英国文学史及作品选读教案-Lecture-8(09级)(共6页).doc

精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上Lecture 8The Romantic Period (II) Teaching ContentGeorge Gordon Byron; Percy Bysshe Shelley; John Keats Time Allotment2 periods Teaching Objectives and Requirements1 Help the students understand George Gordon Byron.2 Help the students have a good understanding of Percy Bysshe Shelley. 3 Help the students have a good understanding of John Keats. Key Points and Difficult Points in Teaching1 Percy Bysshe Shelley2 John Keats Teaching Methods and Means Lecture; Discussion; Multi-media Teaching Process1 George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) (For Self-Study)1.1 Introduction Byrons best poems are Don Juan and Childe Harold. His other works include Hours of Idleness and English Bards and Scottish Reviewers (See Wang Shouren, 76 and Chang Yaoxin, 197-198). 1.2 Comments on Byron Byrons poetry is one of experience. His heroes are more or less pictures of himself. His hero is known as “Byronic Hero”, a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, he would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society. He would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies. For such a hero, the conflict is usually one of rebellious individual against out-worn social systems and conventions. The figure is, to some extent, modeled on the life and personality of Byron. Byron insisted on authenticand moral nature of his work. Byrons poetry exerts great influence on the Romantic Movement. He stands with Shakespeare and Scott among the British writers who exert great influence over the mainland of Europe. (See Chang Yaoxin, 197)1.3 Discussion of She Walks in Beauty(See the Textbook Selected Readings, 74-75) It is a lyrical poem written in 1814 and published in 1815. In June, 1814, several months before he met and married his first wife, Anna Milbanke, Lord Byron attended a party at Lady Sitwells. While at the party, Lord Byron was inspired by the sight of his cousin, the beautiful Mrs. Wilmot, who was wearing a black spangled mourning dress. Lord Byron was struck by his cousins dark hair and fair face, the mingling of various lights and shades. This became the essence of his poem about her.(Discuss the questions in the Selected Readings.) The first two lines bring together the opposing qualities of darkness and light that are at play throughout the three verses. The remaining lines of the first verse tell us that her face and eyes combine all thats best of dark and bright. No mention is made here or elsewhere in the poem of any other physical features of the lady. The focus of the vision is upon the details of the ladys face and eyes which reflect the mellowed and tender light. She has a remarkable quality of being able to contain the opposites of dark and bright. The fourth line starts with an accented syllable followed by an unaccented one, rather than the iambic meter of the other lines, an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one. The result is that the word “Meet” receives attention, an emphasis. The ladys unique feature is that opposites “meet” in her in a wonderful way. The second verse tells us that the glow of the ladys face is nearly perfect. The shades and rays are in just the right proportion, and because they are, the lady possesses a nameless grace. This conveys the romantic idea that her inner beauty is mirrored by her outer beauty. Her thoughts are serene and sweet. She is pure and dear. The last verse is split between three lines of physical description and three lines that describe the ladys moral character. Her soft, calm glow reflects a life of peace and goodness. This is a repetition, an emphasis, of the theme that the ladys physical beauty is a reflection of her inner beauty.2 Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)2.1 Life and achievements(See Chang Yaoxin, 202-204) Shelley is an idealistic and prophetic Romantic. He sees life on the horizon and gives the vision a tangible form in his poetry. He refuses to accept life as it is and tries to envision life as devoid of oppression, injustice, tyranny, and corruption current in the social life of his day. He visualizes the birth of an ideal social order based on the regeneration of man and virtue of love. He made himself a kind of precursor to the socialist movement soon to sweep across Europe and England. 