英国文学史考试重点整理

文学史课件整理

考试题型

名词解释三个15分

问答题两个25分

连线题20分

选择题40分

一、中古时期

1、Two groups of Anglo-Saxon poetry

1): pagan异教徒: oral sagas口头传说/冒险故事: the Song of Beowulf

2): Christian信徒: copied by the monk.

The influence of the Christianity upon language and culture.

Two ecclesiastic poets: Caedmon and Cynewulf

2、The Song of Beowulf-

The Song of Beowulf----England’s national epic

1) creation time: written in 10-th century

2).plot and theme

fight with Grendel

fight with Grendel’s mother

fight with firedrake

death and funeral

The epic poem Beowulf describes the most heroic man of the Anglo-Saxon times. It is a Denmark story which used alliteration, metaphors and understatements

3). Characteristics of “Beowulf”

a. the mixture of pagan elements with Christian coloring. The most outstanding example is the frequent reference in the epic to “Wyrd” (fate) as the decisive factor in human affaires, while on other occasions “God” or “Lord” is also mentioned as the omniscient and omnipotent being that rules over the whole universe.

b. the frequent use of metaphors and understatements. “Ring giver” is used for king, “Swan road”, “whale-path”or “seal bath”for the sea, “wave-traveler”or “sea-wood”for ship, “shield-bearer”, “battle-hero” or “spear-fighter” for soldier.

c. Beowulf is written in alliterative verse. Its rhythm depends upon accent and alliteration. That is, the beginning of two or more words in the same line with the same sound or letter. The lines are made up of two short halves, separated by a pause. No rhyme is used; but a musical effect is produced by giving each half line two strongly accented syllables. Each full line, therefore, has four accents, three of which usually begin with the same sound or letter.

Beowulf towers above all other Anglo-Saxon literature, not only because it is a powerful poem about people’s hero written in true epic style, but also because it tells in artistic form the tale in a leisurely way, full of elaborations in legendary details, and the verse rises at places to heights of poetic grandeur

4).The significance of Beowulf：

a. This glorious epic presents us a vivid picture of the life of Anglo-Saxon people and highly praises the brave and courageous spirit of the fighting against the elemental forces.

b. The epic reflects the situations the epoch of pagan tribalism and of the era of the Christianized feudal society.

c. The epic gives the vivid portrayal of a great national hero, strong and courageous people and his kinfolk.

2、Geoffrey Chaucer乔叟

1）The Canterbury Tales

a.Started writing it in the 1380s

Uses a frame device so that he could write a variety of tales

Setting is April, with the pilgrims leaving the Tabard Inn for Canterbury

Tavern keeper Harry Bailley was a real person

it represents Chaucer’s final poetic achievements. For depth of interest, for the wealth of its impressions of the human comedy, and for its mature wisdom. It is unrivaled among Chaucer’s works.

30 pilgrims, would be 120 stories. But Chaucer had actually completed only 22 stories, with two more existing in fragments

b.Important because....

?First book of poetry written in the English language

?Chaucer chose English over Latin and Italian

?Serves as a window into medieval social life

?Captured the variations of human temperament and behavior

We still know these people

c.Genres within the Tales坎特伯雷故事集

Several different genres are present in the larger body of works. These include:

?Courtly romance (courtly love) – Knight’s Tale

?Fabliau – a humorous, satirical, and often bawdy tale dealing with basic human desire for money, sex, or food – Miller’s Tale

?Pious legend (Saints’ Lives) – Prioress’s Tale

?Allegory – the characters represent some trait of human nature or some abstract concept ?Beast Fable – Nun’s Priest’s Tale

?Sermon

?Moral Tales – Pardoner’s Tale

2)Canterbury Pilgrims清教徒

Chaucer reveals the paradoxes of living –he exposes the best and worst of human nature in both historical and human context.

How believable is the literary picture of the knight as loyal, fearless, persevering, courteous, gentle, devout, and humble??

haucer’s knight is battle-scarred, but credible. He is the embodiment of the Code of Chivalry lived out in its letter and spirit, a person larger than life, but representative of what life is all about.

3）Chaucer’s Knight

In the context of the entire work, the Knight is a critique of the chivalric code.

Traditionally, by law, the knight of the code was obliged to uprightness; by birth, the knight if title and status was honored and presumed honorable.

Chaucer’s knight breaks away from the artificial and fixed condition of birth and becomes a knight of the spirit, living up to an aristocracy of the soul.

The other pilgrims, too, are entertaining and intriguing portraits from medieval life

3.English Ballads民谣

1）Most of the written literature in feudal England was intended only for upper classes.

The English people had a literature of their own, not written but oral—English folk songs.

The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad

What is a ballad?

A ballad is a story told in second，usually in4-line stanzas, with the song and fourth lines rhymed

2）Features of English Ballads

1. The ballads are in various English and Scottish dialects.

2. They were created collectively and revised when handed down from mouth to mouth.

3. They are mainly the literature of the peasants.

4. They give an outlook of the English common people in feudal society.

二、文艺复兴时期

1、The Renaissance began in Florence, Italy

Italy was in an ideal location to be the birthplace of the Renaissance

?Close to the old Byzantine Empire

?Center of trade in the Mediterranean

Italian scholars began to take lots of interest in the classical writing of the Greeks and Romans This increased interest in the classics is called humanism

Humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance. It reflected the new outlook of the rising bourgeois class. Humanists emphasize the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life and believe that man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of this life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders by removing all the external checks by the exercise of reason. They also expressed their rebellious spirit against the tyranny of feudal rule and ecclesiastical domination.

2、renaissance

1）Definition of Renaissance

Renaissance marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world. It first started in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe. The word “Renaissance”means rebirth or revival. In essence, it is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe and introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, and to lift the restriction in all areas placed by the Roman Catholic Church authorities.

2）Two features of renaissance:

It is a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature. People learned to admire the Greek and Latin works as models of literary form. It is the keen interest in the activities of humanity.

