1、General Introduction to British Literature,What does literature consists of?,Novel Poem Drama Prose,Literature works are all about beauty-appreciation.,British literature is the quintessence of British culture made by its people throughout years of process of development,and most precious jewel of w
2、orld literature.,Reading British literary works can enable us to gain deeper insights into its culture.,Different stages of British Literature,1. Medieval Literature (approximately from 500 BC to 1485) Beowulf Beowulf, a typical example of Old English poetry, is regarded as the greatest national epi
3、c of the Anglo-Saxons. The epic describes the heroic deeds of a Scandinavian hero, Beowulf, in fighting against the monster Grendel, his revengeful mother, and a fire-breathing dragon. The poem conveys a hope that the righteous will triumph over the evil.,Medieval Literature,Romance Romance is a pop
4、ular literary form in the medieval England. It sings knightly adventures or other heroic deeds. Chivalry (such as bravery, honor, generosity, loyalty and kindness to the weak and poor) is the spirit of romance.,Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 1375-1400,Medieval Literature,Geoffrey Chaucer He is reg
5、arded as the father of English poetry. The Canterbury Tales is his masterpiece. He presents, for the first time in English literature, a comprehensive realistic picture of the medieval English society and creates a whole gallery of vivid characters from all works of life. It was Chaucer who made Lon
6、don dialect the foundation for modern English speech. His characterization is vivid.,2. British Literature during Renaissance Period (late 15th century - early 17 century),Renaissance and Humanism The word “Renaissance“ means “rebirth“. It meant the reintroduction into Western Europe of the full cul
7、tural heritage of Greece and Rome. The essence of the Renaissance is Humanism which emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life. Humanists voiced their beliefs that man was the center of the universe and man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of the pre
8、sent life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders.,2. British Literature during Renaissance Period,Edmund Spenser He is acclaimed as “the poets poet“ in English literature. His poetry is noted for such qualities as a perfect melody, a rare sense of beauty, a splendid imaginati
9、on, a lofty moral purity and seriousness, and a dedicated idealism. He created the Spenserian stanza. His masterpiece is The Faerie Queene.,2. British Literature during Renaissance Period,Francis Bacon He is a philosopher, a scientist and the first English essayist. He lays the foundation for modern
10、 science with his insistence on scientific way of thinking and fresh observation rather than authority as a basis for obtaining knowledge. He is best known for his Essays that is the first example of that genre in English literature.,2. British Literature during Renaissance Period,Christopher Marlow
11、e He is the most gifted of University Wits. University Wits refer to a group of scholars during the Elizabethan Age who graduated from either Oxford or Cambridge. They came to London with the ambition to become professional writers. Some of them later became famous poets and playwrights. They were c
12、alled “University Wits“. Thomas Greene, Thomas Kyd, John Lily and Christopher Marlowe were among them. They paved the way, to some degree, for the coming of Shakespeare.,2. British Literature during Renaissance Period,William Shakespeare He is the greatest of all Elizabethan dramatists. His literary
13、 career falls into four periods. He wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. His sonnets represent the finest poetic craftsmanship of Elizabethan poetry. The themes of his sonnets are about love, friendship, the destructive effects of time, the quickness of physical decay, and the loss of beauty, vigor, and
14、love.,3. 17th Century British Literature,John Milton As a real revolutionary, a master poet and a great prose writer, Milton holds an important place in the history of English literature. He produced three epics: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.,3. 17th Century British Literatu
15、re,John Donne He is the leading figure of the “Metaphysical School“. The most striking feature of Donnes poetry is his frequent use of conceit. He is a religious poet obsessed with death. The Songs and Sonnets is probably his best-known lyrics. Love is the basic theme. Donne holds that the nature of
16、 love is the union of soul and body.,3. 17th Century British Literature,John Bunyan He is a religious novelist whose style was modeled after that of the English Bible. His language is concrete and vivid. His masterpiece, The Pilgrims Progress, is the most successful religious allegory.,4. British Li
17、terature during the Enlightenment Movement Period (late 17th century - mid 18th century),The Enlightenment Movement Enlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement which flourished in France and swept through Western Europe in the 18th century. The movement was a furtherance of the Re
