英国文学史及选读考试重点

Chapter 1 Old English Literature (450 – 1066)

Beowulf

(1) National epic

Beowulf is the first great English literary work and is regarded as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons.

Chapter 2 Middle English Literature (1066 -- the 14th century) A. Medieval romance

Subjects: Matter of France; Matter of Rome; Matter of Britain

B. The Popular Ballads:

Definition

(1) A narrative song, or an oral form of verse.

(2) Composed by common people during a long period of time.

(3) An important stream of the Medieval folk literature.

C. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400) Messenger of Humanism; The first important realistic writer; ―Father‖ of English poetry and Master of the English language:

masterpiece:

Chapter 3 Renaissance (from 14th c. to mid-17th c.)

1. Renaissance

(1) It marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world (from 14th c. to mid-17th c.).

(2) "Renaissance" means rebirth or revival.

(3) The combination of Christian (Britain‘s tradition) and Greek traditions.

(4) It is stimulated by events like the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture (culture), the new discoveries in geography and astronomy (science), the religious reformation (religion) and the economic expansion (economy).

(5) To get rid of old feudalist ideas and introduce new ideas of the rising bourgeoisie, to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church.

2. Humanism

(1) To exalt human elements or stress the importance of human interests, as opposed to the supernatural, divine elements—or as opposed to the grosser赚钱的机器, animal elements.（否定旧的）

(2) To see human beings as glorious creatures capable of individual development.（肯定新的2、3、4、5）

(3) To emphasize the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life.

(4) To believe that man does not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of this life, but the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders. （2、3的总结）

(5) To express the rebellious spirit against the tyranny of feudal rule and religious domination. Representatives: More, Marlowe, Shakespeare（同renaissance 一样，最后落脚到封建主义与资本主义的对立）

Elizabethan Poetry

I. Major Forms of Elizabethan Poetry

1. Sonnet

(1) A lyric poem of 14 lines with a formal rhyme scheme,(形式)

(2)Expressing different aspects of a single thought, mood, or feeling,（内容）

(3) Iambic pentameter is essentially the meter, but here again certain poets have experimented with hexameter and other meters.（方法）

2. Blank verse

3. heroic couplet

II. Selected readings (Discussion)

1. Sonnet 18 (by Shakespeare)

William Shakespeare(1564-1616)

1. Four great tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth

2. Hamlet

Contrast

(a) Hamlet and Claudius: Each tries to probe into the mind of the other.

Whether the king is guilty

Whether Hamlet is mad

(b) Madness

Real madness v. Feigned madness (Ophelia – Hamlet)

(c) Different attitudes toward vengeance(复仇):

Hamlet thinks too much, delays too long.

Laertes acts too rashly, thinks too little.

Fortinbras is a man of both action and thoughts.

(d) Inner conflict in Hamlet‘s mind:

strong urge to revenge vs. disillusioned view of human life

makes him weak

Could you explain Hamlet’s hesitation in action to kill his uncle from the perspective of Oedipus Complex?

The study, Hamlet and Oedipus, was written by Sigmund Freud‗s colleague and biographer Ernest Jones. In particular, Jones explains Hamlet‘s mysterious delay in action as a consequence of the Oedipus Complex: the son continually postpones the act of revenge because of the impossibly complicated psychodynamic(心理动力的) situation in which he finds himself. Though he hates his fratricidal(杀兄弟的) uncle, he nevertheless unconsciously identifies with him —for, having killed Hamlet's father and married his mother, Claudius has carried out what are Hamlet's own unconscious wishes.

In addition, marriage to Hamlet's mother gives the uncle the unconscious status of the father —destructive impulses towards whom provoke great anxiety and meet with repression.

