英国文学-学习指南

> 学习指南（一）

学习指南（一）

Section 1 　Warming-up Knowledge

Ⅰ.Definition of literature

1. Literally speaking, literature refers to all writings in prose or verse, esp. those of imaginative or critical character, and those are of then distinguished from scientific writing, news report, etc; the writings of this kind are considered as having permanent value, excellence of form, great emotional effect. (Webster)

2. Literature is one form of social ideology and belongs to the upper part of social edifice. Generally speaking, it refers to any piece of written works. Narrowly speaking, it refers to an art which creates images (characters) in words and which reflects social life.（《辞海》，1989）

3. Literature refers to any creative and artistic writing which is about society, human life, nature, etc.

2、专业学习的需要

Ⅱ . Relationships

1. Literature vs. Language

Language is the carrier of literature. Without language, without literature. Literature is the art of language; it is language in its best form.

2. Literature vs. Culture

Literature is culture in its written form and is called “living fossil” of culture. It commands an important part of a culture.

3. Literature vs. Society

Literature is a mirror of society; society is the source of literature.

4. Literature vs. Human Beings

Man is, on one hand, the subject of literature, for he is the creator and interpreter of literary works; on the other hand, man is also the object of literature, for he and his surroundings are the theme of literary creation.

Ⅲ . Forms of Literature

Poetry: epic, lyric, etc

Drama: tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, etc

Fiction: novel, novelette, story, etc

Non-fiction: essay, biography, etc

Ⅳ . Classification

1.Chronological

2. National

3. Subject-matter

Ⅴ . Chronological Division of British Literature

1. Old English Period (450-1066)

2. Medieval Period (1066-late 15th c.)

3. British Renaissance (late 15th c. –1660)

4. The Enlightenment and Neo-classical Period (1660-1798)

5. British Romanticism (1798-1832)

6. The Victorian Period (1832-1918)

7. 20th C. (1918—2000)

2. Medieval Period (1066-late 15th c.)

3. British Renaissance (late 15th c. –1660)

4. The Enlightenment and Neo-classical Period (1660-1798)

5. British Romanticism (1798-1832)

6. The Victorian Period (1832-1918)

7. 20th C. (1918—2000)

Ⅵ . Functions of Literature

1. Social function

2. Entertaining function

3. Emotional function

4. Function of reproducing reality

5. Psychological function

Section 2　Old English and Medieval Periods

Ⅰ . Old English Period (450-1066)

1. History of old English Period

England (The early inhabitants were Celts) was conquered three times by the Romans, the Anglo- Saxons and the Normans. England was not much affected by the Romans but felt the full weight of the other two. The Anglo-Saxons brought to England the Germanic language and culture. The Normans brought to England the Mediterranean civilization, which includes Greek culture, Roman law, and Christianity. Based upon the two cultural influences, British literature began to grow and develop.

2. Major achievement of poetry

A. Religious poetry:

a. Genesis A

b. Genesis B

c. Exodus (These are based on Old Testament) and The Dream of the Rood (based on New Testament)

B. Secular poetry (poetry about this life and the common people and their lives)

e.g. The Wanderer, Deor, The Seafarer, The Wife’s Complaint

C. Epic: Beowulf

3. About Beowulf

> 学习指南（二）

学习指南（二）

Functions of Literature

1. Social function

2. Entertaining function

3. Emotional function

4. Function of reproducing reality

5. Psychological function

Ⅱ . The Medieval Period (1066 C-late 15th C)

1. Great Events of the medieval period

A. Norman Conquest

B. Roman Catholicism and the Dark Age (1066-the mid-14thc)

C. Literary Flourishing from the second half of the 14th century

D. Achievements

2. Romance

e.g.: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

3. Drama

4. Chaucer and Langland

Note

1. Epic: a long narrative poem in dignified style presenting haracters of high position in a series of adventures which form an organic whole through their relation to a central figure of heroic proportions and through their development of episodes important to the history of a nation or a race.

2. Romance: a long narrative in verse or prose about the adventures of knights and other chivalric heroes.

> 学习指南（三）

学习指南（三）

Ⅱ . Achievements

1. In Poetry

A. Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queene

B. William Shakespeare: long poems and sonnet

C. John Donne: the Metaphysical poet

D. Jon Milton: Paradise Lost

2. In Drama

A. Christopher Marlowe: Dr. Faustus

B. William Shakespeare: 39 plays

3. In Essay

Francis Bacon vs. John Donne

Ⅲ . Important Points

1. The nature of Renaissance

2. The selected works of Shakespeare, John Donne, and Milton

Section 4　Enlightenment Movement & Neo-classical Period (1660-1798)

