A Brief Outline of British Literature（英国文学概要）I. The early and Medieval literature（早期和中世纪文学）1. Beowulf （贝奥武夫，有记载的最早的一部英国文学作品）2. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales。
（杰弗里乔叟的坎特伯雷故事集）II. The English Renaissance (1485-1603) （英国文艺复兴时期）1. Edmund Spence r’s The Shepherd's Calendar and Faerie Queen（埃德蒙斯宾塞的牧羊人日记和精灵女王）2. Francis Bacon’s Essays（弗朗西斯培根的散文）3. William Shakespeare’s dramas（威廉莎士比亚的戏剧）III. The 17th century (1603-1660)1. The English Revolution （英国革命）2. John Milton’s Paradise Lost（弥尔顿的失乐园）3. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress（约翰班扬的天路历程）IV. The Restoration and the 18th Century (1660-1798) （复辟与十八世纪）1. enlightenment （启蒙运动）2. neo-classicism:（新古典主义）a. John Dryden’s dramas（约翰德来端的戏剧）b. Ale xander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock （亚历山大蒲柏的夺发记）c. Richard Steele and Joseph Addison's essays（理查德斯蒂尔和约瑟夫艾迪生的散文）d. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary（赛缪尔约翰逊的词典）3. rise of the novel writing:（小说创作的兴起）a. Daniel DeFoe’s Robinson Crusoe（丹尼尔笛福的鲁滨逊漂流记）b. Janathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels（贾纳森斯威夫特的格列佛游记）V. The Age of Romanticism (1798-1830)（浪漫主义时代）1. Pre-Romanticism : （前浪漫主义）a. William Blake （威廉布雷克英国诗人和画家）b. Robert Burn （罗伯特彭斯）c. William Wordsworth（威廉华兹华斯英国诗人）2. Romanticism （浪漫主义）a. P. B. Shelley （Percy Bysshe Shelley 珀西比西雪莱）b. G. G. Byron（George Gordon Byron 乔治戈登拜伦）c. J. Keats（John Keats 约翰济慈）3. Jane Austen’s novels（简奥斯丁小说）VI. The Victorian Age (1832-1901)（维多利亚时代）1. industrial revolution （工业革命）2. realism （现实主义）a. Charles Dickens （查尔斯狄更斯英国作家）b. Thomas Hardy（托马斯哈代英国小说家）c. Bronte sisters（勃朗特三姐妹）d. George Eliot（乔治艾略特）3. aestheticism: Oscar Wilde （唯美主义，奥斯卡王尔德）VII. The 20th century (1901-)1. two world wars（两次世界大战）2. modernism（现代主义）3. psychological fiction and stream of consciousness (心理小说与意识流)a. D. H. Lawrence （David Herbert Lawrence大卫赫伯特劳伦斯）b. James Joyce（詹姆斯乔伊斯）c. Virginia Woolf（弗吉尼亚伍尔夫）4. Poetry（诗歌）Definition of Literature ：Literature refers to All written or spoken compositions ( discourses) designed to tell stories, dramatize situations and reveal thoughts and emotions, and also more importantly, to interest, entertain, stimulate, broaden and ennoble readers. （文学的定义：文学是所有口头或书面的成分设计讲故事，戏剧化情况，揭示思想和情感，而且更重要的是，兴趣，娱乐，刺激，拓宽和授予爵位的读者。
）What to learn in this course?1. historical and cultural background（历史文化背景）2. life story of the masters（大师们的人生故事）3. masterpieces introduction and features（代表作介绍与特色）4. some important literary terms and their meanings。
（一些重要的文学术语及其意义）Chapter I The Anglo-Saxon Period(449-1066)（第一章央格鲁撒克逊时期）Historical Background1.The early inhabitants in England (today) were Britons, a tribe of Celts, which was primitive people, living in tribal society. [Britain: the land of Britons.]2.The Roman ConquestIn 55 B.C., Julius Caesar invaded Britain. “Veni, vidi, vici”I come, I see, I conquer.1) Roman mode of life came across to Britain:theaters; baths? conquerorsnative Britons ? slaves2) London became an important trading center.3) Christianity was introduced to Britain.3.Roman Empire began to decline at the beginning of 5th Century. In 410 A. D. all the Roman troops went back to the continent and never returned. The Roman occupation ended. The aboriginal Celtic population of the larger part of the island was soon conquered and almost totally exterminated by the Teutonic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes.Epic: or heroic poem, is applied to a work that meets at least the following criteria: it is a long verse narrative on a serious subject, told in a formal and elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race.The Song of Beowulf1.Anglo-Saxon Poetry: poems, or songs by the Anglo-Saxon minstrels who sang of the heroic deeds of old time to the chiefs and warriors in the feasting-hall.2.Beowulf: 3182 lines, the national epic of the English people.3. A folk legend brought to England by Anglo-Saxons from their continental homes. It had been passed from mouth to mouth for hundreds of years before it was written down in the tenth century.The Story of Beowulf1.Beowulf is the nephew of Hygelac, King of the Geats, a people in Jutland, Denmark. News reaches him that Hrothgar, King of the Danes, is in great trouble. Hrothgar has built a great hall. But a terrible monster, Grendel, visits the hall from night and carries the warriors away. So the hall is deserted.On hearing the news, Beowulf sails for Denmark with fourteen companions and offers to fight the monster. After a feast of welcome, Beowulf and his companions lie down in the hall for the night. Then Grendel appears, seizes and devours one of Beowulf’s men. He next attacks Beowulf, who grapples with him single-handed, because weapons do not avail against him. After a terrible hand-to-hand combat, Grendel