English Literature
Review
Types of questions
? Ⅰ. Choose from the given choices the correct one. (2’X15=30’) ? Ⅱ. Define the following terms. (10’X3=30’)
? Ⅲ. III. Answer one of the following questions. (20’X1=20’)
? Ⅳ. Write no less than 100 words on one of the following topics in English. (20’
X1=20’)
What we’ve learned? Beowulf
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ? The Anglo-Saxon Period ? The Anglo-Norman Period
? The 14th century ? The Renaissance ? The 17th century
? The 18th century
? The 19th century
? The 20th century
Geoffrey Chaucer William Shakespeare
4 Johns: John Milton & John Bunyan
Neo-classicism; Realistic Novel; Sentimentalism，Pre-romanticism Romanticism; Critical Realism Stream of Consciousness
Anglo-Saxon 449-1066
? Three pagan Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, from Denmark and northern Germany came
around 450---600 AD
? England’s natinal epic: ? The song of Beowulf
? Alliteration is a device with certain accented words in a line beginning with the same
consonant sound.
? p3
Anglo-Norman Period
? 1066, The Norman Conquest ? the battle of Hastings ? William, Duke of Normandy win ? P17-18 ? Metrical Romance: ? the culmination of the Arthurian romances ? Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Geoffrey Chaucer
? The Middle Class Author ? “Father of English poetry”: Chaucer introduced from France the rhymed stanzas---heroic couplet. ? heroic couplet: is a rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter. ? Forerunner of English Renaissance and humanism ? The founder of English realism/ The first realistic writer ? first to be buried in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey ? The Canterbury Tales p43-45 English Renaissance (1520s---1620s) P67
? Poet: Thomas Wyatt, Edmund Spenser
? Thomas Wyatt was the first to introduce the sonnet into English literature. ? Edmund Spenser: (epic) The Fairy Queen ? Essayist: Francis Bacon
? Playwright: Christopher Marlowe ? William Shakespeare
? Christopher Marlowe is the greatest o the pioneers of English drama. He
makes blank verse the principal vehicle of expression in drama.f ? P67-68
The Renaissance and humanism
? was an intellectual movement. It sprang from first in Italy in the 14th century and
gradually spread all over Europe. Two features are striking. The one is a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature of the Greek and Latin. Another feature is the keen interest in the activities of humanity.
? Humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance.
? Blank verse is a verse with unrhymed (rhymeless) iambic pentameter. ? Sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter with a carefully
patterned rhyme scheme. William Shakespeare
? Great comedies: ?
? Great tragedies: ?
? p71-72
? Sonnet 18 p118
The Merchant of Venice ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Great comedies:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Merchant of Venice As You Like It Twelfth Night
Portia’s characteristics Shylock’s characteristics Theme
Great tragedies: Hamlet Othello King Lear
The Tragedy of Macbeth The image of Hamlet
The Melancholy of Hamlet
Hamlet The 17th century
? The Period of Revolution：
? the Glorious Revolution in 1688
? P130-131
? Metaphysical poet: John Donne;
? John Milton ? John Bunyan ? John Dryden
John Donne and the Metaphysical Poets ? Metaphysical School:
? They are a school of poets at the beginning of the 17th century, with John
Donne as the founder.
? Their works are generally characterized by mysticism and obscurity in content
and fantasticality and conceit in form.
? They are known for their excessive use of philosophy and deliberate show-off
of their cleverness and learning. John Dryden (1631-1700) ? A poet, playwright and critic
? The Poet Laureate/ The Laureate
? He established the heroic couplet as one of the principal English verse forms
? The forerunner of the English classicism. ?
John Milton’s works
? Paradise Lost 《失乐园》 ? Paradise Regain《复乐园》
? Samson Agonistes《力士参孙》
? It’s all based on the story of the Old Testament ? of the Bible
? a long epic in 12 books, written in blank verse
? Paradise Lost 《失乐园》 ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
a long epic in 12 books, written in blank verse Image of Satan Theme
Bunyan
The Pilgrim’s Progress a religious allegory
The journey of a man named Christan
The 18th Century :
The Age of Enlightenment
the age of reason
the age of prose
The Enlightenment
? The Enlightenment is a progressive intellectual movement that celebrates reason,
equality, science and human ability to perfect themselves and their society. Literature of the 18th century
? It is an age of prose rather than poetry.
? p166 ? Literal trends: ? Neoclassicism: ? The novel:
? Sentimentalism: ? pre-romanticism:
Addison，Steele，Pope
Defoe, Fielding, Smollet, Richardson, Swift Goldsmith, Sterne, Gray Blake, Burns
Pope: authority in matters of literary art;
made heroic couplet popular in poem writing;
master of satire and heroic couplet
p167
1. Neo-Classicism
★Classicism emphasizes the traditional and the universal, and places value on reason, clarity, balance, and order.
-- control literary creation by fixed law and rules (order, logic, restrained emotions and accuracy)
★ Classicism, with its concern for reason and universal themes, is traditionally opposed to Romanticism, which is concerned with emotions and personal themes. 2. The 18th century novel p167-168 ? Daniel Defoe
? Robinson Crusoe ? Henry Fielding (real founder) ? Tom Jones
? Samuel Richardson: Pamela ? Jonathan Swift (a master of satire) ? Gulliver’s Travels
? Play: Richard Brinsley Sheridan ? The school for scandal
? The significance (theme) of the novel Robinson Crusoe
Jonathan Swift ? works: ? The Battle of the Books 《书的战争》 ? The Tale of a Tub 《木桶的故事》 ? Gulliver’s Travels 《格列佛游记》 ? Lilliput ? Brobdingnag ? The flying island of Laputa ? Houyhnhnms
英国文学史期末复习重点总结