John Donne (1572-1631)

Special features

(1) Conceits: (A fanciful poetic image, especially an elaborate or exaggerated comparison 奇思妙

想) – metaphysical conceits refer to bringing together things that are primary unlike

(2) Wit: (聪敏机智）-- the centre of Donne‘s poetic method, such as the dialectical arrangement

of a poem, logical reasoning, dramatic plot

(3) Imagery: drawn form his interests, revealing the width of his intellectual exploration

(4) Dramatic and conversational style:

(5) metric skills: violating conventional and metrical regularities of rhythm and stress

(1) The Flea

(2) ―Death, Be Not Proud‖

John Milton

II. His works

A. Early poetic works:

Lycidas

B. middle prose pamphlets

Areopagitican. 《论出版自由》

C. last great poems

Paradise Lost

Paradise Regained

Samson Agonistes

Paradise lost

Plots

The story it related (12 books in all)

1. The fall of the angels, the tortures and

the struggles they made upon the God.

2. God creates the Adam and Eve.

3. Man‘s disobedience.

4. The banishment of Adam and Eve, their

loss of paradise .

Major characters analysis

Satan (Lucifer) :

1. he is the first character to whom the reader is introduced, and the most complex. It has been suggested that Satan is the true "epic hero" of the piece, largely because of his epic language and heroic energy.

2. he hold the self-centered perspective , arrogant, boldness and diligence in fighting with god .

Adam & Eve

1. Strong, intelligent, and rational character possessed of a remarkable relationship with God .

2. Innocent and impulsive ,dedicative to their love .

3. with the spiritual purity , her capacity for emotion, and forbearance .

God

1.omnipotent(全能的） character who knows everything before it happens .

2. unknowable to mankind and to some extent lacks emotion and depth .

Themes

1.The Importance of Obedience to God .

Paradise Lost presents two moral paths that one can take after disobedience:

(1) The downward spiral of increasing sin and degradation, represented by Satan.

(2) the road to redemption, represented by Adam and Eve.

2. The Hierarchical Nature of the Universe

The layout of the universe —with Heaven above, Hell below, and Earth in the middle —presents the universe as a hierarchy based on proximity （亲近）to God and his grace .This spatial hierarchy leads to a social hierarchy of angels, humans, animals, and devils, To obey God is to respect this hierarchy.

Humankind must now experience pain and death, but humans can also experience mercy, salvation, and grace in ways they would not have been able to had they not disobeyed.

On the other side, it also gives individual human beings the opportunity to redeem（ 救赎）themselves by true repentance and faith.

Chapter4 The Neo-classical Period

Features

Neo-classicism (last decades of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century)

(1) Models on the classical literature of the ancient Greek and Roman writers like Homer,

Virgil, Horace, Ovid, etc. and in the contemporary French writers such as Voltaire and Diderot.

(2) A partial reaction against the fires of passion blazed in the late Renaissance, especially in

the Metaphysical poetry.

(3) Stresses on the classical artistic ideals of order, logic, proportion, restrained emotion,

accuracy, good taste and decorum.

(4) Neo-classical writers are: John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison,

Richard Steele, Henry Fielding, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edward Gibbon, etc.

(5) It had a lasting wholesome influence upon the literature of the coming generation.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Major works

An Essay on Criticism (1711), The Rape of the Lock (1712-14),

The Dunciad (1728-42), The Essay on Man (1733-34)

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

I. Major Works

A Tale of a Tub (1704) The Battle of Books (1704)

“A Modest Proposal” (1730) Gulliver's Travels (1726)

II. Analysis of Gulliver's Travels (1726)

(1) Theme

It is a satire on the 18th-century English society, touching upon the political, religious, legal, military, scientific, philosophical as well as literary institutions. It takes great pains to bring to light the wickedness of the then English society, with its tyranny, its political intrigues and corruption, its aggressive wars and colonialism, its religious disputes and persecution, and its ruthless oppression and exploitation of the common people.

(2) Narrative features

(A) Both a fantasy and a realistic work of fiction.

(B) The language is very simple, unadorned, straightforward and effective.

(C) An apparent innocence and honesty of the hero and his account, the direct, truthful, detailed presentation of people and things encountered set off the biting satire and a desperate indignation of the writer.