3、Thomas Morewas a very famous English Humanist

He criticized English society in his Book Utopia ). It tells a journey to an imaginary island Utopia where an ideal form of society exists. This gentleman not only predicted a perfect society for us but also placed a word in our vocabularies and gave the name to all literature of this kind, which has since been called Utopian.

?William Shakespeare is probably the most famous English Renaissance writer ?He wrote plays, sonnets, and essays

四大悲剧：Hamlet哈姆雷特Othello奥赛罗King Lear李尔王Macbeth麦克白

四大喜剧：As You Like I皆大欢喜Twelfth Night第十二夜Midsummer Night’s Dream仲夏夜之梦The Merchant of Venice威尼斯商人

Romeo and Juliet, , Julius Caesar, Richard III, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, etc.

2）Contributions

1.A masterhand for every form of drama.

2.Skilled in many poetic forms, esp. sonnet

3.A great master of English language

4.The summit of the English Renaissance

3）A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter with a carefully patterned rhyme scheme.

It can be divided into two categories: the Italian/Petrarchan sonnet and the English/Shakespearean sonnet.

The English or Shakespearean sonnet,consists of three quatrains and a couplet--that is, it rhymes abab cdcd efef gg.

The Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet:

Fourteen lines .Iambic pentameter

Consists of an octet (eight lines) of two envelope quatrains

Usually abba abba, Sometimes abba cddc, Or rarely abab abab;

The turn occurs at the end of the octet and is developed and closed in the sestet.

And a sestet (six lines)Which may rhyme cdecde Or cdcdcd

The English or Shakespearean sonnet:

Fourteen lines .Iambic pentameter

Consists of three Sicilian quatrains (four lines)And a heroic couplet (two lines)

Rhymes: abab cdcd efef gg.The turn comes at or near line 13

?Sonnet 18

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,只要人类在呼吸，眼睛看得见，

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.我这诗就活着，使你的生命绵延。

5、Francis Bacon培根 was the best known essayist of this period. He was also the founder of modern science in England. a representative of the English renaissance

1）Famous Sayings

Live to learn, not learn to live. 活着就要学习，学习不是为了活着。

1. Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark.

2. All colors will agree in the dark.

3. Why should I be angry with as a man for loving himself better than me .

4. Knowledge is power.

5. A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

6. It is impossible to love and be wise.

7. Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set . 美德好比宝石，在朴素背景的衬托下反而更华丽。2）Essay: A Definition

It is a relatively short literary composition in prose, in which a writer discusses a topic, usually restricted in scope, or tries to persuade the reader to accept a particular point of view.

the term essai was first applied to the form in 1580 by Montaigne, one of the greatest essayists of all time, to his pieces on friendship, love, death, and morality. In England the term was

inaugurated in 1597 by Francis Bacon, who wrote shrewd meditations on civil and moral wisdom.

6、Thomas Wyatt托马斯亚怀特English diplomat and poet noted for introducing the sonnet form , a 14-line poem, into English literature

?the Earl of Surrey

7、Edmund Spenser菲利普锡德尼

1)The Faerie Queene仙后is Spenser’s masterpiece. The principle intention is to present through a “historical poem” the example of a perfect gentleman.In the poem, Spenser focuses on 12 virtues of the private gentleman, and plans 12 books, each one with a different hero distinguished for one of the private virtues. The hero of the heroes is Arthur.He possesses all of these virtues and plays a role in each of the 12 major adventures.The recurring appearances of Arthur serve as a unifying element for the poem as a whole.The Faerie Queene is full of adventures and marvels, dragons, witches, enchanted trees, giants, jousting knights, and castles. It is also an allegory. Each hero represents a certain virtue .This literary epic poem has a romantic theme- Fierce wars and faithful loves.

?The Chief Qualities of Spenser’s poetry

(1) A perfect melody

(2) A rare sense of beauty

(3) A splendid imagination

(4) A lofty moral purity and seriousness

(5) A dedicated idealism

In addition, Spenser uses strange forms of speech and obsolete words in order to increase the rustic effect.It is Spenser’ idealism, his love of beauty, and his exquisite melody that make him known as “the poets’ poet.”

8、Christopher Marlowe克里斯托夫马络

(1) He perfected the blank verse and made it the principal medium of English drama.It is Marlowe who brought vitality and grandeur into the blank verse素体诗/无韵诗with his “mighty lines,” which carry strong emotions. He employed hyperbole夸张as his major figure of speech, which indicates the poetic energy and intensity conveyed through the verse.

(2) The second one is his creation of the Renaissance hero for English drama .Such a hero is always individualistic and full of ambition, facing bravely the challenge from both gods and men. The hero embodies Marlowe’s humanistic ideal of human dignity and capacity .

（3）Dr.Faustus浮士德博士 is the greatest play written by Christopher Marlowe, one of the most famous dramatists of the Renaissance period. The main theme of the play is human rather than religious. It lays its focus on the passion for knowledge, power and happiness that are the true spirit of the Renaissance.

（4）Main features

1) It is based on the German legend and reshapes it freely. It is a legend of a magician aspiring for knowledge and finally meeting his tragic end as a result of selling his soul to the devil.

2) The moral of the play is human rather than religious.

3) Blank verse is employed.

4)Hyperbole

5) Marlowe created the Renaissance hero in the play.

三、十七世纪资产阶级革命时期

1、John Milton约翰弥尔顿

1）Paradise Lost失乐园 is a long epic. The stories are taken from the Old Testament.基督教的《旧约全书》Paradise Lost was actually written after Milton became totally blind. He spent seven years upon this epic poem. The rebellious反抗的Satan is the embodiment of the revolutionary革命的化身的 Milton. In spite of his blindness, he endeavors to do his utmost. The Paradise Lost is the greatest, indeed the only generally acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf ; Paradise Lost is Milton's masterpiece. The theme is the "Fall of Man", i.e. man's disobedience and the loss of Paradise, with its prime cause -Satan. His purpose was "to justify the ways of God to man"- i.e. submission to the Almighty.