retreats mortally wounded, leaving one of his arms with Beowulf. Great rejoicing follows and next night the hall is once more full of joys and songs.2.But Grendel has a mother. She comes to avenge her son’s death by carrying away the chief counsellor of Hrothgar. Beowulf and his companions follow the bloody trail to the edge of a lake. Beowulf plunges into the water, finds the old she-monster and follows her into a hall under the waves. In the desperate combat his sword fails to bite. And at first he almost gets the worst of it if he does not by chance seize a big sword left by the giants of old time. With it he cuts off the head of the she-monster. There, too, he finds the body of Grendel himself and cuts off his head as well. With these trophies he goes back to the hall of the Danish king. The triumph is celebrated byfeasting and song. And Beowulf sails home to the land of the Geats.3.Now, he becomes king and reigns over his people for fifty years. Then it comes to pass that a fire dragon comes out of its den and belches forth its fire to burn the people. Beowulf is an old man now. But he bids farewell to his household and goes to seek the dragon with eleven companions. He fights it single-handed. Again the sword fails to bite, and the hero is enveloped in flames. The dragon is killed at last. But Beowulf is hopelessly wounded too. The poem ends with the funeral of the hero.Features of BeowulfAlliteration: is the repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of nearby words. The term is usually applied only to consonants, and only when the recurrent sound begins a word or a stressed syllable within a word. In Old English alliterative meter, alliteration is the principal organizing device of the verse line.Metaphorring-giver: kingsea-wood: shipHearth-companion: his attendant warriorsSwan’s bath or whale’s bath: seaUnderstatementNot troublesome: very welcomeNeed not praise: a right to condemnChapter II The Anglo-Norman PeriodI. Historical Background1. In the year 1066, the battle of Hastings.2. William, Duke of Normandy defeated the Anglo-Saxons.3. Feudalism: landlords and peasants4. The literature which they brought to England is remarkable for its bright, romantic tales of love and adventure, in marked contrast with the strength and somberness of Anglo-Saxon poetry.5. A large part of the French vocabulary.6. Adventures of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round TableII. Romance: chivalric romance or medieval romance, is a type of narrative that developed in twelfth-century France, spread to the literatures of other countries, and displaced the earlier epic and heroic forms. The romance is distinguished from the epic in that it does not represent a heroic age of tribal wars, but a courtly and chivalric age, often one of highly developed manners and civility. Its standard plot is that of aquest undertaken by a singl e knight in order to gain a lady’s favor; frequently its central interest is courtly love, together with tournaments fought and dragons and monsters slain for the damsel’s sake; it stresses the chivalric ideals of courage, loyalty, honor, mercifulness to an opponent, and elaborate manners; and it delights in wonders and marvels.III. Chivalry1. To never do outrage nor murder.2. Always to flee treason.3. To by no means be cruel but to give mercy unto him who asks for mercy.4. To always do ladies, gentlewomen and widows succor.5. To never force ladies, gentlewomen or widows.6. Not to take up battles in wrongful quarrelsChapter III Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400)The Canterbury TalesChaucer’s contribution to the English languageChaucer’s language is vivid and exact. His verse is smooth. His words are easy to understand. He introduced from France the rhymed stanzasof various types, especially the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter whichwas later called the “heroic couplet” to English poetry, instea d of the oldAnglo-Saxon alliterative verse. Though drawing influence from French, Italian and Latin models, he is the first important poet to write in the current Englishlanguage. His production of so much excellent poetry was an important factorin establishing English as the literary language of the country. Chaucer didmuch in making the dialect of London the foundation for the modern Englishlanguage.Popular BalladsBallad: A short definition of the popular ballad (known also as the folk ballad or traditional ballad) is that it is a song, transmitted orally, which tells a story. Ballads are thus the narrative species of folk songs, which originate, and are communicated orally, among illiterate or only partly literate people.Robin HoodThe Vision of Piers, the Plowman(by Langland)Sir Patrick Spens。