(D) Tidy structural arrangement. The four seemingly independent parts are linked up by the central idea of social satire and make up an organic whole.

(E) From outward-homeward-bound motif to a darkening gradation of incident and a growing

perversion of the hero; on one hand, from a chance shipwreck to man-made misfortunes and intended mutinies. The hero's attitude towards mankind changes from firm belief to doubt, further doubt, and finally to dislike.

The Rise of the English Novel and Defoe

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)

1. Features of his Novels

(1) Picaresque tradition

(2) Autobiographical form and first person narration

(3) Journalistic style with great detail and specific time and space

(4) Language

Diction: plain, smooth, easy, direct, and colloquial but never coarse

Syntax: long, rambling sentences without strong pauses to give his style an urgent, immediate, breathless quality, but the units of meaning are small and clear with frequent repetition so that the writing gives an impression of simple lucidity.

2. A Brief Analysis of Robinson Crusoe

(1) Story: a Alexander Selkirk who once stayed alone on the uninhabited island Juan Fernandez for 5 years

(2) Different levels of meaning

(a) Adventurous story; (b) Moral tale; (c) Commercial account; (d) Puritan fable; (e)Myth of modern civilization.

(3) Theme:

(a) It celebrates the strength of human rational will to conquer the natural environment.

(b) Robinson is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. His success was due to the sturdy qualities in his character, to his own unaided efforts, to his courage and patience, to his practical skill, and to his intelligent persistence.

Chapter 5 The Romantic Period

(The Romantic Movement starts in 1798 and ends in 1832)

1. Definitions:

Romanticism: Romanticism is a term applied to literary and artistic movements of the late 18th and early 19th century. It can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified classicism in general and late 18th-century neoclassicism in particular. It was also to some extent a reaction against the Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in general. Inspired in part by the libertarian ideals of the French Revolution, the romantics believed in a return to nature and in the innate goodness of humans, as expressed by Jean Jacques Rousseau. They emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental. They also showed interest in the medieval, exotic, primitive, and nationalistic. Critics date English literary romanticism from the publication of William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads in 1798 to the death of Sir Walter Scott and the passage of the first reform bill in the Parliament in 1832.

2. Romantic poets:

a. William Blake (1757-1827)

Poetical Sketches (1783) (a collection of youthful verse with notes of joy, laughter and love) Songs of Innocence (1809) (presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its

evils and sufferings)

Songs of Experience (1794) (painting a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone)

Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790) (marking Blake's entry into maturity)

b. William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

c. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Major works

Poems : a. the demonic poems

e.g. (1) ―The Rime of the Ancient Mariner‖; (2) ―Christabel‖; (3) ―Kubla Khan‖

b. the conversational poems

e.g. ―Frost at Midnight‖ ―Dejection : an Ode‖

d. George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)

e. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

"Ode to the West Wind” (1819

f. John Keats (1795-1821)

Odes: The odes are generally regarded as Keats's most important and mature works.

“Ode on a Grecian Urn”

g. Jane Austen (1775-1817)

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which originates from emotion recollected in tranquility.

I. Major works

(1) Lyrical Ballads (1798)

(2) Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind (1850)

II. Selected readings

(1) “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”

Main idea

The poem is crystal clear and lucid. By recounting a little episode, the poet gives a description of the scene and of the feelings that match it. Then he abstracts the total emotional value of the experience and concludes by summing that up. Below the immediate surface, we find that all the realistic details of the flowers, the trees, the waves, the wind, and all the accompanying sensations of active joy, are absorbed into an over-all concrete metaphor, the recurrent image of the dance, which appears in every stanza. The flowers, the stars, the waves are units in this dancing pattern of order in diversity, of linked eternal harmony and vitality. Through the revelation and recognition of his kinship with nature, the poet himself becomes as it were a part of the whole cosmic dance.

Paraphrase(1)

I, alone, walked slowly around the valleys and hills, like a lonely cloud moving slowly over. Suddenly, I saw bundles and bundles of golden daffodils growing beside the lake or under the trees. In the breeze, the daffodils moved lightly and quickly as if they were dancing.

