英美文学史重要作家介绍(21页).doc

-1.2.3.4. 英美文学史重要作家介绍-第 21 页5. Geoffrey Chaucer (the founder of English poetry) Geoffrey Chaucer was an English author, poet, and philosopher. He is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular Middle English, rather than French or Latin.Chaucer literary Career1. The French period (1360s1372) Under the influence of French poetryWorks: The Romaunt of the Rose玫瑰的故事2. Italian period (13721385) Under the influence of Italian RenaissanceWorks: The House of Fame声誉之堂Troylus and Criseyde特罗勒斯与克丽西德3. English period (13851400) Free from any foreign influenceWorks：The Canterbury Tales坎特伯雷故事集Representative ProjectsTroylus and Criseyde (c. 1383) is a poem re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war in the Siege of Troy. It was composed using rime royale and probably completed during the mid 1380's. Influence: The poem had an important legacy for later writers. Many Chaucer scholars regard it as the poet's finest work. As a finished long it is certainly more self-contained than the better known but ultimately uncompleted Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400) is a collection of stories written in Middle English at the end of the 14th century. The tales (mostly in verse诗, although some are in prose散文) are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwarkto the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.Influence: The Canterbury Tales is Chaucers masterpiece代表作 and one of the monumental works重要作品 in English literature. He uses the tales and the descriptions of the characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, and particularly of the Church. Structurally, the collection bears the influence of The Decameron十日谈.Contribution He introduced from Italy and France the rhymed stanza押韵的小节 of various types，especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic meter (“heroic couplet”英雄双韵体) to English poetry.He was the first great poet who wrote in English language (Middle English), thus establishing English as the literary language.He did much in making the London dialect the foundation for modern English language.2. Shakespeare 流派：The English Renaissance, realism, humanism. His main works: The greatest comedies: <A midsummer nights dream> <The merchant of Venice> <As you like it> <Twelfth night> The great tragedies: <Hamlet> <Othello> <King Lear> <Macbeth> The histories: <King John> <Richard II> <Henry IV> <Henry V> <Richard III>Poems: <Venus and Adonis> <The rape of Lucrece> <Shakespeares Sonnets> <A lovers complaint> <Funeral elegy by W.S.> 主要作品的内容：<Hamlet>The play, set in the Kingdom of Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamletexacts revenge on his uncle Claudius for murdering the old King Hamlet, Claudius's own brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and marrying Gertrude, the King Hamlet's widow and mother of Prince Hamlet. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madnessfrom overwhelming grief to seething rageand explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption. Hamlet is without question the most famous play in the English language, is a milestone in Shakespeare's dramatic development; the playwright achieved artistic maturity in this work through his brilliant depiction of the hero's struggle with two opposing forces: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father's murder. <A midsummer nights dream>It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, who are manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.<King Lear>King Lear is a tragedy considered to be one of his greatest works, in which the title character descends into madness from the consequences of foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king. It has been widely adapted for stage and screen, with the role of Lear played by many of the world's most accomplished actors.Features(contributions) of Shakespeares drama:1. Shakespeare is one of the founders of realism in world literature. 2. Shakespeares dramatic creation often used the method of adaptation.3. Shakespeares long experience with the stage and his intimate knowledge of dramatic art thus acquired make him a master hand for play- writing.4. Shakespeare was skilled in many poetic forms: the Song, the sonnet, the couplet, and the dramatic blank verse. 5. Shakespeare was a great master of the English language. 文学地位：Shakespeare wrote some thirty-eight plays. Taken individually, several of them are among the world's finest written works; taken collectively, they establish Shakespeare as the foremost literary talent of his own Elizabethan Age and, even more impressively, as a genius whose creative achievement has never been surpassed in any age.Shakespeare has been universally acknowledged to be the summit of the English Renaissance, and one of the greatest writers the world over. Shakespeare's work has made a lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language, and genre. Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens. In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling and pronunciation were less standardized than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern English.The popularity of Shakespeare is a worldwide phenomenon. His name has been known to China for more than a hundred years, and many of his plays have been widely read among Chinese people. 3. John Milton流派:Classicalism His main works:1st period: The poems: <Lallegro> <II Pensieroso><Comus>, a masque<Lycidas>, a pastoral elegy2nd period:<Aeropagitica>, a pamphlet against censorship3rd period:<Paradise lost> <Paradise regained> <Samson agonistes> 主要作品内容：<Paradise lost>Its Miltons masterpiece. The epic poem consists of 12 books, containing about ten thousand lines in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter). Based on the Old Testament, it tells the story of Satans revolt against God, the temptation of Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from Paradise.The themes of <Paradise lost>:Main theme à the story of mans fallSecondary themes:Pride à it leads to Satans downfall Envy à coming from Satans prideRevenge à it makes Satan tempt Adam and EveInfidelity à Adam betrays God by siding with EveDisobedience à Adam and Eve disobey GodRepentance à Adam and Eve repentRedemption à Man is granted eternal salvation thanks to the sacrifice of the Son of God <Samson Agonistes>Its a poetical drama modeled on the Greek tragedies. It deals with the story of Samson from the “Book of Judges” in the Old Testament. Samson is Milton. Samsons miserable blind servitude among his enemies, his agonizing longing for sight and freedom, and the last terrible triumph all strongly suggests Miltons passionate longing that he too could bring destruction down upon the enemy at the cost of his own life.文学地位：Milton is one of the very few truly great English writers who is also a prominent figure in politics and who is both a great poet and important prose writer. Milton is the greatest English poet after Shakespeare, was the one great literary figure who want tried seriously to combine Renaissance and Reformation. 1. Milton was political in both his life and his art. 2. Milton wrote the greatest epic in English literature. He and Shakespeare have been regarded as two patterns of English verse.3. Milton is a master of the blank verse. He first used blank verse in non-dramatic works.4. Milton is a great stylist. His style is never exactly natural. Its art attained by definite and conscientious rhetorical devices.5. Milton has always been admired for his sublimity of thought and majesty of expression. 4. Bunyan流派:The English Bourgeois revolution and restorationMain works:<The Pilgrims Progress>内容：The Pilgrims progress is a religious allegory(寓言). It tells of the spiritual pilgrim age of Christian, who flies from the city of Destruction, meets with the perils and temptations of the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, and Doubting Castle, faces and overcomes the demon Appollyon, and finally comes to the Delectale Mountains and the Celestial City. Though its an allegory, its characters impress the reader like real persons. One of the most remarkable passages is that in which Vanity Fair and the persecution of Christian and his friend Faithful are described. Bunyan cherished a deep hatred of both the king and his government. <The Pilgrims Progress>地位：The allegory of this book has antecedents in a large number of Christian devotional works that speak of the soul's path to Heaven, from the Lyke-Wake Dirge forward. Bunyan's allegory stands out above his predecessors because of his simple and effective, prose style, steeped in Biblical texts and cadences.其他影响：Bunyans prose is admirable. Its popular speech ennobled by the solemn dignity and simplicity of the language of the English Bible. Spencers allegory in The Faerie Queene appears ornate when compared with Bunyan. 6. Swift Known for being a master of two styles of satire: the Horatian贺瑞斯式 and Juvenalian 尤利西斯式styles. Swift is one of the greatest masters of English prose and a master satiristWorks: a tale of club and the battle of the books, which were published in 1704 and made him well-known as a satirist. Bickerstaff almanac (1708) Features: simple, clear, vigorous language, precise prose, powerful satireGullivers travels 4 parts. The book presents itself as a simple traveller's narrative with the disingenuous title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, its authorship assigned only to "Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, then a captain of several ships". The text is presented as a first-person narrative by the supposed author, and the name "Gulliver" appears nowhere in the book other than the title page. The unabridged publications of the text begin with a fictional letter entitled "The Publisher to the Reader" and "A letter from Captain Gulliver to his cousin Sympson" which present the fact that the original account has been edited and published without the permission of Lemuel Gulliver. The book proper then is divided into four parts, which are as follows.A Tale of a Tub(1704) The Battle of the Books Bickerstaff Almanac Pamphlets on Ireland. Swift is one of the masters of English prose. His language is simple, clear and vigorous. Dafoe Defoe was an English writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and is among the founders of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). Robinson Crusoe 鲁宾逊漂流记Robinson Crusoe is one of the worlds most popular adventure novels. The story, based on the real adventure of an Alexander Selkirk who once stayed alone in the uninhabited island Juan Fernandez for 5 years, is a work of sheer imagination.The story is about Robinsons adventure on a deserted island. The Main Character：In Robinson Crusoe, Defoe traces the growth of Robinson from a native and artless youth into a shrewd and hardened man, tempered by numerous trials in his eventful life. The story is told in the first person singular as if it was told by some sailor-adventurer himself. In this novel, Defoe created the image of a true empire-builder, a colonizer and a foreign trader, who has determination to preserve himself and improve his livelihood by struggling against nature. The significance of the novel：The supreme quality in Robinson Crusoe is its sense of reality, its lifelikeness. Defoe takes pains to convince his readers that what he is writing about is “real life”. The book expresses the epic theme of the power of the average man to preserve life and to organize economy in the face of the most unpromising environment. 7. Henry FieldingNovelist, father of English novels, The Theatrical Licensing Act was passed in 1737 and ended his career as a dramatistHis first novel Joseph Andrews was published in 1742In 1749, he finished his great novel Tom Jones, showing the whole of the life of 18thcentury England as he saw it;Tom JonesCharacters:Tom: an abandoned baby adopted by Mr. Allworthy, who grows up to be a cheerful, open-hearted and handsome young manBlifil : the son of Mr. Allworthys sister, who is also brought up by Mr. Allworhty and grows up to be sly and faithlessSophia: the daughter of neighbor Squire Western, who is loved both by Tom and BlifilFielding as the Founder of the English Realistic Novel and set up the theory of realism in literary creation. His style: easy, unlabored轻易完成的, familiar, but extremely vivid and vigorous and in logic and musical rhythm. His command of language was remarkable. All in all, he was, has been and still will be the “father of English novel”. But his sympathy for the poor, and his contempt for the parasites靠他人为生的人, the exploiters and the oppressors aroused the anger of ruling classes. 8. Samuel Johnson the great charm of literature：lexicographer词典编纂者，poet，criticWorks:13.Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)Samuel Johnson was a lexicographer, critic and poet. Became “the great cham of literature” and the literary men in London centered around him. “the greatest English man of letter” and “a great composer of dictionary”Works: satires in heroic couplets in imitation of Juvenal the Roman poet:London (1738)The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) of Richard Savage (1744)3. Irene (1749), a tragedy (1759)5. two periodicals: The Ramber (1750-52) and The Idler (1758-60) most two important literary works:The Preface and comments of individual plays in his edition of Shakespeare (1765)Lives of Poets (1779-81)Johnsons “Dictionary”Published in 1755; an epoch in the study of the English study; the end of the end of English writers reliance on the