2）Satan Some readers consider Satan to be the hero, or protagonist, of the story, because he struggles to overcome his own doubts and weaknesses and accomplishes his goal of corrupting humankind.In Paradise Lost, Satan is the rebel who never bows down to God even when he failed. He is a good military leader. He refuses to acknowledge the power of God. He is determined to continue the battle. He feels sorrow at the sufferings of those angels. He has led to so terrible a punishment, but he is very cruel. He has indomitable pride, unconquerable rebellion, and the will to evil and power. He said, "Only do evil, no good". He tries to be as equal as God.

4）The creation

The rebellion of Satan and his fellow angels .Their defeat and expulsion from Heaven .Creation of the earth and of Adam and Eve .Satan in hell plotting against God .Satan’s temptation of Eve .Departure of Adam and Eve from Eden

5）The Characters

Only Six major characters

?Satan, the leader of the fallen angels (now known as devils)

Major Quote: "Better to reign in Hell then serve in Heav'n!"The leader of the angels who were cast from Heaven for eternity.His big entrance to the poem are lines 84-191.

Chinese View: A rebel against tyranny .Milton’s mouthpiece, uttering his hatred of tyranny.Revolt against the dictator and established doctrines.

Western View:Satan’s qualities are perverted: evil and exaggerated.Satan's defiance of God manifests: his egoistic pride, false conception of freedom, alienation from all good; Religiously and morally corrupt and blind. Consciousness of his own evil and damnation .Satan and his fellows are enveloped in dramatic irony because they fight and scheme in ignorance of the unshakable power of God and goodness.

?Beelzebub, Satan’s closest friend/ally

Satan’s Best Friend, Second in power under Satan .He is talking to Satan about a return to Heaven for more fightingDisappears after Book I, since the rest of the story concerns Satan, God, and the First People.

?God, God the Father

Called the Father because of Holy Trinity: The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.Ruler of Heaven and

Creator of Earth.It was He who cast Satan out.First appearance is in Book III:----“Now had the Almighty Father, from above,From the pure Empyrean where he sits High throned above all heighth, bent down his eye…”–Lines 56-58

?The Son, God the Son; also known as the Messiah, Christ

Also referred to as The Messiah.When God the Father first speaks, it is The Son that He is addressing.The Father and Son see Adam eat the apple.The Son moves down, in Book X, to interview, pass judgement on, and clothe Adam and Eve

?Adam, The first man, living in Paradise

The first man.He lives with Eve in the Garden of Eden (Paradise, Earth).He eats from the Tree of Knowledge only after Eve does.Referred to as “the patriarch of man”, Line 379, Book IX

?Eve, His wife, supposed to be under his control

The first woman.Satan uses her curiosity against her.She is tricked into, and given a bad name for, eating from the Tree of Knowledge first.Genesis 3:18 refers to her as “the mother of all living”6)Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.The Importance of Obedience to God.The first words of Paradise Lost state that the poem’s main theme will be “Man’s first Disobedience.” Milton narrates the story of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, explains how and why it happens, and places the story within the larger context of Satan’s rebellion and Jesus’ resurrection. Raphael tells Adam about Satan’s disobedience in an effort to give him a fi rm grasp of the threat that Satan and humankind’s disobedience poses. In essence, Paradise Lost presents two moral paths that one can take after disobedience: the downward spiral of increasing sin and degradation, represented by Satan, and the road to redemption, represented by Adam and Eve.While Adam and Eve are the first humans to disobey God, Satan is the first of all God’s creation to disobey. His decision to rebel comes only from himself—he was not persuaded or provoked by others. Also, his decision to continue to disobey God after his fall into Hell ensures that God will not forgive him. Adam and Eve, on the other hand, decide to repent for their sins and seek forgiveness. Unlike Satan, Adam and Eve understand that their disobedience to God does not know that their disobedience will be corrected through generations of toil on Earth. This path is obviously the correct one to take: the visions in Books XI and XII demonstrate that obedience to God, even after repeated falls, can lead to humankind’s salvation.

7Milton’s will

The freedom of the will is the keystone of Milton's creed. His poem attempts to convince us that the unquestionable truth of Biblical revelation means that an all-knowing God was just in allowing Adam and Eve to be tempted and , of their free will, to choose sin and its inevitable punishment. And, thereby, it opens the way for the voluntary sacrifice of Christ which showed the mercy of God in bring good out of evil. Eve, seduced by Satan's rhetoric and her own confused ambition - as well as the mere promptong of hunger - falls into sin through innocent credulity. Adam falls by consciously choosing human love rather obeying God. This is the error wherein greatness lies.

The poem is written in blank verse. In Milton's hands it became a magnificent organ-music. His diction is a combination of plain English and classical Latin - stately, sonorous, and yet essentially simple. It is the "grand" style.

2、John Bunyan约翰班扬English minister and author who is best known for The Pilgrim's Progress天路历程, the most characteristic expression of the Puritan清教徒 religious outlook.

Until the decline of religious faith and the increase of books of popular instruction in the 19th century, Bunyan, like the Bible, was found in every English home and was known to every ordinary reader.Upon the publication of the Pilgrim's Progress, the allegory of Christian's journey to the Celestial City was instantly popular with all classes.

1）Allegory A story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. The principal technique of allegory is personification, whereby abstract qualities are given human shape. An allegory may be conceived as a metaphor that is extended into a structured system. In written narrative, allegory involves a continuous parallel between two or more levels of meaning in a story, so that its person and events correspond to their equivalents in a system of ideas or a chain of events external to the tale: each character and episode in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress , for example, embodies an idea within a pre-existing Puritan doctrine of salvation.

2）The Pilgrim’s progress is the most successful religious allegory in the English language.