2.2 Shelleys Works Prometheus Unbound: a lyrical drama, Shelleys masterpiece, most famous (See Chang Yaoxin, 206-207) His short lyrical poems As for his lyrics on nature, the two best known ones are Ode to the West Wind (1819) and To a Skylark (1820). His other lyrics on nature are mainly Hymn of Apollo, The Cloud and To the Moon. Shelleys love lyrics, numerous and widely known, including mainly Loves Philosophy, I Fear Thy Kisses, Gentle Maiden, One Word Is Too Often Profaned and When the Lamp Is Shattered. In his love lyrics, Shelley regards love as the noblest thing in the universe, as the thing of extreme purity and as a feeling of devotion and worship. He believes that the noblest love in the human world may lead mankind to a state of harmony, happiness, peace and perfection. He advocates that love should be elevated high above the vulgar, practical attitude toward it.2.3 Comments on Shelley Byron said of Shelley that he “was, without exception, the best and least selfish man I ever knew. I never knew one who was not a beast in comparison”. Matthew Arnold thought that Shelleys character was too sensitive for a really great writer and called him a “beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain”. But Shelley was not ineffectual, and he was not so cut off from the realities of life as Arnold suggests. Shelley has a shrewd and informed comprehension of the complexities of earthly life. And his generous, unselfish personality also contained elements of sophisticated playfulness and good humor-he was not beyond laughing at himself. Intellectually, he was an immensely learned and well-read man capable of more refined and original philosophical thinking than any other English Romantic, including Coleridge. And as a poet, as Wordsworth said, “Shelley is one of the best artists of us all! Mean in workmanship of style.”2.4 Discussion of Ode to the West Wind(Discuss the questions in the Selected Readings) Motif of the poem: his desire for freedom and his resolution to sacrifice for the struggle for freedom. To the poet, the west wind, powerful as it is, is not merely a natural phenomenon. It is a “spirit”, the “breath of Autumns being” that can spread messages of freedom far and wide that both destroys and preserves the revival in the spring. The west wind symbolizes rebirth and creative power. To some extent, the west wind is the symbol of revolutionary spirit. Stanza I-The west wind has swept the foliages off the tree and carried seeds to the earth. She is both destroyer and preserver. Stanza II-The west wind has awakened the sky. In this stanza, the west wind is compared to the rainstorm that bursts out of the dark clouds. Stanza III-The west wind has awakened the Mediterranean. The poet thinks that the billow results from the trembling of the sea-blooms (trees) for fear of the coming west wind. Stanza IV-I would have the same strength and free spirit as the west wind if I were brought up like him. Unfortunately, I was chained and bowed by the vicissitudes of life. Stanza V-I wish we could unite to fight for a bright future. I want to spread my words among mankind. Im optimistic about the future. If winter comes, can spring be far behind? Images Life images: seeds, spring, clarion, buds; Death images: dead leaves, ghosts, hectic, pestilence, dark wintry bed, corps, grave. These life and death images on the one hand are associated with the two functions of the West Wind: destroyer and preserver, and on the other hand, remind us of resurrection and a cycle of life and death.3 John Keats (1795-1821)3.1 Life and achievements(See Chang Yaoxin, 207-210) Keats was a person of singular determination. His imagination was sensual. He would like to be an Apollo, the god of poetry. He loved “the principle of beauty in all things” and was singularly adamant in his belief that there existed a world of eternal beauty somewhere more real than the life being lived here and it was his job to search for and create it. He had a sharp eye for colors and a keen ear for rhythms and a rare capacity to bring out the magic of words. He has been well known for the exquisite texture of his poetry, with its beautiful imagery, sound, and diction. His sole object in life was to look for beauty, and he was a pure poet. He was serious about life and never strove for art only for arts sake. He is also an influential literary theorist. His major ideas on poetry include his notions of “negative capability,” poetic identity and emphasis on the oneness of truth and beauty (Truth is beauty, beauty is truth). 3.2 Keatss major works A short and miserable life as he has, Keats has produced voluminous literary works. He has written five long poems: Endymion, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, Lamia, and Hyperion. Endymion (1818) is a poem of 4000 lines. The story is taken from Greek mythology, telling the romantic love story of between Endymion (a handsome shepherd of Mount Latmos) and the moon goddess Cynthia. It is often interpreted as an allegory representing the poets quest for an ideal feminine counterpart and flawless beauty. Isabella is based on a story in Decameron by Boccaccio. The poet retold the tragic love story between Lorenzo and Isabella. The poem expresses sympathy for the oppressed and indignation at human cruelty. Lamia takes its story from Burtons Anatomy of Melancholy. Lamia is a serpent