1、Old English Literature1. Historical Background-English literature begins around the 8th century, which is very different from English today-Old English was the language of England or a long time before the Norman Conquest in A.D.1066 and for some 100 years afterward 2. Writers and their work-Beowulf
2、 (about the 6th century)(-the study of English literature usually begins with the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf-Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon epic, in alliterative verse originatingfrom the collective efforts of oral literature.-the story tells how the hero Beowulf defeats the monster and finally receiv
3、es his own death in fighting with a fire dragon. -King Alfred ( 849-991) -In old English literature, he is an important figure and the only honored as “the Great”-A foundation stone of English history is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was begun by Alfred or under his direction-the King made or dir
4、ected the many important translations from Latin to Old English, which did much to advance learning in what was still a rather wild kingdom-translation of Bedes Ecclesiastical history of the English People into old EnglishMiddle English Literature (1100-1500)-Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400)-He was an
5、English poet.-his masterpiece is The Canterbury Tales (1387), which contains 24 tales told bya group of pilgrims on their journey to Canterbury and are written in verse-He did not complete his total design but there are 24 tales -His contributions to English literature is the innovation of English v
6、erse by introducing into the native alliterative verse of French and Italian styles - Chaucer is thus to be regarded as the first short story teller and the first modern poet in English literature.Renaissance in England (16th17th Century)-Historical Background-The word “Renaissance” means revival, s
7、pecifically revival of interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture, which refers to the period between the 14th and mid 17th century - Renaissance started in Florence and Venice with the flowering of Paintings, architecture.-In different countries , the movement occurred in different periods with di
8、fferent emphasis:-in Italy it was most strongly felt in fine arts-in France it was literature-in England it was philosophy and drama -Renaissance in England 1. Historical Background-Renaissance came later in England than other European countries because of the War of Roses within the country and its
9、 weak and unimportant position in world trade-The English Renaissance had 5 characteristics:-But when it did come, it was to produce some towering figures in the English and the world literary heritage-William Shakespeare and so on.2. Writers and their works 16th Century -Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)
10、-He was a great humanist and the Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII. -His writings the best known is Utopia (1516 ), which comes from the Greekwork meaning”nowhere” and tells of a journey to an imaginary island namedUtopia,where an ideal from of society exists-Mores book has placed the word in our vocabu
11、laries in English Literature-Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)-He, with the Earl of Surrey(1517-47), established the sonnet-a 14-line poemas an English verse form. William Shakespeare(15641616)（He was a man of the late Renaissance who gave the fullest expression to humanist ideals.） Literary Achievements
12、: 37plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets (Sonnets 1-126 addressed to a young man, Sonnets 127-152 addressed to “Dark Lady”, Sonnets 153-154 addressed to Cupid, the God of love in Greek mythology) Literary Position:“not of an age, but for all time”, the greatest giant of English language and poetic
13、form, one of the founders of realism in world literature, one of the greatest writers in the worlds literature.-His plays fall into categories as following :-Tragedies : Hamlet (1600-1601)Othello (1604-1605)King Lear (1605-1606)Macbeth (1605-1606)Romes and Juliet (1595)-Comedies : The Taming of the
14、Shrew (1596)A Midsummer Nights Dream (1596)As you Like It (1599)Twelfth Night (1600)The Tempest (1611)-Chronicle Plays : Richard III (1595)Richard II (1595)Henry IV (1597-1598)-Part I, II Julius Caesar (1599)Anthony and Cleopatra (1607)-Sonnets (1609) -His masterful plays have dominated English-spea
15、king stages, which have been translated into every major language. 17th Century Bourgeois Revolution and Restoration Period (十七世纪资产阶级革命时期)-The King James Bible (1611)-Britain under James I-Publication of the English version of the Bible (1611) -The King James ordered the translation of the Holy Scri
16、pture, which was considered as a permanent monument of English literary style-Although it was not the first English translation, the king James version willprobably never be matched for majesty of language.-Essays and Other Prose-Francis Bacon (1561-1626)-He was an English philosopher, essayist and