?天路历程是英文作品中最成功的宗教寓言，它的主旨是让人们遵循基督教教义

The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan is often said to be concerned with the search for spiritual Salvation精神救赎 .In The Pilgrim's Progress, the basis of the allegorical narrative is the idea of a journey. The traveler’s name is Christian, and he represents every Christian in human world. The figures and places Christian encounters on his journey stand for the various experiences every Christian must go through in the quest for salvation.The best-known section of Part One in this book is the Vanity Fair episode. Christian, the hero, and his companion, Faithful, are passing through a town called Vanity during the season of the local fair. On the Vanity Fair, honors, titles, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures and lives can be sold or bought, and cheating, roguery, murder and adultery are normal phenomena.

What is the symbolic meaning of the Vanity Fair in Bunyan’s “the Pilgrim’s Progress”?

Vanity fair浮华世界、名利场sells all kinds of merchandise such as houses, lands ,honors, titles , lusts, pleasures, It symbolizes the society where everything becomes goods and can be bought by money.

3、John Donne约翰多恩the leading figure of the metaphysical玄学 school

1)Metaphysical Poetry

The term applies to a group of 17th-century English poets who used certain common techniques and employed a few common themes.Revolt against Elizabethan love poetry and the tradition.Psychological analysis of emotions of love and religion.Penchant for novel and even shocking comparisons.Metaphysical conceit --- extended metaphor.Metaphysical wit --- comparison of apparently quite dissimilar objects of concepts and the discovery that they are after all similar.

Roughness of meter and irregular rhyme.

2)conceit (奇喻)

conceit ,from the Italian concetto, “concept’ or “idea”; used in Renaissance poetry to mean a precise and detailed comparison of something more remote or abstract with something more present or concrete, and often detailed through a chain of metaphors or similes.

The Elizabethan poets were fond of Petrarchan conceits, which were conventional comparisons, imitated from the love songs of Petrarch, in which the beloved was compared to a flower, a garden, or the like.

The metaphysical poets fashioned conceits that were witty, complex, intellectual, and often

startling.

3)Fleas were a popular subject for humorous and amatory poetry in all countries at the Renaissance.

Their popularity stems from an event that happened in a literary salon. The salon was run by two ladies, and on an occasion a flea happened to land upon one lady's breast. The poets were amazed at the creature's audacity, and were inspired to write poetry about the beast. It soon became fashionable among poets to write poems about fleas.

The flea, though apparently an unlikely subject for romantic poetry, had been previously used as an amorous conceit in English poetry.

Form

The rhyme scheme in each stanza is similarly regular, in couplets, with the final line rhyming with the final couplet: AABBCCDDD.

Three stanzas in total which are also three ideas in progress.

The stress pattern in each of the nine-line stanzas is 454545455

This poem alternates metrically between lines in iambic tetrameter and lines in iambic pentameter.

4)Death be not proud Holy Sonnet 10 reveals his belief in life after death. Death is momentarily while happiness after death is eternal

四、十八世纪英国启蒙运动时期

1、The Enlightenment Movement (启蒙运动)

1)What is the Enlightenment Movement?

A、a progressive intellectual movement

B、flourished in France and swept through the whole Western Europe

C、aims at enlightening the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas; celebrated reason

D、called for a reference to order, reason and rules

2）The Features of English Enlightenment

(1)English enlighteners believed in the power of reason. That is why the 18th century has often been called “the Age of Reason”. (2) Most of the enlighteners believed that social problems could be solved by human intelligence.

2、Neo-classicism新古典主义

The result of Enlightenment to Literature: the tendency of the interest in the old classical Greek and Roman works and those of the modern French works, to model after the works.

Neo-classicists held that all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers and the contemporary French ones by following some fixed laws and rules.

3、Compare Neo-classicism with Renaissance文艺复兴. Both of them go back to classics, modeling old Greek and Roman writers, but why they differ a lot?

similarities: revival of the classics

dissimilarities: at different stages of capitalistic development.

in the 16th century, bourgeoisie was at the rising stage; Renaissance paved the way for the liberation of bondage of God-worship in Medieval Age.

in the 18th century, bourgeoisie has stepped on the political stage and become ruling class. Rules, laws and regulations were demanded

4、Sentimentalism感伤主义 is a trend of thought beginning at the second half of 18th century, during the age of Enlightenment in England. It gains its name from an English author Sterne’s “A Sentimental Journey”. It carefully depicts person’s mood and their miserable life so as to arouse readers’ sympathy, reflecting the disdain towards the actual world and deep sympathy to the ordinary people. The authors usually like to use death, dark, loneliness, etc, as their subject. Their works are always melancholy, obscure, and full of pessimism.

Characteristics of Sentimentalism are

1) Appeal to emotion, sentiment, not reason.

2) Heroes in sentimentalists’ works are usually common people, or the oppressed.

3) Sentimentalists usually like to idealize village or the countryside. (Tendency of returning to the past, they like to praise patriarchalism and medievalism as their idealization.

This means their dissatisfaction and discontent with the society they lived then.

4) Sentimentalists often turn to describe nature. (nature and death are the themes of some of sentimentalists.)

The artistic value of sentimentalism is:

1) Pave the way for romanticism (description about nature, and the strong and exaggerated expression of emotion.

2) Sympathize with the common people and criticize the rich and the system.

Features of Sentimental Writings

discontent with the social reality。struggle against feudalism。sense the contradictions。dissatisfied with reason

1) sentime2) countryside for the material3) sympathy for the poverty-stricken,expropriated peasantssimple annals(历史记载)of the poor, still in a classical style

5、Alexander Pope亚历山大蒲珀A representative writer of the neo-classical school

Pope’s Works

1) Pastorals 《田园组诗》

(2) Essay on Criticism《论批评》a didactic poem in heroic couplets

(3) The Rape of the Lock 《夺发记》

the masterpiece, which is worth reading for its description and satire of the dull court life of England of that time

(4) Translations, in heroic couplet

The Iliad of Homer 《荷马的伊里亚特》

The Odyssey of Homer (half-translated) 《荷马的的奥德赛》

(5)The Works of Shakespeare 《莎士比亚全集》

an edition of Shakespeare’s plays and recognition of Shakespeare’s greatness.

