of England.The Norman Conquest marks the establishment of feudalism in England.3. The Influence of the Norman Conquest on the English LanguageBy the end of the fourteenth century, when Normans and English intermingled, English was once more the dominant speech in the country.3) The Romance1. The

8、 Content of the RomanceThe most prevailing kind of literature in feudal England was the romance.4. Malory 's Le Morte D 'ArthurThe adventures of the Knights of the Round Table at Arthur 's courtChapter 5 The English Ballads2. The BalladsThe most important department of English folk liter

9、ature 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 Chaucer1. LifeGeoffrey Chaucer, the founder/father of English poetry.3. Troilus and Cris

10、eydeTroilus 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 TalesThe Canterbury Tales is Chaucer ' s masterpiece

11、 and one of the monumental works in English literature.6. His LanguageChaucer ' s language, now called Middle English, is vivid and exact.Chaucer ' s contribution to English poetry lies chiefly in the fact that he introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhym

12、ed couplet of 5 accents in iambic meter (the “ the heroic coupleto Englis”h)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: Th

13、e English RenaissanceChapter 1 Old England in Transition1. The New MonarchyThe 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

14、the rising bourgeoisie and so won its support.2. The ReformationProtestantismThe bloody religious persecution came to a stop after the church settlement of Queen Elizabeth.3. The English BibleWilliam TyndallThen appeared the Authorized Version, which was made in 1611 under the auspices of James I an

15、d 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 Movement5. The Commercial Expansion Chapter 2 More1. LifeThomas More2. UtopiaUtopia is More' smasterpiece,

16、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 OneBook One of Utopia is a picture of contemporary England with forcible exposure of the poverty among the laboring classes.4. Utopi

17、a , Book TwoIn 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 Literature3. Edmund Spenser1) LifeThe Poet ' s Poet of the period was Edmund Spenser.In 1579 he wrote The Shepher s

18、 '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 Stanza4. Francis Bacon (f

19、ather/founder of English essay) the founder of English English materialist philosophyBacon is also famous for his Essays. When it included 58 essays.Bacon is the first English essayist.Chapter 4 Drama7. The PlaywrightsThere was a group of so-called “ universitywits ”(Lyly, Peele, Marlowe, Greene, Lo

20、dge and Nash).Chapter 5 Marlowe1. LifeThe most gifted of the“ university wits ” was Christopher Marlowe.2. WorkMarlowe 's best includes three of his plays, Tamburlaine , The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus.3. Doctor FaustusMarl owe' s masterpiece iTshe Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.5. M

21、arlowe ' s Literary AchievementMarlowe 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 Shakespeare1. LifeWilliam Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Av

22、on.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 ComediesA Midsummer Night s 'Dream , The Merchant of Venice , As You Like It and Twel

23、fth Night have been called Shakespeare's “great comedies”.6. The Great TragediesShakespeare created his great tragedies,Hamlet , Othello , King Lear and Macbeth .7. Hamletthe son of the Renaissance9. The Poems1) Venus and Adonis2) The Rape of Lucrece3) Shakespeare ' s Sonnets10. Features of

24、Shakespeare' s DramaShakespeare 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

25、The English Revolution and the Restoration5. The Bourgeois Dictatorship and the Restorationin 1688 Glorious Revolution6. The Religious Cloak of the English RevolutionPuritanism was the religious doctrine of the revolutionary bourgeoisie during the English Revolution. It preached thrift, sobriety, ha

26、rd work and unceasing labour in whatever calling one happened to be, but with no extravagant enjoyment of the fruits of labour.Chapter 2 Milton1. Life and WorkParadise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.2. Paradise Lost1) Paradise LostParadise Lost is Milton ' s masterpiece.blank verse

27、.Chapter 3 Bunyan1. LifeThe Pilgrim s P'rogress was published in 1678.2. The Pilgrim s P'rogress1) The Pilgrim s P'rogress is a religious allegory.Chapter 4 Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poetsa school of poets called“ Metaphysical ” by S.amuel Johnsonby mysticism in content and fantast