Paraphrase(2)

The yellow flowers fluttered and danced without a stop just like the stars that shine and change their light in the Milky Way. These flowers grew in a long line that extended without an end along the edge of a bay. I had a quick look at the ten thousand flowers when they moved their heads as

they were dancing lively.

Paraphrase(3)

The waves in the lake next to the daffodils also danced together; but the joyful daffodils danced better than the glimmering waves. I was very cheerful because I have such pleasant companions. And I couldn't help looking steadily and admir ing at the daffodils for a long time, but I didn‘t realize at that moment that the scene of the dancing daffodils had brought me something to be cherished forever.

Paraphrase(4)

Very often, when I recline on my couch, feeling empty or thinking deeply and sadly, dancing daffodils emerge in my mind and inspire my solitary heart. This is the very happiness and comfort for me, a lonely being. Thus my heart, dancing with the golden daffodils, will be full of satisfaction and happiness.

George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)

Major works

(1) Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

(2) Don Juan

The Byronic Hero

(1) A proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin.

(2) With immense superiority in his passions and powers.

(3) To right all the wrongs in a corrupt society.

(4) Rise single-handedly against tyrannical rules with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible

energies.

Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822)

1. Major works

(1) Queen Mab (1813) (2) Prometheus Unbound (1819)

(3) lyrics: "Ode to the West Wind‖ (1819) ―The cloud‖ ―To a Skylark‖ (1820)

(4) Adonais (1821) (5) In Defence of Poetry (1822)

"Ode to the West Wind"

Ode: The ode is a lyric poem of some length, dealing with a lofty(崇高的) theme in a dignified manner. (praising and glorifying an individual,Commemorating 纪念 an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally).

Themes

(1) The cycle of the seasons

(2) Destroyer and preserver

(3) Wind sweeps across the land.

(4) Wind sweeps across the sky.

(5) Wind sweeps across the ocean.

(6) Wind and man:

Young: tameless, radical, brave, passionate, energetic, courageous, with strong imagination Old: tamed, conservative, inactive, indifferent, cold, loss of imagination

Jane Austen (1775-1817)

1. Characteristics of her works

(1) Chief Interest

Main concern is about human beings in their personal relations, human beings with their

families and neighbors.

(2) Narrowness

the range of experience.

The subject matter, the character range, the moral setting, physical setting and social setting, and plots are all restricted to the provincial or village life of nineteenth-century England, absolute accuracy and sureness by never stepping beyond the limits of her knowledge.

3. The Works of Jane Austin

Sense and Sensibility (1811),

Pride and Prejudice (1813),

Mansfield Park (1814),

Emma (1816)

Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (published posthumously by her brother in 1818)

4. Pride and Prejudice (First Impressions )

(1) Themes

good judgment (pride and prejudice)

love and marriage

(a) those who marry for money, position and property,

(b) those who marry just for passion

(c) and those who marry for love which is based on consideration of the person‘s personal

merit as well as his economical and social status.

(3) Selected reading

Main idea:

The selection is the first chapter of the novel, in which the parents of the Bennet girls are busy considering the prospects of their daughters‘ marriages shortly after hearing of the arrival of a rich unmarried young man, Mr. Bingley, as their neighbor.

In this selection, we can find mild satire in the author‘s seemingly matter-of-fact description of the conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, in the vivid portrait of the husband and the wife, and, specifically, in the opening sentence. The relationship of the husband and wife and their attitude towards each other are also subtly presented.

Mrs. Bennet, an empty-headed woman, is simple and naive, eager to talk with any slight encouragement. Mr. Bennet is a man of intricate character and quick wit. His teasing tone and sarcastic humor are just beyond his wife‘s understanding.

Homework

1. The characterization in Pride and Prejudice

How many types of characters have been portrayed in this novel? Who are they? What are their characteristics?