17、statesman under both Elizabethand James.-His essays made popular in English a literary form widely practiced afterward-Bacons major works:-The Advancement of Learning (1605)-The New Atlantis (1610)-The Novum Organum (New Method) (1620) -Essays (1625)-Some of the famous quotations from Bacon:Knowledg
18、e is power.Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few tobe chewed and digestedBooks must follow sciences, and not sciences books -Thomas Hobbees (1588-1679)-He was one of the most celebrated political treatises and he wrote his famous Leviathan, -John Milton (1608-1674) and th
19、e English Revolution-In the English Revolution, there were two leaders:-Cromwell was the man of action in politics-Milton, the man of thought, who ranks with Shakespeare and Chaucer.-Milton wrote many essays, the best known prose Areopagitica-During the shadow of the Restoration, he wrote his three
20、master epic poems:-Paradise Lost (1667) -which is a long epic poem divided into 12 books -Paradise Regained (1671)-Samson Agonistes (1671)-His body of poetry also includes some fine sonnets.-John Bunyan (1628-1688)-He was often called”the tinker of Elstow” and a Puritan writer-His major works: -The
21、Pilgrims Progress from this world to That which is to come (1678) -The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680)-The Holy War (1682)Restoration and Eighteenth Century Enlightenment(王朝复辟和启蒙主义时期) 1. General Introduction-The Enlightenment characterizes the efforts by certain Europeanwriters to use critical r
22、eason to free minds from prejudice,authorityand oppression by Church or State.-The most important forerunners were two persons:-John Lockes materialist theory-Newtons theory of gravitation 2. Writers and their works-Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)-He was a great satirical writer in the 18th century-His n
23、ame is linked with the fanciful account of four voyagesknown to us as Gullivers Travels (1726)-Alexander Pope (1688-1744)-He was a gifted English poet in the 18th century-Two of his essays in verse stand out -the Essay on Criticism (1711) -The Rape of the Lock (1712-14)-Samuel Johnson (1709-84) -He
24、is a lexicographer, essayist, and poet - the editor of a Dictionary of the English Language (1747-1755), the first great English dictionary.-Major works: -Vanity of Human Wisnes (1749)-Rasselas (1769)-The Lives of the Poets (1779-1781) -Burke, Burns and Blake - Burke (1729-97), who was a writer of f
25、ine prose -Burns (1759-96), who produced a much-loved poet in Scottish dialect-Blake (1757-1827), who illustrated much of his own work, as well asthe Bible and other writings.-his most famous poem The Tiger and Songs of Innocence -Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731)-Defoes first and greatest novel appeared in
26、 1719, which was Robinson Crusoe-many other books Moll Flanders (1722) and Roxana (1724)-Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)-He is novelist and often called the founder of the English domestic novel-His type of novel is called the epistolary novel.-Major works-Pamela, or virtue Rewarded (1740)-Clarissa, o
27、r the History of a Young Lady (1748) -Henry Fielding (1707-1754)-He was called “Father of the English novel” although he was not the first English novelist-He was instrumental in the creation and development of the modern novel-His masterpiece is The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749) -Journal
28、ism and the Periodical Essay-Joseph Addison (1672-1779), who is essayist, poet and statesman.-Richard Steele (1672-1729), Who is an essayist, dramatist and politician.-Both contributed to -The Tatler (1709-1711)-The Spectator (1711-1712)The Early 19th Century-Romanticism（浪漫主义运动时期） 1. General Introdu
29、ction-Romanticism was a movement in literature, Philosophy, music and art which developed in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-It emphasized individual values and aspirations above those of society, which gave impetus to the national liberation movement in 19th-century Europe.-the le
30、ading Romantic writers -Blake Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and so on in England-Hugo and Sand in France -Heine in Germany-Manzoni and Leopardi in Italy -Pushkin in Russia-Michiewica in Poland-This tendency to return to nature and to childlike innocence became such a stirring call that many other forms
31、 of thinking active at the time such as Pantheism. 2). Two Revolutions -the French revolution-the Industrial Revolution3). Writers and their works-The Romantic poets can be divided into two types:- The Passive Romantic Poets-The Lakers-Wordsworth and Coleridge -Wordsworth (1770-1850)-Lyrical Ballads