28、icality in formJohn Donne, the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry.Chapter 6 Restoration Literature2. John DrydenThe 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

29、Four: The Eighteenth CenturyChapter 1 The Enlightenment and Classicism in English Literature1. The Enlightenment and 18th Century England2) The Enlightenment in EuropeThe 18th century marked the beginning of an intellectual movement in Europe, known as the Enlightenment, which was, on the whole, an

30、expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism.3) The English EnlighternersThe representatives of the Enlightenment in English literature were Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, th

31、e essayists, and Alexander Pope, the poet.Chapter 2 Addison and Steele1. Steele and The TatlerRichard SreeleIn 1709, he started a paper, The Tatler , to enlighten, as well as to entertain, his fellow coffeehouse-goers.His appeal was made to “coffeehouses,” that is to say, to the middle classes, for

32、whose enlightenment he stood up.“Issac Bickerstaff ”2. Addison and The SpectatorThe 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 Pope1. LifeAlexander Pope, the most important English poet in the first ha

33、lf of the 18th century.3. Workmanship and LimitationPope 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 Swift3

34、. Bickersta f f Almanac (1708)Swift wrote his greatest work Gulliver s T'ravels in Ireland.Chapter 5 Defoe and the Rise of the English Novel1. The Rise of the English Novelthe realistic novel: Defoe, Swift, Richardson and FieldingSwift ' s wo-rfldamous novel Gullive r 's TravelsDefoe 

35、9;s Robinson Crusoe (the forerunner of the English realistic novel)Richardson: Pamela , Clarissa and Sir Charles GrandisonFielding was the real founder of the realistic novel in England.The novel of this period spoke the truth about life with an uncompromising courage.” Thenovelists of this period u

36、nderstood 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 Crusoe1) Today Defoe is chiefly remembered as the author of Robinson Crusoe, his masterpiece.Chapter 6 RichardsonSamuel Ric

37、hardsonPamela 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. LifeHis first novel Joseph Andrews was p

38、ublished 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 Andrews4. Tom Jones1) The StoryFielding 's greatest worTk hise History

39、 of Tom Jones , a Foundling .6. Summary2) Fielding as the Founder of the English Realistic NovelAs a novelist, Fielding is very great. He is the founder of the English realistic novel and sets up the theory of realism in literary creation.He has been rightly called the“ fathhereoEfntglish novel. ”Ch

40、apter 10 Johnson1. LifeSamuel Johnson, lexicographer, critic and poet.2. Johnson D'ictsionaryIn 1755 his Dictionary was published.His Dictionary also marked the end of English writers'thre lpiaantrcoenoange of noblemenfor support.Chapter 13 Sentimentalism and Pre-Romanticism in Poetry1. Life

41、Thomas Gray2. Pre-RomanticismIn the latter half of the 18th century, a new literary movement arose in Europe, called the Romantic Revival.Pre-Romanticism was ushered in by Percy, Macpherson and Chatterton, and represented by Blake and Burns.Chapter 14 Blake1. LifeWilliam Blake2. Songs of Innocence a

42、nd Songs of Experience4. Blake 's Position in English LiteratureFor these reasons, Blake is called a Pre-Romantic or a forerunner of the Romantic poetry of the 19th century.Chapter 15 Burns1. LifeHis Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect were printed. (masterpiece)The Scots Musical Museum and Se

43、lect Collection of Original Scottish Airs2. The Poetry of Burns1) Burns is remembered mainly for his songs written in the Scottish dialect on a variety of subjects.3. Features of Burns 'PoetryBurns is the national poet of Scotland.Part Five: Romanticism in EnglandChapter 1 The Romantic Periodthe

44、 Industrial Revolution the French RevolutionAmid these social conflicts romanticism arose as a new literary trend. It prevailed in England during the period 1798-1832.These were the elder generation of romanticists, sometimes called escapist romanticists, including Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey,

45、 who have also been called the Lake Poets.Active romanticists represented by Byron, Shelley and Keats.The general feature of the works of the romanticists is a dissatisfaction with the bourgeois society, which finds expression in a revolt against or an escape from the prosaic, sordid daily life, the