18、naissance from 14th century to the mid-17th century. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas. It celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science. It advocated universal education. Literature at the time became a very popular means
19、 of public education. Famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers like John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, the two pioneers of familiar essays, Jonathan Swift, Richard Bringsley Sheridan, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding and Samuel Johnson, etc
20、.,The Enlightenment Movement,Neoclassicism,In the field of literature, the Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works. This tendency is known as neoclassicism. The neoclassicists hold that forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of
21、the ancient Greek and Roman writers such as Homer and Virgil and those of the contemporary French ones. They believed that the artistic ideas should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity.,4. British Literature durin
22、g the Enlightenment Movement Period,Alexander Pope He is a representative of the Enlightenment and the greatest poet of the Neoclassical period. He is the first to introduce rationalism to England. He strongly advocated neoclassicism, emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rul
23、es of order, reason, logic, restrained emotion, good taste and decorum.,4. British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement Period,Jonathan Swift He is a master satirist. He is almost unsurpassed in the writing of simple, direct, precise prose. He defined a good style as “proper words in proper
24、places.“,4. British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement Period,Samuel Johnson He was the last great neoclassicist enlightener in the late eighteenth century. He compiled the first English dictionary - A Dictionary of the English Language.,4. British Literature during the Enlightenment Movem
25、ent Period,Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe is Defoes masterpiece. In the novel, Defoe traces the growth of Robinson from a naive and artless youth into a shrewd and hardened man, tempered by numerous trials in his eventful life. He is portrayed as the very prototype of the empire builder and the pionee
26、r colonist. The novel eulogizes the hero of the hard-working class, and shows his sympathy for the poor and the unfortunate in his society.,Sentimentalism,Sentimentalism is a pejorative term do describe false or superficial emotion, assumed feeling, self-regarding postures of grief and pain. In lite
27、rature it denotes overmuch use of pathetic effects and attempts to arose feeling by “pathetic” indulgence. The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith is a case in point.,4. British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement Period,Oliver Goldsmith He is the outstanding representative of the Englis
28、h sentimentalist school.,The Graveyard School,The Graveyard School refers to a school of poets of the 18th century whose poems are mostly devoted to a sentimental lamentation or meditation on life, past and present, with death and graveyard as themes. Thomas Gray is considered to be the leading figu
29、re of this school and his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is its most representative work.,4. British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement Period,Thomas Gray He was the leading figure of the Graveyard School.,5. British Literature during Romantic Period (1798 - 1832),Romanticism In the
30、 mid-18th century, a new literary movement called Romanticism came to Europe and then to England. It was characterized by a strong protest against the bondage of neoclassicism, which emphasized reason, order and elegant wit. Instead, romanticism gave primary concern to passion, emotion, and natural
31、beauty. In the history of literature, romanticism is generally regarded as the thought that designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience. The English Romantic Period is an age of poetry. Major romantic poets includ
32、e Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats. Romanticism prevailed in England from 1798 to 1837.,5. British Literature during Romantic Period,Robert Burns He is the greatest Scottish poet in the late 18th century. In his poetry he glorifies a natural man - a healthy, joyous and clever S
33、cotch peasant. He wrote in Scottish dialect, drawing his inspiration from the treasury of Scottish folklore. His poetry is rich in such qualities as love, humor, pathos and love of nature. All these qualities suggest the coming of English Romanticism.,5. British Literature during Romantic Period,Wil
34、liam Blake He is one of major English Romantic poets in the 19th century. The distinctive feature of his poetry is the symbolism in wide range. He is famous for his two volumes of poems: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Childhood is central to Blakes concern in these two volumes of poems.
