英国文学—The old and medieval periods1．Beowuf这部作品Romance是这个时期最流行的文学形式；Chaucer第一个引进“英雄偶句”诗体。
Beowulf（贝奥武甫(八世纪初的一篇古英语史诗; 该史诗中的主角)）, a typical example of old English poetry, is regarded today as the national epic (民族史诗)of the Anglo-Saxons. Literary position: The poem was originally in an oral form, it is written down in the 10th century. Thematically the poem presents a vivid picture of how the primitive people wage heroic struggles against the hostile forces of the natural world under a wise and mighty leader.Romance (骑士抒情诗)，a popular literary form in the medieval period) uses narrative verse or prose to sing knightly adventures or other heroic deeds, whose motifs（主题, 主旨）of the quest is for truth, beauty and kindness.Chaucer(乔叟): whose masterpiece is The Canterbury Tales《坎特伯雷故事集》. The famous character of his works is the Wife of Bath. Chaucer employed the heroic coupletverse form (英雄双韵诗形式) with true ease and charm for the first time in the history of English literature. He is the father of English poetry.英国文学—The renaissance periods 1.《仙后》一部寓言(allegory), 人物象征意义与主题.The Faerie is an allegory.The Red-crosse Knight stands for St.George, the patron saint of England, and he also represent Holiness.A lovely Ladie, virgin Una, symbolizes the thruth or the true faith of religion.A milke white lambe reprents the God.Dragon and infernall feend refer the SatanThe theme is not “Arms and the man,” but something more romantic—“fiece warres and faithful loves”.2. 斯宾塞的诗歌特点The five main quailites of spenser’spoetry are:1) a perfect melody;2) a rare sense of beauty;3) a splendid imagination;4) a lofty purity and seriousness;5) a dedicated idealism.3.《浮士德》的主题Dr. Faustus is a play based on theGerman legend of a magician aspiringfor knowledge and finally meeting histragic end as a result of selling his soulto the Devil. The play’s dominantmoral is human than religious. Itcelebrates the human passion forknowledge, power and happiness; italso reveals man’s frustration inrealizing the high aspiration in ahostile moral order. And theconfinement to time is the cruelest factof man’s condition.4.《威尼丝商人》的故事及主题The play has a double plot:1) Bassanio——Portia2) Antonio——ShylockThe traditional theme of the playis to praise the friendship betweemAntonio and Bassanio, to idealizePortia as a heroine of greate beaulity,wit and loyalty, and to expose theinsatiable greed and brutality of theJew. Tody, many people tend to regardthe play as a satire of the christians’hypocrisy and their false standards offrindship and love, their cunning wayof pursuing worldliness(俗心, 俗气)and their unreasoning prejudice againstJews.5．Milton的三部作品Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained,Samson Agonistes.英国文学—The neoclassical periods1．Bunyan的《天路历程》是一部寓言(allegory)，其主题及《名利场》的寓意The Pilgrim’s Progress is themost successful religious allegory inthe English language. Its purpose is tourge people to abide by Christiandoctrines and seek salvation throughconstant struggle with their ownweakness and all kinds of social evils.Its predominant metaphor —life as ajourney — is simple and familiar. Theobjects that Christian meets arehomely and commonplace, and thescence presented a typical Englishones, but throughout the allegory aspiritual signifiance is added to thecommonplace details.The Vanity Fair symbolizeshuman world, for “All that cometh isvanity.”Everything and anything inthis world is “vanity”, having no valueand no meaning. The Vanity Fair, a“marcket selling nothingness” of allsorts, is a dirty place originally built upby devils, but, this town “lay” in theway to the Celestial City, meaningpilgrims had to resist the tempatationsthere way through. So, the depiction ofthe “Fair” in selling things worldly andin attracting people bad, representsJohn Bunyan’s rejection of the worldlyseekings and pious longing for the pureand charming “Celestial City” hisChristian ideal.2．鲁宾逊的意义Robinson is here a real hero: atypical eighteenth-century Enlishmiddle-class man, with a greatcapacity for work, inexhaustible energy,courage, patience and persistence inovercoming obstacles, in stugglingagainst the hostile natural environment.He is the very prototype of the empirebuilder, the pioneer colonist.3．Gulliver’s Travel的四个部分The book contains four parts.The first part —— LilliputThe second part —— BrobdingnagThe third part —— flying IslandThe fourth part —— Houyhnhnmland, YahooAs a whole, the book is one of themost effcetive and devastatingcriticisms and satires of all aspects inthen English and European life —socially, politically, religiously,philosophically, scientifically, andmorally.4．Fielding的贡献Fielding has been regarded by some as “Father of the English Novel”.He was first to set out, both in theory and practice, to write specifically a “comic epic in prose,” the first to give the modern novel its structure and syle. Before him, the relating of a story in a novel was either the Episolary form or the picaresque form, but fielding adopted “the third-person narration,” in which the author become the “all-knowing God”.英国文学—The romantic periods 1．Blake青春之歌与经验之歌的比较The Song of Innocence is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and suffering.His Songs of Experiecnce paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with melancholy tone.The two “Chimney Sweeper” poems are good examples to reveal the relation between an economic circumstance, i.e. the exploitation of child labor, and an ideological circumstance, i.e. the role played by religion in making compiant to exploitation. The poem from the Songs of Innocence indicates the conditions which make religion a consolation, a prospect(景色, 前景)of “illusory happiness;” the poem from the Songs of the Experience reveals the true nature of religion which helps bring misery to the poor child.2．拜伦式英雄Buyron’s chief contribution is his creation of the “Byronic hero,” a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burdens of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustilbeenergies.3．KEATS的希腊古瓮颂的主题Ode on an grecian Urn shows thecontrast between the permanence of artand the transcience of human passion.4．奥丝丁的三种婚姻观Stories of love and marriageprovide the major theme in all JaneAusten’s novels, in which femalechatacters are always playing an activepart. In their pursuit of a marriage,they ate usually categorize into threetypes according to their differentattitudes: those who would marry formaterial wealth and social position,those who would marry just for beautyand passion, and those who wouldmarry for true love with aconsideration of the partn er’s personalmerit as well ad his economical andsocial status.5.《傲慢与偏见》的故事及主题Pride and Prejudice mainly tellsof the love story between a rich,pround young man Darcy and thebeautiful and intelligent ElizaethBennet. None of the daughters caninherit the estate of the family for ithas been entailed upon the nearestmale heir, Willian Collins, Collinsintends to marry and he decides toshoose Elizabeth as a way of makingamends for inheriting the family’sestate. Collins is a preposterous(荒谬的) suitor, and Elizabeth rejects theproposal. Another young man calledDarcy proposes her, but she hasprejudice against him because shethinks that he has nothing but pride.After many twists and turns, they arehappily united. This book tells us agreat deal about attitude towardmarriage in Austen’s time.Stories of love and marriageprovide the major themes in all hernovels, Jane Austen tries to say that itis wrong to marry just for money or forbeauty, but it is also wrong to marrywithout it.as it is said in the book that it is a truthuniversally acknowledged that a singeman in possession of a good foutunemust be in want of a wife.英国文学—The victorian periods1．Dickens小说的3种角色类型及创作生涯。
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