46、 “prison of the actual ”under capitalism.Poetry, of course, is the best medium to express all these sentiments.The only great novelist in this period was Walter Scott.Scott marked the transition from romanticism to the period of realism which followed it. Chapter 2 WordsworthColeridgeIn 1798 they jo

47、intly published the Lyrical Ballads .The publication of the Lyrical Ballads marked the break with the conventional poetical tradition of the 18th century, i.e., with classicism, and the beginning of Romantic revival in England.The Preface of the Lyrical Ballads served as the manifesto of the English

48、 Romantic Movement in poetry.becauseWordsworth, Coleridge and Southey have often been mentioned as the“ Lake Poetsthey lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England.His deep love for nature runs through such short lyrics as Lines Written in Early Spring , To the Cuckoo, I Wandered L

49、onely as a Cloud , My Heart Leaps Up , Intimations of Immortality and Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey. The last is called his “l(fā)yrical hymn of thanks to nature”.Wordsworth ' s poetry is distinguished bthye simplicity and purity of his language. Chapter 3 Coleridge and Southey1. Co

50、leridgeColeridge ' s best poeTmhse, Rime of the Ancient Mariner . Chapter 4 Byron1. LifeChilde Harold s P'ilgrimageHe finished Childe Harold , wrote his masterpiece Don Juan.2. Childe Harold s P'ilgrimageThis long poem contains four cantos. It is written in the Soenserian stanza.3. Don J

51、uan Byron remains one of the most popular English poets both at home and abroad.Chapter 5 Shelley4. Promethus UnboundShelley 's masterpiece is Promethus Unbound, a lyrical drama in 4 acts.6. Lyrics on Nature and LoveOde to the West WindChapter 6 Keats2. Long PoemsKeats wrote five long poems: End

52、ymion , Isabella , The Eve of St. Agnes, Lamia and Hyperion .5) The unfinished long epic Hyperion has been regarded as Kea'ts greatest achievement in poetry.3. Short Poems1) His leading principle is:“ Beauty in truth, truth in beauty.”3) Ode to Autumn, Ode on Melancholy , Ode on a Grecian Urn an

53、d Ode to a Nightingale Chapter 10 Scott2. His Historical NovelsScott has been universally regarded as the founder and great master of the historical novel.According to the subjet-matter, the group on the history of Scotland, the group on English history and the group on the history of European count

54、ries.In fact, Scott 's literary career marks the transition from romanticism to realism in English literature of the 19th century.Part Six: English Critical RealismChapter 2 DickensCharles Dickens critical realismDickens: Pickwick Papers , American Notes, Martin Chuzzlewit and Oliver Twist4) Dic

55、kens has often been compared Shakespeare for creative force and range of invention. “He and Shakespeare are the two unique popular classics that England has given to the world, and they are alike in being remembered not for one masterpiece but for creative world. ”David CopperfieldChapter 3 Thackera

56、y2. Vanity Fair : A Novel Without a HeroVanity Fair is Thackeray 'msasterpiece. characters: Amelia Sedley and Rebecca (Becky) SharpThackeray can be placed on the same level as Dickens, as one of the greatest critical realists of 19th-century Europe.Chapter 4 Some Women Novelists1. Jane Austen (1

57、775-1817)She herself compared her work to a fine engraving made upon a little piece of ivory only two inches square.Jane Austen wrote 6 novels: Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility , Pride and Prejudice , Mansfield Park , Emma and Persuasion.2. The Bronte SistersCharlotte 's maiden attempt at

58、 prose writing, the novel Professor, was rejected by the publisher, but her next novel Jane Eyre, appearing in 1847, brought her fame and placed her in the ranks of the foremost English realistic writers. Emily 's novel Wuthering Heights appeared in 1847.Anne: Agnes Grey4. George Eliot Mary Ann Evans three remarkable novels: Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner3) Silas Marner : Critical realism was the main current of English literature in the middle of the 19th century.Pa