2. Austen‘s Marital View reflected in Pride and Prejudice.

Chapter 6

The Victorian Period

(Reign of Queen Victorian from 1836 to 1901) A. Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

1. Major works: Early period: The Pickwick Papers; Oliver Twist; David Copperfield

Late Period: Bleak House; A Tale of Two Cities; Great Expectations

2. Special Features

B. William M. Thackeray (1811-1863)

1. Some features of his works

2. V anity Fair

C. Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)

Jane Eyre

D. Emily Bronte (1818-1848)

Wuthering Heights

E. Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

F. Robert Browning (1812-1889)

―My Last Duchess‖

G . George Eliot (1819-1880)

Middlemarch (1872)

H. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

The Victorian Period and Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Major works

The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations

Analysis of Great Expectations

(1) Story

Pip, Joe Gargery, Miss Havisham, Estella , Magwitch, Biddy, Satis House

(2) Themes

(a) A novel about "great expectations", or dreams and disillusions.

(b) The personal development of Pip from a innocent, honest boy to a vain, selfish, snobbish young gentleman. The painful experience in the struggle to grow up, to ―climb up‖ or to succeed in the commercialized world.

The Bildungsroman ("novel of formation" ) is a genre of the novel which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood. The genre arose during the German Enlightenment.

A Bildungsroman tells about the growing up or coming of age of a sensitive person who is looking for answers and experience. Usually in the beginning of the story there is an emotional loss which makes the protagonist leave on his journey.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

―All his novels present the losing struggle of individuals against the obscure power which moves the universe.

1. Major works

The Return of the Native (1878) , The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) Tess of D’Urbervilles (1891) Jude the Obscure (1896).

2. A brief analysis of Tess of D’Urbervilles

(1) The story

Major characters: Alec, Tess, Angel Clare (a triangle)

(2) Themes

A. determinism

(a) Tess, a pure woman, wages a loosing battle against the evil society 纯真的少女vs. 邪恶的社会

(b) Once a thief, always a thief. Once a victim, always a victim. Although Tess is a beautiful, innocent, honest, sweet-natured, and hard-working country girl, she can not avoid being played with by fate.

Determinism & Naturalism

Determinism refers to the belief or theory that human actions and events are controlled by and result from causes that determine them. Characters who illustrate determinism act without free will in accordance with forces beyond their control.

Naturalism: A post-Darwinism movement in the late 19thcentury that tried to apply the ―laws‖ of scientific determinism to fiction. The naturalists went beyond the realists‘ insistence on the objective presentation of the details of everyday life and insisted that materials of literature should be arranged to reflect a deterministic universe in which a person is a biological creature controlled by this environment and heredity. There is an emphasis of chance or coincidence and the character‘s p assivity in naturalistic works, and the toner is rather pessimistic. Major writers of British literature include Hardy and Gissing.

B. Criticism of social conventions of Victorian

England (ideas of social class as well as the

sexual double standard);

A Patriarchal Society(男权制的社会): men dominating women

(3) Structure

(a)A cyclical pattern, divided into three parts. The first part is a prelude, telling how Tess leaves home and encounters Alec. She was seduced by Alec and comes back home disgraced. This is the first cycle, beginning in May and ending in August.

(b) The second part is the main love story meeting with Angel at Talbothays. It begins in May, reaches its climax at the turning of the year and ends in the following winter.

(c) The last part represents her decline. Forced by poverty, Tess returns to Alec until Angel comes to claim her. In shame and anger, Tess kills Alec, and is finally arrested and executed. This part starts in winter and ends in spring.

Chapter 7 The Modern Period

( the early decades of 20th century, before WWWI)

A. Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness (1902)

B. Oscar Wilde (Art for Art’s sake)

Major works: The importance of Being Earnest

C. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Greatest dramatist in modern time in British literary history, won Nobel Prize in 1925.

Major Works: Pygmalion

D. Virginia Woolf

A novelist

Major Works: Mrs. Dalloway, The Waves, To the Lighthouse

Stream of Consciousness is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual‘s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character‘s thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions.