简明英国文学史A Brief History of English LiteraturePart I Old and Middle English Periods (450-1066)Chapter 1Old English Period and BeowulfHistorical situationBritons, a branch of Celts, came to the Isles in BC400 to BC300, at the early stage of the Iron AgeJulius Caesar of the Roman Empire defeated the Celts and ruled there from BC55 to AD 407The Roman Empire declined, the Teutonic or Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes moved to live in the British Isles in about AD450They drove the Celts to Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the English language has gradually changed, Old Anglo-Saxon.8 to 11 Century, Danes from Scandinavia came to the Isles Norman Conquest 1066, it influenced the evolution of the English language, life style and culture.ReligionChristianityPart II English Renaissance and Shakespeare (1485-1616)Chapter 3The English Renaissance Literature⏹Historical situationfrom feudal society to capitalism;industry and commerce; “sheep devouring men”Tudor Reign: Religious Reformation,King Henry VIII (1509-1547), ProtestantismQueen Elizabeh (1558-1603)moderate policies to keep balance between the rising middle class and the feudal lords, the Protestants and the Catholics.a powerful country, set up English colonies overseas.⏹Humanism and the Renaissance in EnglandRenaissance: revival of arts and sciences of ancient Greece and Rome after the long years of neglect in the medieval timeIn Englanda strong interest in ancient Greek and Rome art and science;Humanism: concerned about the welfare of human beings and believed that human happiness in this life was more important that what people were supposed to.religious reformation of the church ;praised man and man’s pursuit of happiness.⏹Chief Literary Achievement of the Period1. translating classical Italian and French works;2. poetry“ a nest of singing birds;”sonnet became the most popular poetic form;Thomas Wyatt3. Drama and Theatre PerformanceMarlowe; Ben Jonson and ShakespeareLondon , the centre of drama performanceII. Ten Renaissance Writers⏹Thomas More：Utopia⏹Edmund Spenser：The Faerie Queene⏹Philip Sidney⏹University Wits:John Lyly: Euphues -- EuphuismThomas Nashe, Robert Greene⏹Francis Baconessays⏹Christopher Marloweblank verse: the major vehicle of expression in drama⏹Ben Jonsondrama; prose workChapter 4William Shakespeare⏹The lifeStratford-on-Avon, 1564⏹Literary career and productions37 plays154 sonnetsShakespeare’s major works⏹History playsget material from the English history and from the history of ancient Rome Julius CaesarHenry IV, Part I and Part IIRichard IIHenry VHenry VI, Part I , Part II , Part III⏹ComediesA Mid-Summer Night’s Dream;As You Like It;The Twelfth Night;The Merchant of Venice⏹TragediesHamlet;King LearMacbethOthello⏹Tragic-comediesThe Winter’s TaleThe TempestSonnets⏹Sonnet 73⏹Sonnet 18⏹Sonnet 130My Mistress’ EyesMy mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sunCoral is far more red than her lips’ red,If snow be white, why then her breasts arte dun,If hairs be wires, black wires grow upon her head.I have seen roses damasked, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks,And in some perfumes is there more delight,Than in the breath that from my mistress’ reeks.I love to hear her speak: yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound,I grant I never saw a goddess go,My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,As any she belied with false compare.Part IIIThe Seventeenth Century (1616-1688) Chapter 5The Bourgeois Revolution and Milton1. History of the 17th century:a.King Charles I--Long Parliamentb.the civil war (1642-1649):army of the Parliament led by Oliver Cromwell;Bourgeois Revolution of England (Puritan Revolution);Puritans;King Charles II—James II—“glorious Revolution”（光荣革命）constitutional monarchy(君主立宪制）2. Chief Literary Achievements⏹The Bible ( The Old Testament and the New Testament)fountain heads of the Western Civilisation: The bible, Greek and Roman mythology and philosophy;Hebrew—Greek—LatinEnglish version: “The King James Bible” (47 scholars, 7 years)⏹Poetrya.