Ⅰ . Social Background

1. 1660: Restoration of King Charles II and return of the Stuarts

2. 1665: the Great Plague

3. 1688: the Glorious Revolution

4. The Struggle between the Tories and Whigs in the late 17th C

5. In 18th C, Quick Expansion of the Empire

6. The Enclosure

7. The Industrial Revolution

8. The Enlightenment Movement and Neo-classicism

Ⅱ . Literary Features

1. Emphasis on the Didactic Function

2. Flourishing of Prose

3. Strict Neo-classical Rules

Ⅲ . Achievements

1. The Rising of British Fiction

A. John Bunyan: The Pilgrim’s Progress

B. Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe

C. Janathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travel

D. Henry Fielding: Tom Jones

2. Poets

Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson: Spokesman of Neo-classicism

Richard Sheridan: the Bridge between Shakespeare and Shaw

Thomas Gray: Sentimentalist Writers

Notes:

1.Enlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement which flourished in France and swept through the whole Western Europe in the 18th century. It was a furtherance of the Renaissance. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas. The enlighteners celebrated reason of rationality, equality and science and called for a reference of order, reason and rules. They also advocated universal education.

2. Neo-classicism is revival of interest in the old classical works. According to the neo-classicists, all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of Greek and Roman writers and those of the contemporary French ones. They believed that the artistical ideals should be judged in terms of its service to humanity. This belief led them to seek proportion, unity, harmony and grace in literary expression. Thus a polite, urbane, witty and intellectual art developed.

> 学习指南（四）

学习指南（四）

Section 5　British Romanticism (1798—1832)

Ⅰ . Social Background

1. French Revolution (1789-1794)

A. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Du Contrat Social

B. Thomas Paine: Declaration of Rights of Man

2. Agricultural Society Replaced by Industrial Society

3. Polarization of Social Wealth after the Napoleonic War and the Industrial Revolution

4. The Workers Movements

5. The Reform Bill

Ⅱ . Lyrical Ballads

British Romanticism begins with the publication of Lyrical Ballads (by Wordsworth and Coleridge) in 1798 and ended with the death of Sir Walter Scott and the approval of the Reform Bill in the Parliament.

Ⅲ . Features

1. Emphasis on Imagination, Emotion, Individualism, and Love of Nature

2. National Tendency

Ⅳ . Major Achievements

1. Age of Poetry:

A. Pre-Romantic Poets: Robert Burns; William Blake

B. The Lake Poets: Wordsworth; Coleridge; Southey

C. The “Satanic Poets”: Byron; Shelley; Keats

2. Age of Prose: Hazlitt and Charles Lamb

3. Two Novelists: Scott and Jane Austen

Section 6　Victorian Period (1832-1918)

Ⅰ . Social Background

1. Economic Development and Social Problems

2. Poor Law (1836) and Chartist Movement (1836-1848)

3. Victorian Values of Prosperity, Respectability, Modesty, omesticity and Material Progress

4. Declination of British Empire and Victorian Values

5. Faith in God Challenged by Science and Technology

6. Spread of Unitarianism

7. Spread of Darwinism

Ⅱ . Literary Features

Literary Features truthfully represents the reality and spirit of the age.

1. Many-sided and diversified and reflected the great changes romantically and realistically.

2. Critical realism in novels

3. Innovation in poetry

Ⅲ . Achievements

1. In Fiction

A. Charles Dickens

B. William Makepeace Thackeray

C. The Bronte Sisters

D. George Eliot

E. Thomas Hardy

2. In Poetry

A. Alfred Tennyson

B. Robert Browning

> 学习指南（五）

学习指南（五）

Section 7　The 20th Century British Literature

Ⅰ . Background

1. WWI weakened the Empire and brought great sufferings to the common people.

The postwar economic dislocation and spiritual disillusion produced an economic impact upon the British people. WWII marked the last stage of disintegration of the Empire.

2. Philosophical Changes happened one after another.

A. Marxism

B. Freud’s psychoanalysis

3. Cold Wars and Nuclear Threat after WWII

Ⅱ . Features:

Pendularization of Modernism and Realism with Modernism taking the upper wing:

1. Realist Poets of Hardy and others

2. Rising of “modern poetry” and the Imagist Movement: Pound, Eliot; and Yeats

3. Realism in Fiction in the early and the 30s of the 20th century

4. Modernist Fiction in the First 3 Decades

5. Modern Drama in the Last Decade of 19th c and First Decade of the 29th century

6. Revival of Poetic Drama in 1930th

7. Novelists of Destruction and “the Angry Young Men”

Ⅲ . Major Writers:

1. Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot and William Butler Yeats

2. D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce, William Golding

3. George Bernard Shaw