32、 (1798)-The Prelude(1850)-Coleridge (1772-1834) -Biographic Literature (1817)-The Rime of the Ancient Mariner-the Active Romantic Poets -inheriting the enlightenment idea and emphasizing the link between literature andreality-Lord Byron (1788-1824)-Childe Harolds Pilgrimage (1812-1818)-Don Juan (181
33、9-1824)-Manfred (1817)-John Keats (1795-1821)-his characteristic is to pursuit the aesthetics for escaping from the reality -Ode on a Grecian Urn-Ode to a Nighingale -Endymion-Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)-His works are full of vigorous vitality -Ode to the West Wind (1819)-To a Skylark (1820)-De
34、fense of Poetry (1812)-Prometheus Unbound (1820) In Scotland -Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)-In Scotland there developed a type of romanticism different from that of Byron and Shelley and its spokesman was Scott.-The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)-Marmion (1808)-The Lady of the Lake (1810)-The Heart
35、of Midlothian (1818)-Ivanhoe (1820)-Kenilworth (1821)-Wuentin Durward (1823)-Jane Austen (1775-1817)-Her novels described in detail the manners and customs of a certain social class, and therefore were called the Novel of Manners-Pride and Prejudice (1813)-Sense and Sensibility (1811)-Northanger Abb
36、ey (1818)-Emma-The Brontes-more fascinating literary family -Their work stands apart and is hard to classify.-Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)-Jane Eyre (1847)-Emily Bronte (18181848)-Wuthering Heights (1847)-Anne Bronte (1820-1849)-Agnes Grey (1847) The Mid-19th Century -Realism1. General Introduction-
37、The romantic spirit did not disappear, but it ceased to be a clearly leading influence-At the same time satire and protest against evils in society became strong elements. and mainly was some kinds of realistic writing and some authors who showed a new and deeper understanding of character. 2. Write
38、rs and their works -Charles Dickens (1812-1870)-Pickwick Papers (1836-1837)-A Tale of Two Cities (1859)-Oliver Twist (1837-39)-Hard Times (1854)-David Copperfield (1849-1850)-Nicholas Hickleby (1838-1839) -Thackeray and Dickens (18111863)-Another figure tower over the Victorian novel, who was a mast
39、er of satire, a criticof what he thought false in life.-Vanity Fair (1848)-Pendennis (1848-1850)-Henry Esmond (1852) -George Eliot (1819-1880)-Her work was full of abstract ethics and morality and her principle of the ethical philosophy was “Kindheartedness”-Adam Bede (1859)-Silas Marner (1861)-Mikk
40、lemarch(1871-72)-The Mill on the Floss(1860)VII.The Late 19th Century-At this period people had completely given up their looking forward the idyllic lifeand clearly realized that the old system was inevitably destroyed.-Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)-Hardys works offer powerful, realistic studies of life
41、 . -He lived well onto the 20th century but did his major work as a novelist in the 19th century. -As a prose writer he is the last of the 19th century, as a poet he belongs to the 20th.-Far from the Madding Crowned (1874)-The Return of the Native (1878)-The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)-Tess of the
42、DUrbervilles (1891) -Jude the Obscure (1896) -George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)-Shaw won the Nobel Prize in 1925-He was a member of the Fabian society whose aim was to make a transition from capitalism to socialism without violence.-Heartbreak House (1917)-Major Barbara (1905)-The Apple Cart (1929)-St
43、evenson (1850-1894) and Carroll (1832-1898)-A Childs Garden of Verses (1885)-Treasure Island (1883)-Kidnapped (1886)-Alices Adventures in Wonderland (1865)-through the Looking-Glass (1872)-The Hunting of the Snark (1876)VIII. The 20th Century-Modernism and other Trends1. General introduction -Modern
44、ism was a complex and diverse international movement in all the creative arts, originating about the end of the 19th century. -It was made up of many facets, such as symbolism, surrealism, cubism, expressionism,futurism and etc. -During the early years of the 20th century new ideas in writing were m
45、ixed with the old, to follow the changing times. Certain major figures represent these changes.2. Writers and WorksBefore 1945-T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)-His main characteristic is putting to use symbolism in his poetry. -The Love Song of J. Alfred Prrufrock (1915)-Four Quartets (1944)-The Waste Land (
46、1922) -Eliots major contribution to English poetry is this long poem. -Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)-He was one of the great novelists and stylists of modern English literature and concerned with men under stress.-Lord Jim (1900)-The Heart of Darkness-David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930)-He is one of the most original and controversial English writers of the 20th century and considered one of the “makers” of modern English fiction -Sons and Lovers (1913)-The Rainbow (1915)-Women in Love (1920)-The Lost Girl (1920)-Lady Chatterleys Lover (1928)