“Metaphysical Poets”（玄学派）—John Donne, Andrew Marvell, George Herbertb.Cavalier Poets (骑士诗人）c. Epics（史诗）by John Milton⏹Prosepolitical pamphlets and essays;non-political matters⏹Drama(Restoration period)comedies combined with the French taste with witty language;light, often coarse themes;emphasis on the wit of the charactersthey are criticised as decadent.⏹Dryden and BunyanDryden: man of lettersBunyan: The Pilgrim’s ProgressII. John Milton⏹Paradise Lost （失乐园）⏹Paradise Regained （复乐园）⏹Samson Agonistes (力士生孙）Chapter 6The Metaphysical Poets and the Restoration Drama⏹Metaphysical Poets (John Donne, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert)“Death Be not Proud”“ The Flea”“ A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”(理解诗歌：240）John DonneDeath be not proud, though some have called theeMighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me；From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,And soonest our best men with thee do go,Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,And better than thy stroak；why swell'st thou then？One short sleep past, we wake eternally,And death shall be no more；Death, thou shalt die.Chapter 7Dryden and Bunyan⏹John BunyanThe Pilgrim’s ProgressPart IVThe Eighteenth Century(1688-1780)Chapter 8The Age of Classicism⏹Historical Situationscience and technology:Steam engine—Industrial Revolution;political economics;Enlightenment Movement;religion: Deism, more individual,⏹Literary Achievements (In the first half of the 18th century):The Age of Classicism (or Neoclassicism)- Alexander Pope ( heroic couplet)- Swift ( master of satire)they admire and follow the styles of ancient poets in Roman Empire of Augustus in a metaphorical manner.; they worshipped reasons, so also called the Age of ReasonII. Chief Representatives⏹Alexander PopeAn Essay on CriticismThe Rape of the Lock⏹Jonathan Swift“A Modest Proposal”Gulliver’s TravelsLilliput;Brobdingnag;Laputa(flying island)Houyhnhnms (horsese), yahoo.⏹Joseph Addison⏹Richard SteeleThe Spectator⏹Samuel Johnson (a journalist, a biographer, a literary critic) The DictionaryChapter 9The Rise of the Novel⏹Background About the Rise of the Novelscience and technology developed;printing;reading makes the flourish of a book market;women’s reading even writingII. Major Novelists⏹1. Daniel DefoeRobinson Crusoe( a sailor, 28 years in an isolated island)Moll FlandersRoxana⏹2. Samuel RichardsonPamela, or Virtue Rewarded (letter novel)Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady⏹3. Henry FieldingJoseph AndrewsThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling⏹4. Laurence SterneTristram ShandyA Sentimental JourneyChaoter 10The Pre-Romantic Literature⏹Backgroundgrowth of cities, the bourgeois class, the book marketFrom reason to passion;literature in the second half century shifted from paying attention to human fates and social problems to searching the meaning of life and death, from exploring human nature, philosophy of human congnition to experiencing and praising nature.Pre-Romantic Poetry⏹Graveyard PoetsThomas Parnell, Edward Young, Robert BlairThomas Gray (Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard)wrote melancholy poems, often with the poet meditating on human mortality problems at night or in a graveyard.⏹Robert Burns, the Sctottish Bard⏹William BlakeSongs of InnocenceSongs of Experience⏹The Gothic NovelistsThe Castle of Otranto –Horace WalpoleThe Monk –Matthew Gregory LewisThe Mysteries of Udolpho —Ann RadcliffePart VThe Romantic Period (1780-1830)Chapter 11Wordsworth and Coleridge⏹Historical backgroundIndustrial Revolution, working class,the Luddites’ movement –frame-breakers, breaking looms and machines, ignorant of the real cause for their sufferings;relationship with Ireland, Scotland and her colonies in North American became critical.American Revolution and the French Revolution; democracy, equality and freedom, social reform⏹Literary Achievements1) PoetryWordsworh, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, KeatsLake Poets: Wordswoth, Coleridge, Southey2) NovelWalter Scott, Jane Austen⏹Romanticism or Romantic Movement is a literary movement in Britain and the European Continent between 1770 and 1848.its keynote is “intensity(strong emotion)”, its watchword is “imagination”⏹The English Romantic Movement was marked by the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798.⏹Features of English Romanticism:simplicity (content and language);love of nature( respect nature’s force, feelings with nature);subjectivity (individual emotion recollected in tranquility);spontaneity (“the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”)subject: supernatural, mysterious, stange and splendid, remote time and place;tone:melancholyII. The Romantic SageWilliam Wordsworh⏹Lyrical Ballads, a joint work of Wordsworth and Coleridge⏹Poems in search for self-definition in relation with nature“I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud”; “My Heart Leaps up When I Behold”; “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abby”⏹Poems of Solitary“The Solitary Reaper”I Wandered Lonely as a Cloudby WordsworthI wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of Golden daffodils:Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.The waves beside them danced; but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;A poet could not but be gay;In such a jocund company;I gazed – and gazed – but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.The Solitary Reaperby WordsworthBehold her, single in the field,Yon solitary Highland Lass!Reaping and singing by herself，Stop here, or gently pass!Alone she cuts and binds the grain,And sings a melancholy strain;O listen! for the Vale profoundIs overflowing with the sound.No Nightingale did ever chauntMore welcome notes to weary bandsOf travelers in some shady haunt,Among Arabian sands:A voice so thrilling ne'er was heardIn spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird, Breaking the silence of the seasAmong the farthest Hebrides.Will no one tell me what she sings?—Perhaps the plaintive numbers flowFor old, unhappy, far-off things,And battles long ago:Or is it some more humble lay,Familiar matter of to-day?Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,That has been, and may be again?Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sangAs if her song could have no ending;I saw her singing at her work,And o'er the sickle bending;——I listen'd, motionless and still;And, as I mounted up the hill,The music in my heart I bore,Long after it was heard no more. Composed upon Westminster Bridge by WordsworhP.181III. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poet and Critic “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”( a strange, supernatural sea tale in the form of a ballad)“ Kubla Khan”Chapter 12Byron, Shelley and Keats⏹Byron and the Byronic Heromajor works:Childe Harold’s PilgrimageDon JuanWhat is a Byronic Hero?(P.189)⏹Shelleymajor works:Queen Mab ( first long poem)“Song to the Men of England”“Ode to the West Wind”“To a Skylark”Prometheus Unbound (lyrical drama)⏹John Keats, the Poet of Beauty“Ode to a Nightingale”“Ode on a Grecian Urn”“To Autumn”“ Ode to Psyche”“ On Melancholy”Chapter 13Walter Scott and Jane Austen⏹Walter Scott, Romantic Writer of Historical Themesmajor works:Ivanhoe (historical romance)Rob Roy ( a legendary hero of the Scottish people)features:combine historical facts with romantic adventures;characters: type, superficial, lacking development and psychological depth;colorful and exotic settings;out-of-date mode of language⏹Jane Austen, Novelist of Social Mannersmajor works:Sense and SensibilityPride and PrejudiceMansfield ParkEmmaNorthanger AbbyPersuasionPart VIThe Victorian Literature(1830-1880)Chapter 14The Victorian Age⏹What is Victorian? Why do we say that the Victorian Age was one of greatchanges?Queen Victoria (1837-1901)great development in industry, trade, science and technology, overseas expansion;social contradictions, national problems;diversity intellectual; disputes and changes in religionMajor Literary Achievements⏹Prose: Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Matthew Arnold⏹Poets: Tennyson, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold,Raphaelite poets(combine Italian art with poetry):Rossetti, William Morris, Swinburnenovelists: Charles Dickens, Thackeray,George Eliot, the Bronte sister, Mrs GaskellChapter 15Victorian Novelists⏹Charles Dickensmajor works:David CopperfieldBleak HouseA Tale of Two CitiesGreat ExpectationsOliver Twist⏹William Makepeace ThackerayVanity Fair⏹Charlotte BronteJane Eyre⏹Emily BronteWuthering Heights⏹George EliotThe Mill on the FlossChapter 16Victorian Poets⏹Alfred Tennyson(1809-1892)Idylls of the King(interest in myths and legends)In Memoriam(sense of loneliness and a loss of a dear friend)Poet Laureate⏹Robert Browning (1812-1889)“My Last Duchess” (the dramatic monologue- strong with its great potential in characterisation and psychological probing)The Ring and the Book( a long poem)Part VIIFine de siècle and Modernist Literature(1880-1930)Chapter 18Fin de siècle⏹Backgroundlate 19th century , the apogee of British imperialism, ambitious and aggressive and a world power.natural science: Darwinsocial science: Marxanthropology (science of man): Sigmund Freud, his research on anthropology has a great influence on the whole 20th-century English literature.technology: electric light, radio, telephone, motor car, aeroplane, cinema(mass production and consumption of film industry) , the traditional art works, their un-reproducibility and uniqueness, gradually faded awayChapter 19Late Victorian to the First World War⏹Fin de siècleAestheticism:Oscar Wilde : indulge in wit, preferring artifice to reality, artistic decadence, “art’s for art’s sake”The Picture of Dorian Gray (novel)Lady Windermere’s Fan (comedy)A Woman of No Importance (comedy)The Importance of Being Earnest (comedy)Wilde: Life and nature imitate art more than art imitates life and nature.⏹Late Victorian Poetry1. Rhymer’s Club:Swinburne, Ernest Dowson, form of overrefinement and artistry, spirit and theme is inspired by classic literature and the new poetry developed in France.2. Gerard Manley HopkinsThe Victorian religious poetry found its most eloquent and radical expression in his poetry⏹3. Thomas Hardy⏹4. A.E. Housman⏹5. Robert Bridges, John Masefield, Rudyard Kipling⏹6.Georgian Poetry (casual and effortless beauty)⏹7. Imagism: An intense aesthetic experience is bodied out through lean images andsparse words. Ezra Pound⏹Novels of This Period⏹1. Thomas HardyJude the ObscureUnder the Greenwood TreeFar from the Madding CrowdThe Mayor of CasterbridgeTess of the D’Urbevilles⏹2. Samuel ButlerErewhonThe Way of All Flesh⏹3. George Moore⏹4. John GalsworthyThe Forsyte Saga: The Man of Property⏹5. W. Somerset MaughamOf Human BondageThe Moon and Sixpence⏹6. H.G. Wells (science romances)The Time MachineThe War of the Worlds⏹7. Rudyard KiplingThe Jungle Book⏹8. E.M. ForsterA Passage to India⏹9. Joseph ConradLord JimHeart of Darkness( features: inscrutable mysteries, point of view) ⏹10. Henry JamesThe Wings of DoveThe Golden BowlDrama⏹George Bernard ShawMrs. Warren’s ProfessionMajor BarbaraPygmalionMy Fair Lady (film)(problem plays)Chapter 20Modernist Literature⏹Modernist Novel and Novelists1. Virginia WoolfMrs. DallowayTo the LighthouseA Room of One’s Own(stream of consciousness of a person’s everyday existence, her concept of “androgyny” gains tremendous popularity in late 20th-century feminist theory )⏹2. D.H. LawrenceThe RainbowWomen in LoveSons and LoversLady Chatterley’s Loverwomen and sexual relationship⏹3. James JoyceA Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManDubliners (short stories)UlyssesFinnegans Wake(epiphany, stream of consciousness)Modernist Poetry⏹1. Ezra PoundImagist Movement⏹2. T.S. EliotThe Waste Land“The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”( the only way of expressing emotion in art is by finding an “objective equivalent.”)⏹3. William Butler Yeats“The Second Coming”“Sailing to Byzantium”。