(6) “The Dunciad”“愚人志”----a satirical poem.

(7) “Moral Essays”“道德论”---- a philosophic poem.

(8) “An Essay on Men”“人论”---- a philosophic poem.

from Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism

Some to conceit alone their taste confine, And glitt’ring thoughts struck out at every line; Pleased with a work where nothing’s just or fit; One glaring Chaos and wild heap of wit.

Poets like painters, thus, unskill’d to trace That naked Nature and the living grace,

With gold and jewels cover every part, And hide with ornaments their want of art.

True Wit is Nature to advantage dress’d, What oft was thought, but ne’er so well express’d;

Question 1：What does Pope criticize in this excerpt？

Metaphysical poets and their peculiar conceit，an evidence to prove the marginized position of the school

Question 2：What’s the feature of the end rhyme in this excerpt? What kind of poetic form does the feature indicate?

Some to conceit alone their taste confine,And glitt’ring thoughts struck out at every line; Pleased with a work where nothing’s just or fit;One glaring Chaos and wild heap of wit. Heroic couplet: every two iambic pentameter lines抑扬格五音步 have the same end rhyme Question 3：In this criticism, what elements does Pope uphold?

taste; just; fit; true wit

Question 4：Is the excerpt a lyric or narrative poem?

neither lyric nor narrative

it is a didactic (instructive) poem ---a poem aims at imparting information, advice, or some doctrine of morality or philosophy.

Pope’s poetics

。Function of poetry: to "correct" and enlighten people through poetry; Literature had the power to influence and enrich life, to educate and correct people.

。Diction: precision of meaning, harmony of language and structure

。A firm control of the form and flexibility of styles: satiric, philosophic, didactic

。Advocate order, reason, logic, restrained emotion, accuracy, good taste and decorum

。Heroic couplet英雄偶句诗: lines of iambic pentameter rhyme in pairs

。“to ridicule all false tastes in learning

Evaluation评价

1. Pope was an outstanding enlightener and the greatest English poet of the classical school in the first half of the 18th century.

2.He became so perfect in using heroic couplet.

3. He was a diligent reader.

4. His style depends upon his patience in elaborating his art.

5. He was at his best in satire and epigram (警句).

6、Daniel Defoe

1）Robinson Crusoe鲁宾逊漂流记

?The full title should be The Life and Strange Surprising Adventure of Robinson Crusoe.

?His masterpiece

?Robinson Crusoe is based upon the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, who had been marooned in an uninhabited island and had lived there in solitude for five years.

?The story dates back to the middle of the 17th century

?Defoe was one of the forerunners of the English realistic novel.

?In the novel the author eulogizes labour and man’s indefatigable efforts to conquer nature.

?But at the same time he beautifies使美化 colonialism殖民主义

?Plot: run away from home → become a sailor → a planter in Brazil → to an uninhabited island because of shipwreck → made a living there all by himself → save a negro named Friday who became his servant → back to England → visit the remote island again and Friday was killed

Adventures of Robinson Crusoe：The book is an expression of the bourgeois qualities of individualism and private enterprise.

Robinson is a new man - a man sure of himself and sure of being able to establish himself anywhere in the world. He is a man of a new age, in which doubt and uncertainty are replaced by hope and confidence.

Robinson is the enterpriser of his age. He is ready to command nature, his enemy, and to found his colony beyond the seas.

He is a merchant-adventurer, interested in material profits. He is a colonist, the empire builder. Robinson Crusoe’s characterization特性描述

typical of the rising English bourgeois class, practical, diligent, a restless curiosity to know more about the world and a desire to prove individual power in the face of social and natural challenges; shrewd, care about money and good at managing; courageous and intelligent to overcome all kinds of obstacles

In this novel, Defoe created the image of a true empire-builder, a colonizer and a foreign trader, who has the courage and will to face hardships and who has determination to preserve himself and improve his livelihood by struggling against nature. Crusoe represents the English bourgeoisie at the earlier stage of its development. Being, a bourgeois writer, Defoe glorifies the hero and defends the policy of colonialism of British government.

stylistic features of the novel 文体特征

simple language, attention to details, seemingly authentic descriptions

Other works

Captain Singleton,

Moll Flanders,

Colonel Jacque and Roxana.

They clearly manifest Defoe's deep concern for the poor in his society.

They are the first literary works devoted to the study of the problems of the lower-class people. ?Jonathan Swift乔纳森斯.威夫特“疯狂的爱尔兰牧师”

1）aimed his witty, imaginative, and often bitter satire激烈讽刺at such subjects as politics, literature, and human society. Swift’s novel gives an unparalleled satirical depiction of the vices of the his age.

2）Swift’s Works

? A Tale of a Tub 《一个木桶的故事》1704 in the form of a parable(寓言故事) a satire讽刺 upon all religious sects宗教派别an attack on Christianity基督教精神 itself

?The Battle of Books 《书的战争》《书战》1704an attack on pedantry(买弄学问) Bickerstaff Almanac (比克斯塔夫先生的历书) 1708

?Predictions for the Year 1708《对1708的预言》

?Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff《比克斯塔夫先生第一个预言的应验》Pamphlets on Ireland: Irish Series

?The Drapier’s Letter 《一个麻布商的书信》（1724）

? A Modest Proposal《一个小小的建议》（1729）

Denounce the cruel and unjust .treatment of Ireland by the English .government and stir up the Irish people to fight.

(7) Gulliver’s Travels《格林佛游记》1706

Lilliput (小人国) a satire讽刺 on the Tories(托利党) & the Whigs(辉格党)

Brobdingnag(大人国) a satire on English lords and ladies贵族与小姐

Flying Island（飞岛）a satire on corrupted philosophers哲学家 & projectors放映机、投影机country of horses(马岛) a satire on the conflicts of English society

Jonathan’s point of view:

?Houyhnhnms具有人类理性的马 : noble and rational yet cold and dull

? Yahoos(格列弗游记中的一种人形兽): low yet natural

It's the sharpest and bitterest satire. In this part, human beings are reduced to animals. A wiser creature governs human beings. Gulliver wants to be a horse rather than a man. It shows how mean the human beings are.

Question

?What are the implied ideas the author tried to convey by this chapter?

The author believed Reason was very important for human being. If human’s desires aren’t controlled by reason, human will become disgusting like yahoos one day in the future. (Notice the special historical background of the book – Age of Reason. )Gulliver’s Travel s is a typical example of showing satire towards the entire human race .

Q: Analyze Gulliver’s Travels to illustrate the use of satire in it.

It is a satire on the whole English society of the early 18th century, touching upon the political, religious, legal, military, scientific, philosophical as well as literary institutions, about almost every aspect of the society. It brings to light the wickedness of the then English society, with its tyranny, its political intrigues and corruption, its aggressive wars and colonialism etc.

For example, in Chapter four, Gulliver is in a country where horses are possessed of reason, and are the governing class, while Yahoos, though in the shape of men, are brute beast with such vices as stealing and lying. This part involves the ruthless moral exposure of humanity and the bitter satire of the English society.

Writing Features

Swift is one of the realist writers. His realism is quite different from Defoe's. Defoe' s stories are based upon the reality of human life, while all of Swift's plots come from imagination, which is the chief means he uses in his satires. His satire is marked by outward gravity and an apparent earnestness. This makes his satire all the more powerful. He not only criticizes the evils of the English bourgeoisie but those of other bourgeois countries.

Swift expresses democratic ideas in his works. This exerts strong influence on later writers, such as Sheridan, Fielding, Byron and even Bernard Shaw.

Swift is one of the greatest masters of English prose. His language is simple, clear and vigorous. Proper words in proper places, makes the true definition of a style .

恰当的词放在恰当的位置就能称为好的风格。

?Henry Fielding

Fielding has been regarded by some as “Father of the English novel,” for his contribution to the establishment of the form of the modern novel.费尔丁被一些人尊为“英国小说之父”，因为他为现代小说模式的创立作出很大贡献。The History of Tom Jones is a masterpiece on the subject of human nature.

费尔丁的代表作《汤姆.琼斯：一个弃儿的故事》主题是对人性的讽刺。

Tom Jones

Henry Fielding described Tom Jones as a “comic epic in prose”, and became very important because he described the human nature with their vices and virtues.

Tom Jones brings its author the name of the “Prose Homer.” It provides the panoramic view of the 18th-century English country.

《汤姆.琼斯》为费尔丁赢得了“散文荷马”的盛名，小说为读者提供了一幅英国18世纪乡村与城市的宏伟的全景图。

Comments

Fielding's method of relating a story is telling the story directly by the author. (Omniscient narrator)

Satire/Humor abounds everywhere in Fielding's works.

Fielding believed in the educational function of the novel.

Fielding is a master of style. His style is easy, unlabored and familiar, but extremely vivid and vigorous.

Fielding’s language is easy, unlaboured and familiar, but extremely vivid and vigorous. His sentences are always distinguished by logic and rhythm, and his structure carefully planed toward an inevitable ending.

费尔丁的创作语言自然流畅，通俗易懂，同时又栩栩如生并富有活力，他的句子以逻辑性和韵律性见长，小说结尾总是水到渠成，顺理成章。

?Samuel Richardson塞缪尔。理查德森

Pamela帕美拉

Clarrissa Harlowe《克拉瑞萨-哈罗》

Sir Charles Grandison《查尔斯-格兰迪生》

10、Laurence Sterne劳伦斯。斯特恩

?The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1760)

? A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768).

11、Oliver Goldsmith奥利弗。哥德史

Periodical: The Bee

Poems: 1) The Traveller《旅游人》

2)The Deserted Village《荒村》

Novel: The Vicar of Wakefield《威克菲尔德的牧师》

Comedies: The Good-Natured Man《好心人》

She Stoops to Conquer《屈身求爱》

Collection of essays: The Citizen of the World《世界公民》

12、Thomas Gray托马斯·格雷

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard《墓畔哀歌》a mode of sentimentalist poetry，a keen interest in the English countryside and a sincere feeling for the life of common people

13、Pre-Romanticists浪漫主义作家

?Romantic Revival arose in the latter half of the 18th century, against Classicism.

It originated among the conservative groups of men of letters as a reaction against Enlightenment and found its most manifest expression in the “Gothic novel,”the term arising from the fact that the greater part of such romances were devoted to the medieval times.Thomas Percy珀西: Reliques of Ancient English Poetry《英诗辑古》1765

James Macpherson 麦克诽森Fingal《芬哥儿》1762

Thomas Chatterton 查特顿The Rowler Papers《罗利诗篇》

14、William Blake威廉。布莱克

His best poems are collected in Songs of Innocence (1789)and Songs of Experience (1794).

The Songs of Innocence is a lively volume of poems which represent a happy and innocent world although there are evil and suffering existing, while the Songs of Experience paints quite a different world, a world full of misery, poverty, war, and repression. The poems in Songs of Experience are gray, gloomy and pessimistic.

15、Robert Burns罗伯特。彭斯

He is remembered mainly for his poems written in the Scottish dialect. He also created many lyrics praising nature, love, and friendship. Many of them have entered deeply into people’s hearts. These works are “A Red, Red Rose,”“My heart’s in the Highland,” etc.

Speaking of Burns, we can not forget his “Auld Lang Syne” (Old Long Ago) which has been sung as a parting song in many places of the world in different languages.

16、Richard Brinsley Sheridan谢里丹

His plays, especially The Rivals and The School for Scandal, are generally regarded as important links between the masterpiece of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy.

他的代表作《情敌》和《造谣学校》被认为是上承莎士比亚，下接萧伯纳的纽带，是真正的英国古典派喜剧。

In his plays, morality is the constant theme.他的作品永恒的主题是道德。

17、Samuel Johnson

Johnson was the last great neoclassicist enlightener in the late eighteenth century. He was very much concerned with the theme of the vanity of human wishes.

约翰逊是十八世纪下半叶最后一位新古典主义启蒙文学家，他十分关心人类欲望的虚幻，几乎他所有的作品都含有这样的主题。His chief works include poems: “London”, and “The Vanity of Human Wishes”; a romance: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia; a tragedy: Irene.他的主要作品有诗歌：《伦敦》，《人类欲望的虚幻》骑士浪漫诗：《拉塞拉斯的历史》，《阿比西尼亚王子》；一部悲剧：《艾琳》。

His sentences are long and well structured, interwoven with parallel words and phrases.他使用的句子一般较长，但结构工整，包含有许多排比，对仗。

第五章浪漫主义时期

1、Romanticism浪漫主义

1）Principles of Romanticism：

1 Romanticism was a reaction against convention.

2 Romanticism asserted the power of the individual.

3 Romanticism reflected a deep appreciation of the beauties of nature.

4 Romanticism emphasized the importance of the subjective experience.

5 Romanticism was idealistic.

2）Romanticism was a reaction against convention:

?As a political movement, this reaction was reflected in the new democratic ideals that opposed monarchy and feudalism.

?In art, it meant a turn away from Neoclassicism and the ancient models of Greek perfection and Classical correctness.

?Philosophically, romanticism would contend with Rationalism—the belief that truth could be discerned by logic and reason.

?Romanticism asserted the power of the individual:

Romanticism marked an era characterized by an idealization of the individual.

Politically, the movement influenced democratic ideals and the revolutionary principles of social equality.

Philosophically, it meant that the idea of objective reality would give way to subjective experience; thus, all truth became a matter of human perception.

In the art world, romanticism marked a fascination with the individual genius, and elevated the artist, philosopher, and poet above all others.

?Romanticism reflected a deep appreciation of the beauties of nature:

For the romantics, nature was how the spirit was revealed to humankind.

The romantic philosophers believed in the metaphysical or spiritual nature of reality.

They thought that a higher reality existed behind the appearance of things in the physical world. Nature appeared to people as a material reality; however, because it evoked such strong feelings in humankind, it revealed itself as containing a higher, spiritual truth.

Romantic artists tried to capture in their art the same feelings nature inspired in them.

5）Romanticism emphasized the importance of the subjective experience:

?The romantics believed that emotion and the senses could lead to higher truths than either reason or the intellect could.

?Romantics supposed that feelings, such as awe, fear, delight, joy, and wonder, were keys that could unlock the mysteries of the world.

?The result was a literature that continually explored the inward experiences of the self. ?The imagination became one of the highest faculties of human perception, for it was through the imagination that individuals could experience transcendent or spiritual truths.

6） Romanticism was idealistic:

?On one hand, romanticism was philosophically rooted in idealism.

?Reality existed primarily in the ideal world—that is, in the mind—while the material world merely reflected that universe.

?In other words, the ideal world was “more real” than the real world.

?On the other hand, romanticism was literally idealistic; it tended to be optimistic in its outlook on life.

?Political and social romantics asserted that human beings could live according to higher principles, such as the beliefs in social equality, freedom, and human rights.

7）Romanticism in Literature

?In literature, romanticism was dominated by the English poets William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).

?In 1798 Coleridge and Wordsworth published a joint volume of poetry called Lyrical Ballads and in doing so launched the English Romantic Movement.

?In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth professes all the basic principles of romanticism: he announces the break with tradition; he exults the power of the romantic poet to give voice to individual feeling; he speaks of the power of nature to show the way of the spirit; he praises the faculty of the imagination to give voice to the subjective experience;

and he speaks of the ennobling effects poetry has on the moral condition of humankind. ?Wordsworth felt the imagination could take the experiences of everyday men and women and turn them into art.

?By thus highlighting the ordinary, Wordsworth points to the deeper spirit that lives in all

things; the problem, as he sees it, is that human habit has made these wonders too familiar. ?Unlike Coleridge, who saw the imagination as the “living power and prime agent of all human perception,”Wordsworth felt language and poetry were secondary to the actual experiences of human beings. In other words, it was the object of poetry to uncover these realities, not to pose as realities themselves.

?Wordsworth defends the romantic poet’s reliance on personal feelings and, like Rousseau, claims that human beings have become too distant from their nature.

?Civilization has stolen their insight into nature away. In other words, the over-stimulation of the senses (even in an age without video games) keeps men and women from appreciating the quiet beauty of nature, and with it the opportunity for meditative thought and introspection.

9）English Romanticism

E nglish Romanticism is a revolt of the English imagination against the neoclassical reason. The French Revolution of 1789-1794 and the English Industrial Revolution exert great influence on English Romanticism. The romanticists express a negative attitude towards the existing social or political conditions. They place the individual at the center of art, as can be seen from Lord Byron’s Byronic Hero. The key words of English Romanticism are nature and imagination. English Romantic tend to be nationalistic, defending the greatest English writers. They argue that poetry should be free from all rules.

The Nature of Romantic Movement

(1) The Romantic Movement expressed a more or less negative attitude toward the existing social and political conditions that came with industrialization and the growing importance of the bourgeoisie.

2) The Romantics demonstrated a strong reaction against the dominant modes of thinking of the 18th-century writers and philosophers. When their predecessors saw man as a social animal, the Romantics saw him essentially as an individual in the solitary state. They emphasized the special qualities of each indivi dual’s mind.

(3)Romanticism constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit. In essence Romanticism designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience.

(4) Romanticism places the individual at the center of art, making literature most valuable as an expression of his or her unique feelings and particular attitudes, and valuing its accuracy in port raying the individual’s experiences.

?The Romanticists split into two groups because of the different attitudes toward the capitalist society.

?Some romanticists reflected the thinking of those classes which had been ruined by the bourgeoisie.

?They returned to the feudal past and idealized the life of the Middle Ages to protest against capitalist development.

?Therefore, they stood on the side of the feudal forces and even combined themselves with those forces.

