英美文学选读自学笔记

English literature

前言: 配合该笔记，看看选读的文章，有个大概的印象就行了。学会对文章进行分析是考查的最终目标。本人判断力不错，但记忆力不好,考前看了两遍，考了68分。如果能记下要点，应该会考得更好。这次考试的40小题选择题我做对了32题。最后,希望我整理的笔记能提高大家的学习效率,

I Old English Literature ----(450—1066)

two groups : religious –-on biblical themes ---- Secular ---- heroic age ---- --- a protector of

people ,fight against the nature.

II Medieval period ---(1066---14th Century)

Fame :1066 Norman conquest ---- three changes—feudalism system established ( politically )

--- Catholic Church ( Religiously ) --- French, Latin, English (co-existed

language )

In comparison with old English literature: (1) wider range of subjects (2) themes concerned with the personal salvation (3) romance love (4) the language is simple and straightforward ?The epic reflects a heroic age ,the romance reflects a chivalric one‘ 骑士

Chaucer : 1 titles: the English Homer , the father of English poetry (from),

2 verse : first use 'heroic couplet' , realistic

picture of his time , vivid characters from all works of his life , the characters are both typical and individual, his ideas is to pursue earthly happiness, opposed asceticism 禁欲主义, advocate humanism, replace alliterative verse with rhymed stanzas (古英语的押头韵变成 中世纪的押尾韵)

first use rhymed 'heroic couplet' octosyllabic 八音节诗 3.novel: the first modern novel.

III Renaissance (14th—17th)

Fame : ① move from feudalist ideas to the interest of rising bourgeoisie.

② recover from corruption of the Roman Catholic Church to the purity of the earthly church . England :

the reign of Henry VIII -----England?s Golden Age in literature

---- Bibles in English instead of Latin readable for

common people

-------- literary giants : Shakespeare, Spenser ,Jonson Sidney,

Marlowe ,Bacon ,and Donne

The time of Tudos ---- change monasteries修道院 into schools and

universities ------ the English Renaissance flourishing

-------first introduced printing into England and translated

books in English(by William Caxton)

Traits of humanistic poetry : meter, rhyme, scheme, imagery and argument should be combined to frame the emotional theme. Poetry was to be a concentrated exercise of the mind , if craftsmanship and of learning. The most famous dramatists : Shakesperar , Ben Jonson, and Marlowe Writers : Wyatt (introduced the Petrarchan sonnet into England)

Surrey (brought in blank verse)

Sidney (brought in sestina and terza rima)

Marlowe(brought mighty lines to the blank verse ) Spenser( pastoral convention )

John Donne, George Herbert ( metaphysical poets)

Francis Bacon (the first important English essayist, the founder of

modern science in England)

I Edmund Spensor

Fame: Spenserian Stanza，the poet‘s poet(他的诗节被称为―斯宾塞诗节‖，他被称为―诗人中之诗人‖)

选读 (Poem)

contains 12 books, speaks of 12 virtues of the private gentleman, each of which tells a knight. Arthur—the heros of heros---plays a role in each of the 12 major adventures, serve as a unifying element. The theme is ?Fierce Wares and faithful loves‘.

The knight here symbolized the Church (Anglican) , is the protector of Una (the Virgin) .Una stands for the true religion.

Qualities of Spensor’s poetry: 1. a perfect melody (music sense) 2.a rare sense of beauty 3. a splendid imagination 4.a lofty moral purity and seriousness. 5.a dedicated idealism II. Christopher Marlowe

Fame: be regarded as ?University Wits‘. Perfected the blank verse, brought strong emotion into the blank verse. He created the Renaissance hero for English drama. Such a hero is always individualistic and full of ambition. (but his verse is not strong in dramatic construction and women ?s characters are rather pale)

Plays: (the name of an ambitious ancient emperor. He rose from a shepherd to an overpowering king through his own effort. By depicting such a great king, Marlow voiced the desire of the man of the Renaissance for infinite power and authority. )

选读 (Faustus is longing for knowledge and finally sells his souls to the evil. It celebrates the human passion for knowledge ,power and happiness)

affection for his love.)

Poetry: (It deprives from the pastoral tradition, in which the shepherd enjoys an ideal country life, cherishing a pure

III. William Shakespeare (1564—1616)

Background: from merchant‘s family .父亲是个当地镇里的多面手，有点名气。他的戏剧分早期、中期，中晚期和晚期。（I，II，III，IV）.他的作品很多，影响很大。 T:

I． Five history plays and four comedies.

