刘炳善《英国文学简史》完整版笔记.docx.pdf

A Concise History of British LiteratureChapter 1 English Literature ofAnglo-Saxon PeriodI.Introduction1.The historical background（1）Before the Germanic invasion（2）During the Germanic invasiona.immigration;b.Christianity;c.heptarchy.d.social classes structure:hide-hundred;eoldermen（lord）thane-middleclass（freemen）-lower class（slave or bondmen:theow）;e.social organization:clan or tribes.f.military Organization;g.Church function:spirit,civil service,education;h.economy:coins,trade,slavery;i.feasts and festival:Halloween,Easter;j.legal system.2.The Overview ofthe culture（1）The mixture of pagan and Christian spirit.（2）Literature:a.poetry:two types;b.prose:two figures.II.Beowulf.1.A general introduction.2.The content.3.The literary features.（1）the use of alliteration（2）the use ofmetaphors and understatements（3）the mixture of pagan and Christian elementsIII.The Old English Prose1.What is prose?2.figures（1）The Venerable Bede（2）Alfred the GreatChapter 2 English Literature ofthe Late Medieval Ages I.Introduction1.The Historical Background.（1）The year 1066:Norman Conquest.（2）The social situations soon after the conquest.A.Norman nobles and serfs;B.restoration of the church.（3）The 11th century.A.the crusade and knights.B.dominance of French and Latin;（4）The 12th century.A.the centralized government;B.kings and the church（Henry II and Thomas）;（5）The 13th century.A.The legend of Robin Hood;B.Magna Carta（1215）;C.the beginning ofthe ParliamentD.English and Latin:official languages（the end）（6）The 14th century.a.the House of Lords and the House of Commonsconflict between theParliament and Kings;b.the rise oftowns.c.the change of Church.d.the role ofwomen.e.the Hundred Years War starting.f.the development ofthe trade:London.g.the Black Death.h.the Peasants Revolt1381.i.The translation of Bible by Wycliff.（7）The 15th century.a.The Peasants Revolt（1453）b.The War ofRoses between Lancasters and Yorks.c.the printing-pressWilliam Caxton.d.the starting of Tudor Monarchy（1485）2.The Overview of Literature.（1）the stories from the Celtic lands ofWales and Brittanygreat myths ofthe Middle Ages.（2）Geoffrye of MonmouthHistoria Regum BritanniaeKing Authur.（3）WaceLe Roman de Brut.（4）The romance.（5）the second half ofthe 14th century:Langland,Gawin poet,Chaucer.II.Sir Gawin and Green Knight.1.a general introduction.2.the plot.III.William Langland.1.Life2.Piers the PlowmanIV.Chaucer1.Life2.Literary Career:three periods（1）French period（2）Italian period（3）master period3.The Canterbury TalesA.The Framework;B.The General Prologue;C.The Tale Proper.4.His Contribution.（1）He introduced from France the rhymed stanza ofvarious types.（2）He is the first great poet who wrote in the current English language.（3）The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects,andChaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for themodern English speech.V.Popular Ballads.VI.Thomas Malory and English ProseVII.The beginning ofEnglish Drama.1.Miracle Plays.Miracle play or mystery play is a form of medieval drama that came fromdramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.It developed fromthe 10th to the 16th century,reaching its height in the 15th century.Thesimple lyric character of the early texts was enlarged by the addition ofdialogue and dramatic action.Eventually the performance was moved to thechurchyard and the marketplace.2.Morality Plays.A morality play is a play enforcing a moral truth or lesson by means of thespeech and action of characters which are personified abstractions figuresrepresenting vices and virtues,qualities of the human mind,or abstractconceptions in general.3.Interlude.The interlude,which grew out of the morality,was intended,as its nameimplies,to be used more as a filler than as the main part of an entertainment.As its best it was short,witty,simple in plot,suited for the diversion of guestsat a banquet,or for the relaxation of the audience between the divisions of aserious play.It was essentially an indoors performance,and generally of anaristocratic nature.Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance I.A Historical BackgroundII.The Overview ofthe Literature（1485-1660）Printing pressreadershipgrowth of middle class trade-education forlaypeople-centralization of power-intellectual life-exploration-new impetusand direction of literature.Humanism-study of the literature of classical antiquity and reformededucation.Literary style-modeled on the ancients.The effect of humanism-the dissemination of the cultivated,clear,andsensible attitude of its classically educated adherents.1.poetryThe first tendency by Sidney and Spenser:ornate,florid,highly figuredstyle.The second tendency by Donne:metaphysical stylecomplexity andingenuity.The third tendency by Johnson:reactionClassically pure and restrainedstyle.The fourth tendency by Milton:central Christian and Biblical tradition.2.Dramaa.the native tradition and classical examples.b.the drama stands highest in popular estimation:Marlowe Shakespeare Jonson.3.Prosea.translation of Bible;b.More;c.Bacon.II.English poetry.1.Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard（courtly makers）（1）Wyatt:introducing sonnets.（2）Howard:introducing sonnets and writing the first blank verse.2.Sir Philip Sidneypoet,critic,prose writer（1）Life:a.English gentleman;b.brilliant and fascinating personality;c.courtier.（2）worksa.Arcadia:pastoral romance;b.Astrophel and Stella（108）:sonnet sequence to PenelopeDvereuxplatonic devotion.Petrarchan conceits and original feelings-moving tocreativenessbuilding of a narrative story;theme-love originality-act ofwriting.c.Defense of Poesy:an apology for imaginative literaturebeginning ofliterary criticism.3.Edmund Spenser（1）life:Cambridge -Sidneys friend -“Areopagus”Ireland -Westminster Abbey.（2）worksa.The Shepherds Calendar:the budding of English poetry in Renaissance.b.Amoretti and Epithalamion:sonnet sequencec.Faerie Queene:l The general endA romantic and allegorical epicsteps to virtue.l 12 books and 12 virtues:Holiness,temperance,justice and courtesy.l Two-level function:part of the story and part of allegory（symbolicmeaning）l Many allusions to classical writers.l Themes:puritanism,nationalism,humanism and RenaissanceNeoclassicisma Christian humanist.（3）Spenserian Stanza.III.English Prose1.Thomas More（1）Life:“Renaissance man”,scholar,statesman,theorist,prose writer,diplomat,patron of artsa.learned Greek at Canterbury College,Oxford;b.studies law at Lincoln Inn;c.Lord Chancellor;d.beheaded.（2）Utopia:the first English science fiction.Written in Latin,two parts,the secondplace ofnowhere.A philosophical mariner（Raphael Hythloday）tells his voyages in which hediscovers a land-Utopia.a.The part one is organized as dialogue with mariner depicting hisphilosophy.b.The part two is a description of the island kingdom where gold and silverare worn by criminal,religious freedom is total and no one owns anything.c.the nature of the book:attacking the chief political andsocial evils of histime.d.the book and the Republic:an attempt to describe the Republic in a newway,but it possesses an modern character and the resemblance is in externals.e.it played a key role in the Humanist awakening of the16th century whichmoved away from the Medieval otherworldliness towards Renaissancesecularism.f.the Utopia（3）the significance.a.it was the first champion of national ideas and national languages;itcreated a national prose,equally adapted to handling scientific and artisticmaterial.b.a elegant Latin scholar and the father of English prose:he composed worksin English,translated from Latin into English biography,wrote History ofRichard III.2.Francis Bacon:writer,philosopher and statesman（1）life:Cambridge-humanism in Paris knighted-Lord Chancellor bribery-focusing on philosophy and literature.（2）philosophical ideas:advancement of sciencepeople:servants andinterpreters of nature method:a child before naturefacts andobservations:experimental.（3）“Essays”:57.a.he was a master ofnumerous and varied styles.b.his method is to weigh and balance maters,indicating the ideal course ofaction and the practical one,pointing out the advantages and disadvantages ofeach,but leaving the reader to make the final decisions.（arguments）IV.English Drama1.A general survey.（1）Everyman marks the beginning ofmodern drama.（2）two influences.a.the classics:classical in form and English in content;b.native or popular drama.（3）the University Wits.2.Christopher Marlowe:greatest playwright before Shakespeare and mostgifted ofthe Wits.（1）Life:first interested in classical poetry then in drama.（2）Major worksa.Tamburlaine;b.The Jew of Malta;c.The Tragical History ofDoctor Faustus.（3）The significance of his plays.V.William Shakespeare1.Life（1）1564,Stratford-on-Avon;（2）Grammar School;（3）Queen visit to Castle;（4）marriage to Anne Hathaway;（5）London,the Globe Theatre:small part and proprietor;（6）the 1st Folio,Quarto;（7）Retired,sonHamnet;H.1616.2.Dramatic career3.Major plays-men-centered.（1）Romeo and Juliettragic love and fate（2）The Merchant of Venice.Good over evil.Anti-Semitism.（3）Henry IV.National unity.Falstaff.（4）Julius CaesarRepublicanism vs.dictatorship.（5）HamletRevengeGood/evil.（6）OthelloDiabolic characterjealousygap between appearance and reality.（7）King LearFilial ingratitude（8）MacbethAmbition vs.fate.（9）Antony and Cleopatra.Passion vs.reason（10）The TempestReconciliation;reality and illusion.3.Non-dramatic poetry（1）Venus and Adonis;The Rape ofLucrece.（2）Sonnets:a.theme:fair,true,kind.b.two major parts:a handsome young man of noble birth;a lady in darkcomplexion.c.the form:three quatrains and a couplet.d.the rhyme scheme:abab,cdcd,efef,gg.VI.Ben Jonson1.life:poet,dramatist,a Latin and Greek scholar,the“literaryking”（Sonsof Ben）2.contribution:（1）the idea of“humour”.（2）an advocate of classical drama and a forerunner of classicism inEnglish literature.3.Major plays（1）Everyone in His Humour“humour”three unities.（2）Volpone the FoxChapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century I.A HistoricalBackgroundII.The Overview ofthe Literature（1640-1688）1.The revolution period（1）The metaphysical poets;（2）The Cavalier poets.