?They are represented by Wordsworth, Coleridge and Robert Southey.

?Others expressed the aspiration of the labouring classes.

?They held out an ideal of future society free from oppression and exploitation.

?They were the firm supporters of the French Revolution.

?They are represented by Lord G. G. Byron and P. B. Shelley and John Keats. ?These poets were all precocious and intense, and had tragically short lives. ?Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”s: a) Imagination; b) Intuition; c) Idealism; d) Inspiration; e) Individuality.

?Romantics placed value on “intuition,” or feeling and instincts, over reason. Emphasis on feeling over reason --- Cult of Sensibility.

?Emotions were important in Romantic art.

?William Wordsworth described poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”

? Idealism is the concept that we can make the world a better place.

?Idealism refers to any theory that emphasizes the spirit, the mind, or language over matter – thought has a crucial role in making the world the way it is.

?Immanuel Kant held that the mind forces the world we perceive to take the shape of space-and-time.

?The Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is an “inspired creator”rather than a “technical master.”

?What this means is “going with the moment”or being spontaneous, rather than “getting it precise.”

?Romantics celebrated the individual.

?During this time period, Women’s Rights and Abolitionism were taking root as major movements.

?Walt Whitman, a later Romantic writer, would write a poem entitled “Song of Myself”: it begins, “I celebrate myself…”

The poetic manifesto of Romanticism

?The 2nd preface to Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge served to affirm the importance of feeling and imagination.

?Wordsworth stated, Poetry originates from “emotion recollected in tranquility.”?Wordsworth and Coleridge also disclaimed conventional forms popular during the Neoclassic Period.

?Blank verse superseded the rhyming couplet.

There is pleasure in beauty, Wordsworth writes. And in this sense, poetry should gratify the senses.

?In striving to capture the eternal beauty, the poet gives rise to romantic expression in all human beings.

Important Points

? 1.The literary terms:

?Romanticism

?Lake Poets

? 2. The literary figures of the Romantic Age

? 3.The features of Romantic writings

?Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792.

? Gothic novel is a type of romantic fiction that predominates in the late 18th century and

continues to show its influence in early 19th century. Its principal elements are violence, horror, and the supernatural. Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley and The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe are masterpieces of English gothic novel.

2、Wordsworth

His principles of poetry

? 1 Subjects:

?1)The great subjects of poetry are “essential passions of the heart” and “the great and simple affections” (Preface to Lyrical Ballads(2nd ed.)).

?2) incidents and situations from common life

? 2. Source of poetry:

?feelings

?1) “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (ibid)

?2) emotion recollected in tranquility

? 3. language: ”real language of men in a state of vivid sensation” (no poetic diction)

? 4. function of poetry: to produce pleasure (aesthetic pleasure) ”Nor let this necessity of producing immediate pleasure be considered as a degradation of the poet’s art….It is and acknowledgement of the beauty of the universe…””

? (Preface to Lyrical Ballads)

?Descriptions of mountains… and peasants, and reminiscences (回忆)of his own childhood …?Besides a deep love for nature,

A masterhand in searching and revealing the feelings of the common people

Many themes: from rural life

Characters: lower classes in countryside

His major works

?Wordsworth’s fame lies chiefly in his short poems. His short poems fall into 2 categories: poems about nature and poems about human life.

?He is a “worshipper of nature”. It is nature that gives him “strength and knowledge full of grace”.

?“The Solitary Reaper”“孤独的收割者”

?pathetic(忧郁、感情上的) pictures of the working people

?“The Ruined Cottage”“Simon Lee”“The Old Cumberland Beggar”

?sympathy to the sufferings of the poor, humble peasants

?We Are Seven”“我们是七个” naivety天真 of simple peasant children

His best known poems of nature include: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, Tintern Abbey, To the Cuckoo, My Heart Leaps up, To a Butterfly, An Eve ning Walk, & The Sparrow’s Nest.

His best known poems about human life include: Lucy Poems, The Solitary Reaper and The Old Cumberland Beggar, Michael, & To a Highland Girl.

Wordsworth wrote many sonnets. His famous sonnets are: Earth Has Not Anything to Show More Fair, On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic, & Thought of a Briton on the Subjugation of Switzerland.

His best known long poem is The Prelude. In this poem Wordsworth analyses the growth of his poetic genius during his childhood and youth, and recalls the lessons he owes to nature. Wordsworth’s greatest contribution to English literature is his poems and his Preface to The Lyrical Ballads.

Though The Lyrical Ballads is known as the collaborated work of Wordsworth and Coleridge, all the poems but one (The Rime of The Ancient Mariner) are written by Wordsworth. Most of his most quoted poem are taken from this collection.

Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Wordsworth’s Preface (1800) to Lyrical Ballads is the manifesto of English Romanticism. It is “one of the revolutionary works of criticism, helping usher in the Romantic Age in literature” (Dutton, 1984:50).

He is primarily concerned to justify the kinds of his poems which he had contributed to Lyrical Ballads.

Key points in his Preface

Definition of a poet

He ( poet) is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind

Creative process of authentic poetry

Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred (similar) to that which before was the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind. In this mood successful composition generally begins……

Subject matter & poetic language

The principal object…was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language really used by men , and at the same time, to throw over them a certain coloring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented in an unusual aspect……

(cf. Liu Yong in Song Dynasty. 凡有井水处，即能歌柳词）

Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because, in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity……

The language, too, of these men has been adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived. Brief Comments

Wordsworth is the representative poet of English romanticism

Wordsworth’s poetry is distinguished by the simplicity and purity of his language. Wordsworth’s theory on versification has exerted profound influence on later poets. (mimesis--imaginative recreation

3、Lord Byron, George Gordon拜伦

Byron’s main works

?Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1809)

?Oriented Tales (oriental settings and heroic heroes)

?Don Juan----his masterpiece

?1) a long but great epic: “epic satire”, “a satire on abuses of the present state of society”.

?2) original characterization: a Spanish youth of noble birth; a great lover and seducer of