历史剧 ?Henry VI, Parts I,II‘ ( It reveals a troubled reign in the 15th

century, Shakespeares mounted over the loss of English territories in France. He condemns the War of the Roses , in which innocent people were killed) II． Five history plays ,six comedies and two tragedies

喜剧：（an optimistic attitude toward love

and youth, praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine., and Shylock as an evil figure ）

Windsor> )

悲剧： (eulogizes the faithfulness of love and spirit

of pursuing happiness ,though a tragedy, is permeated with optimistic spirit) ,

III． His greatest four tragedies (each of the characters‘s fates is closely

connected with the fate of the whole nation. Each of them has his weakness of nature. ) 选读（the first of the greatest tragedies, most popular play on

the stage. It has the qualities of a ?blood –and –thunder‘thriller and a philosophical exploration of life and death. Hamlet is a melancholic 优柔寡断prince,who is too sophisticated to degrade his nature to the conventional role of revenger. Shakespeares condemns the hypocrisy and treachery and general corruption at the royal court）

(the old King Lear suffers form treachery背叛and

infidelity不忠)

(Othello‘s inner weakness is made use of by the outside

evil force)

(Macbeth ?s lust for power stirs up his ambition and leads him to endless crimes.)

two dark comedies (< Measure for

Measure>)

IV． Romantic tragicomedies:

(the best of his final romances,it is a typical example

of Shakespeare ?s pessimistic view toward human life and society in his late years. He wishes to solve the conflict by dreams and supernatural power).

,< Pericles> ,

Two final plays: Henry VIII , The Two Noble Kinsmen. Poems

long narrative poems : , . Sequence of 154 sonnets: 选读 (Shakes has a faith in the permanence of poetry. A nice summer‘s day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry in poetry can last for ever.艺术的美常存) 艺术特征 人物塑造

1． He employs soliloquies独白 in his plays to fully reveal the inner conflict of his characters.

2. He portrays his characters in pairs(可能指情侣) .

3. His characters are individuals representing certain types. 情节结构

1． He adopted plots from some old plays or storybooks

2． In order to make the play more lively , he would shorten the time and intensify the story.

3． There are usually several threads running through the play (,thus providing the story with suspense and apprehension) 语言风格

1. irony 2. Disguise 3. vocabulary ( He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary and idiom, his coinage of new words and distortion of the meaning of the old ones also create striking effects on the reader.)

Conscience (顾虑) does makes cowards of us all. (心有顾虑使人畏手畏脚，优柔寡断----Hamlet)

IV. Francis Bacon (1561--1626)

Fame: A prose, lays the foundation for modern science. His works can be divided into three groups

1. is a great tract短论on education. HE

separates theology from scientific observations and experiments. Man‘s understanding consisted of three parts:history to man‘s memory; poetry to man‘s imagination and creation ; philosophy to man‘s reason. 2. 论说文 is a successful treatise (written in Latin) on

methodology ,the use of inductive 归纳法in scientific research in place of the deductive reasoning 演绎法

3 选读----more than half of the fifty-eight essays are about public life or public duty /Bacon‘ s essays are famous for their brevity简洁,

compactness紧凑 and powerfulness /The sentences are charged 充满感情的 and crowded with symmetries.

―The general counsels, the plots and marshaling of affairs ,come best from those that are learned‖ --- 通盘考虑及事务的安排，做得最好的是那些博学的人。

V． John Donne (1572—1631)

Life: ―Metaphysical school‖, Herbert ,Vaughan ,Crashaw, Marvell and Cowley are also considered to be metaphysical poets. 商人之家，想当牧师，牛津剑桥大学肆业生，十年地下婚姻使他穷困潦倒，但是他对妻子很忠诚。。天主教改信英国国教，当牧师尽职尽力，洞察力深邃。早期写爱情诗，晚期写宗教诗。他认为爱的本质是身体和灵魂的结合。 Works:

选读Love poems (1. Donne applies conceits ,he combines easy conceits with the difficult ones 2. Donnet‘s interest lies in dramatizing and illustrating the state of being in love. 3. His language is brief ,simple . The argument is continuous throughout the poem. ) Religious poems: Sermons (散文形式的传道书)

选读 is from 表达诗人无畏死亡的气概。

VI John Milton

Life:商人后代，剑桥大学，有过旅欧经历，喜欢史诗，后来眼睛瞎了。 the greatest prose writer of his age.

Fame: is the greatest epic in English literature since Works:

早期诗歌： elegies , for his best friend Edward King,who died of drown.

The poem begins with grief and a feeling of immaturity. The emotion moves from sadness to acceptance in the end.

中期散文： plea for freedom of press -------smooth and carms 晚期史诗：选读 a long epic divided into 12 books. The story is taken from the Bible.. Satan and other angels rebel against God. Satan succeeds in seduce Eve to eat the apple form the tree of knowledge. As a result , Adam and Eve are exiled by God from the paradise. In the fall of man, Adam discovered his full humanity.

shows how mankind withstands the temper

诱惑,Christ‘s temptation in the wilderness is the theme.

The picture of Israel‘s mighty champion英雄,

blind ,alone, afflicted by cruel enemies but preserving a noble ideal to the end. is a fitting close to the life work of the poet himself, The whole poem strongly suggests Miltons himself could bring destruction down upon the enemy at the