（3）Milton:the literary and philosophical heritage of the Renaissancemerged with Protestant political and moral conviction2.The restoration period.（1）The restoration of Charles II ushered in a literature characterized byreason,moderation,good taste,deft management,and simplicity.（schoolof Ben Jonson）（2）The ideals of impartial investigation and scientific experimentationpromoted by the newly founded Royal Society of London for ImprovingNatural Knowledge（1662）were influential in the development of clearand simple prose as an instrument of rational communication.（3）The great philosophical and political treatises of the timeemphasize rationalism.（4）The restoration drama.（5）The Age ofDryden.III.John Milton1.Life:educated at Cambridgevisiting the continentinvolved into therevolutionpersecutedwriting epics.2.Literary career.（1）The 1st period was up to 1641,during which time he is to be seenchieflyas a son of the humanists and Elizabethans,although hisPuritanism is not absent.LAllegre and IL Pens eroso（1632）are hisearly masterpieces,in which we find Milton a true offspring of theRenaissance,a scholar of exquisite taste and rare culture.Next cameComus,a masque.The greatest of early creations was Lycidas,a pastoralelegy on the death of a college mate,Edward King.（2）The second period is from 1641 to 1654,when the Puritan was insuch complete ascendancy that he wrote almost no poetry.In 1641,hebegan a long period ofpamphleteering for the puritan cause.For some 15years,the Puritan in him alone ruled his writing.He sacrificed his poeticambition to the call of the liberty for which Puritans were fighting.（3）The third period is from 1655 to 1671,when humanist and Puritanhave been fused into an exalted entity.This period is the greatest in hisliterary life,epics and some famous sonnets.The three long poems are thefruit of the long contest within Milton of Renaissance tradition and hisPuritan faith.They form the greatest accomplishments of any Englishpoet except Shakespeare.In Milton alone,it would seem,Puritanismcould not extinguish the lover of beauty.In these works we findhumanism and Puritanism merged in magnificence.3.Major Works（1）Paradise Losta.the plot.b.characters.c.theme:justify the ways of God to man.（2）Paradise Regained.（3）Samson Agonistes.4.Features ofMiltons works.（1）Milton is one of the very few truly great English writers who is alsoa prominent figure in politics,and who is both a great poet and animportant prose writer.The two most essential things to be rememberedabout him are his Puritanism and his republicanism.（2）Milton wrote many different types of poetry.He is especially agreat master of blank verse.He learned much from Shakespeare and firstused blank verse in non-dramatic works.（3）Milton is a great stylist.He is famous for his grand style noted forits dignity and polish,which is the result of his life-long classical andbiblical study.（4）Milton has always been admired for his sublimity of thought andmajesty of expression.IV.John Bunyan1.life:（1）puritan age;（2）poor family;（3）parliamentary army;（4）Baptist society,preacher;（5）prison,writing the book.2.The Pilgrim Progress（1）The allegory in dream form.（2）the plot.（3）the theme.V.Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets.1.Metaphysical PoetsThe term“metaphysicalpoetry”is commonly used to designate the worksof the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne.Pressured by the harsh,uncomfortable and curious age,the metaphysicalpoets sought to shatter myths and replace them with new philosophies,new sciences,new words and new poetry.They tried to break away fromthe conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry,and favoured inpoetry for a more colloquial language and tone,a tightness of expressionand the single-minded working out of a theme or argument.2.Cavalier PoetsThe other group prevailing in this period was that of Cavalier poets.Theywere often courtiers who stood on the side ofthe king,and calledthemselves“sons”of Ben Jonson.The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry,polished and elegant,amorous and gay,but often superficial.Most oftheir verses were short songs,pretty madrigals,love fancies characterizedby lightness of heart and of morals.Cavalier poems have the limpidity ofthe Elizabethan lyric without its imaginative flights.They are lighter andneater but less fresh than the Elizabethans.VI.John Dryden.1.Life:（1）the representative of classicism in the Restoration.（2）poet,dramatist,critic,prose writer,satirist.（3）changeable in attitude.（4）Literary careerfour decades.（5）Poet Laureate2.His influences.（1）He established the heroic couplet as the fashion for satiric,didactic,and descriptive poetry.（2）He developed a direct and concise prose style.（3）He developed the art of literary criticism in his essays and in thenumerous prefaces to his poems.Chapter 5 English Literature ofthe 18th Century I.Introduction1.The Historical Background.2.The literary overview.（1）The Enlightenme