35、,5. British Literature during Romantic Period,William Wordsworth He is the leading figure of the English Romantic poetry, and he is regarded as a “worshipper of nature“. His Lyrical Ballads, written with Coleridge, marked the beginning of Romanticism in English poetry. He defined poetry as “the spon
36、taneous overflow of powerful feelings, which originates in emotion recollected in tranquility.“ He was one of “Lake Poets“.,5. British Literature during Romantic Period,Samuel Taylor Coleridge He is one of the major Romantic poets in the 19th century England. His actual achievement as poet can be di
37、vided into two remarkably diverse groups: the demonic and the conversational. He and Wordsworth composed Lyrical Ballads. He is one of “Lake Poets“.,5. British Literature during Romantic Period,George Gordon Byron He is a leading Romantic poet whose chief contribution is his creation of the “Byronic
38、 hero“, a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin.,5. British Literature during Romantic Period,Percy Bysshe Shelley He is regarded as one of the greatest of all English poets. His lyrics such as The Cloud, To a Skylark and Ode to the West Wind are best-known.,5. British Literature during Rom
39、antic Period,John Keats He is one of the major English Romanticists in the 19th century. He wrote best odes in English literature.,6. Realist British Literature (30s of 19th century - 1918),Critical Realism Critical Realism is a term applied to the realistic fiction in the late 19th and early 20th c
40、entury. It means the tendency of writers and intellectuals in the period between 1875 and 1920 to apply the methods of realist fiction to the criticism of society and the examination of social issues. Realist writers were all concerned about the fate of the common people and described what was faith
41、ful to reality. Charles Dickens is the most important critical realist.,6. Realist British Literature,Robert Browning He is considered as the most original poet of the Victorian Age. The name of Browning is often associated with the term “dramatic monologue“.,6. Realist British Literature,Alfred Ten
42、nyson He was the most prolific poet in the 19th century English literature. His wonderful works show all the qualities of Englands great poets: the dreaminess of Spenser, the majesty of Milton, the natural simplicity of Wordsworth, the fantasy of Blake and Coleridge, the melody of Keats and Shelley,
43、 and the narrative vigor of Scott and Byron.,6. Realist British Literature,Jane Austen She was a woman novelist of the 18th century, though she lived mainly in the nineteenth century, for her works show clearly her firm belief in the predominance of reason over passion, the sense of responsibility,
44、good manners and clear-sighted judgment over the Romantic tendencies of emotion and individuality.,6. Realist British Literature,Charlotte Bronte She is one of the three Bronte sisters. Her works are all about the struggle of an individual consciousness towards self-realization, about some lonely an
45、d neglected young women with a fierce longing for love, understanding and a full, happy life. All her heroines highest joy arises from some sacrifice of self or some human weakness overcome.,6. Realist British Literature,Emily Bronte She is a poet, novelist, and one of the three Bronte sisters.,6. R
46、ealist British Literature,George Eliot She is a woman writer of the latter half of the 19th century. Her real name is Mary Ann Evans. D. H. Lawrence regarded George Eliot as the first novelist that “started putting all the actions inside“. Most of her novels have two features: moral teaching and psy
47、chological realism.,6. Realist British Literature,Charles Dickens He is one of the greatest critical realist writers of the Victorian Age. His works are intended to expose and criticize all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and corruptness of the 19th century England, particularly London. All his wo
48、rks are characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.,6. Realist British Literature,William Makepeace Thackeray He is one of the most important writers of the English critical realism. Through his masterpiece Vanity Fair, Thackeray sharply exposes the vices of his society: hypocrisy, money-worshi
49、p, and moral degradation.,6. Realist British Literature,Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy is a great poet as well as a great critical and naturalistic novelist. His novels reveal a profound pessimistic sense of human subjection to fate and circumstance. Most of his novels are set in Wessex, a fictional prim
50、itive region. They are known for the vivid description of the vicissitudes of people who live in an agricultural setting threatened by the forces of invading capitalism. These works are known as “novels of character and environment“. He not only exposed and criticized all sorts of social problems, but finally came to question and attack the Victorian conventions and morals. Hardy experienced a change from being cheerful and optimistic to despairing and pessimistic in his writing career.,