maiden. She loves a young man named Lycius. They get married and hold their wedding banquet. Among their guests comes the sophist Apollonius who sees through Lamias disguise. Lamia asks Apollonius to keep it a secret, but Apollonius refuses. He reveals Lamias identity to the public. Then Lamia vanishes. It is obvious that this story is parallel to The Tale of the White Serpent in China. The emphasis is on the appreciation of sensuous beauty. The Eve of St Agnes is a young peoples poetic version of Romeo and Juliet, written in Spenserian stanzas, telling the story between the young maiden Madeline and her lover Porphyro). St Agnes is the patron saint of virgins. The poem is full of beautiful imaginary, rich colour and word music. Keats fondness for sensuous beauty and his ability to paint exquisite world-pictures find their best expression in his poem. Hyperion is an unfinished long epic, regarded as Keats greatest achievement in poetry. It includes two fragments, Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. The poem describes a struggle for power in heaven. Keats wanted to convey in this poem that the victory of life and youth over the forces of decadence and retrogression is inevitable. The old order must give way to the new systemthis is the eternal law of nature. Keats has written many short lyrical poems, of which the odes and the sonnets are best known. The odes are generally regarded as Keatss most important and mature works. His odes include: Ode to Autumn, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on Melancholy, and Ode on a Grecian Urn. His best known sonnets include: Bright Star, When I Have Fear, and The Grasshopper and the Cricket.3.3 Discussion of Ode to a Nightingale In this poem, Keats not only expresses his raptures upon hearing the beautiful songs of the nightingale and his desire to go to the ethereal world of beauty together with the bird, but also shows his deep sympathy for and his keen understanding of human miseries in the society in which he lived. This poem expresses the contrast between the happy world of natural loveliness and human world of agony. At first, opiates and wine seems to be a way to transcend the human misery. At last poetry itself is seen the most effective way to release misery and to reach paradise. The birds song roused in the poets heart a form of spiritual homesickness, a longing to be at one with beauty. Keats manages to keep a precarious balance between mirth and despair, rapture and grief. Through the power of language, a world of beauty is visualized. But the excitement created through words is also subtly destroyed by them. The ultimate imaginative view evaporates in its extremity as the full associations of the last word “toll” the poet back from his near loss of selfhood to the real and human world of sorrow and death. The title of F. Scott Fitzgeralds Tender is the Night derives itself from this poem. Stanza II was falling asleep after taking opiates when I heard a nightingale singing in the beechen forest. Stanza IIId like a cup of red wine to soothe my trouble. Stanza IIIThe nightingale was singing in ecstasy while I am suffering on earth. Stanza IVI wish I could fly to the moon together with the nightingale. Stanza VI realize that I was in a beautiful garden full of fragrant flowers. Stanza VIThe nightingale, regardless of my imminent death, kept singing in an ecstasy. Her melody was floating over the grassland aimlessly since her bosom friend cannot hear it any longer. Stanza VIIThe nightingales melody has magical power to arouse the nostalgia of Ruth, a female in the Bible. Stanza VIIIThe nightingales melody faded away, but I was still absorbed in it. I was half awake and half asleep. Reflection Questions and Assignments Reflection questions1 In what way are nature and imagination related in Ode to the West Wind? 2 In Ode to a Nightingale, what images of sound, sight, smell, taste, or touch have led you on a journey of the imagination back to some remembered past occurrence?3 Comment on the epigram “beauty is truth, truth is beauty” in the Ode on a Grecian Urn.Assignments1 Read Ode on a Grecian Urn. 2 Pre-read Jane-Austen. 3 Pre-read Pride and Prejudice in the Selected Readings. Major References1 Abrams, M. H. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, (6th edition), Norton: 1993. 2 Baugh, Albert C. A Literary History of England. 1967.3 Drabble, Margaret. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press and Foreign language and Research Press, 1998.4 陈嘉.英国文学史. 北京：商务印书馆，1986.5 陈嘉.英国文学作品选读. 北京：商务印书馆，1982.6 侯维瑞. 英国文学通史. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，1999.7 刘炳善. 英国文学简史. 郑州：河南人民出版社，1993.8 刘守兰. 英美名诗解读. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，2003.9 罗经国. 新编英国文学选读. 北京：北京大学出版社，1997.10 蒋洪新. 英美诗歌选读.长沙：湖南师范大学出版社，2004.11 隋刚.英美诗歌意境漫游.北京：外文出版社，1998.12 孙汉云. 英国文学教程. 南京：河海大学出版社，2005.13 王佩兰等