英国文学史期末复习重点.docx

1、英国文学史期末复习重点英国文学史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 du

2、ring the 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 Conquest At the same time Britain was invaded by swarms of pirates(海盗). They were three tribes from Northern Europe: the Angles, Saxons

3、and Jutes. 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-Saxon Therefore, the

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

5、pic of the English people. Grendel is a monster described in Beowulf.3. Analysis of Its Content Beowulf is a folk lengend brought to England by Anglo-Saxons from their continental homes. It had been passed from mouth to mouth for hundreds of years before it was written down in the tenth century.4. F

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

7、am was crowned as King of England. The Norman Conquest marks the establishment of feudalism in England.3. The Influence of the Norman Conquest on the English Language By the end of the fourteenth century, when Normans and English intermingled, English was once more the dominant speech in the country

8、.3) The Romance1. The Content of the Romance The most prevailing kind of literature in feudal England was the romance.4. Malorys Le Morte DArthur The adventures of the Knights of the Round Table at Arthurs courtChapter 5 The English Ballads2. The Ballads The most important department of English folk

9、 literature 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 BalladsChapter 6 Chaucer1. Life Geoffrey Chaucer, the founder/father of English poetry.3. Troilus an

10、d Criseyde Troilus and Criseyde is Chaucers 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 Tales The Canterbury Tales is Chaucers masterpiece and o

11、ne of the monumental works in English literature.6. His Language Chaucers language, now called Middle English, is vivid and exact. Chaucers contribution to English poetry lies chiefly in the fact that he introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of 5 ac

12、cents in iambic meter (the “the heroic couplet”) to English 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: The English Renai

13、ssanceChapter 1 Old England in Transition1. The New Monarchy The 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 the rising bo

14、urgeoisie and so won its support.2. The Reformation Protestantism The bloody religious persecution came to a stop after the church settlement of Queen Elizabeth.3. The English Bible William Tyndall Then appeared the Authorized Version, which was made in 1611 under the auspices of James I and so was

15、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 ExpansionChapter 2 More1. Life Thomas More2. Utopia Utopia is Mores masterpiece, written in

16、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 One Book One of Utopia is a picture of contemporary England with forcible exposure of the poverty among the laboring classes.4. Utopia, Book Two I

17、n 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) Life The Poets Poet of the period was Edmund Spenser.In 1579 he wrote The Shephers Calendar, a pastora

18、l poem in twelve books, one for each month of the year.2) The Faerie Queene (masterpiece) Spensers 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 (father/founder of English essay

19、) the founder of English English materialist philosophy Bacon is also famous for his Essays. When it included 58 essays. Bacon is the first English essayist.Chapter 4 Drama7. The Playwrights There was a group of so-called “university wits” (Lyly, Peele, Marlowe, Greene, Lodge and Nash).Chapter 5 Mar

20、lowe1. Life The most gifted of the “university wits” was Christopher Marlowe.2. Work Marlowes best includes three of his plays, Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus.3. Doctor Faustus Marlowes masterpiece is The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.5. Marlowes Literary Achievement Marlowe w

21、as 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. Life William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon. After his death, two of his above-ment

22、ioned fellow-actors, Herminge and Condell, collected and published Shakespeares plays in 1623. To this edition, which has been known as the First Folio.4. The Great Comedies A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It and Twelfth Night have been called Shakespeares “great comedi

23、es”.6. The Great Tragedies Shakespeare created his great tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.7. Hamlet the son of the Renaissance9. The Poems1) Venus and Adonis2) The Rape of Lucrece3) Shakespeares Sonnets10. Features of Shakespeares Drama Shakespeare and the Authorized Version of the

24、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 RevolutionChapter 1 The English Revolution and the Restoration5. The Bourgeois Dictatorship

25、 and the Restorationin 1688 Glorious Revolution6. The Religious Cloak of the English Revolution Puritanism was the religious doctrine of the revolutionary bourgeoisie during the English Revolution. It preached thrift, sobriety, hard work and unceasing labour in whatever calling one happened to be, b

26、ut 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 Lost Paradise Lost is Miltons masterpiece. blank verse.Chapter 3 Bunyan1. LifeThe Pilgrims Progress was published in 1678.2. The

27、Pilgrims Progress1) The Pilgrims Progress is a religious allegory. Chapter 4 Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets a school of poets called “Metaphysical” by Samuel Johnson. by mysticism in content and fantasticality in form John Donne, the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry.Chapter 6 Rest

28、oration 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 Four: The Eighteenth CenturyChapter 1 The Enlightenment and Classicism in English Literat

29、ure1. The Enlightenment and 18th Century England2) The Enlightenment in Europe The 18th century marked the beginning of an intellectual movement in Europe, known as the Enlightenment, which was, on the whole, an expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. The enlighteners fought aga

30、inst class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism.3) The English Enlighterners The representatives of the Enlightenment in English literature were Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, the essayists, and Alexander Pope, the poet.Chapter 2 Addison and Steele1. Steele and The

31、 Tatler Richard 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 whose enlightenment he stood up. “Issac Bickerstaff”2. Addison and The Spectator The ge

32、neral 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. Life Alexander Pope, the most important English poet in the first half of the 18th century.3. Workmanship and Limitation Pope was an outstanding enlightener and the greatest English poet of th