英美文学概述.doc

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1、英国文学The old periods450 1066The medieval periods1066 mid-14th centuryThe renaissance periods14th century mid-17th centuryThe neoclassical periods1660 1789(the return of the Stuarts to the English to publishment of Lyrical Ballads)The romantic periods1789 1832(publishment of Lyrical Ballads to Sir Wal

2、ter Scotts death)The victorian periods1836 1901The modern periodsthe second half of the 19th century the early of the 20thcentury英国文学 The old and medieval periods1Beowuf这部作品Romance是这个时期最流行的文学形式；Chaucer第一个引进“英雄偶句”诗体。Beowulf（贝奥武甫(八世纪初的一篇古英语史诗; 该史诗中的主角)）, a typical example of old English poetry, is reg

3、arded today as the national epic (民族史诗) of the Anglo-Saxons. Literary position: The poem was originally in an oral form, it is written down in the 10th century. Thematically the poem presents a vivid picture of how the primitive people wage heroic struggles against the hostile forces of the natural

4、world under a wise and mighty leader. Romance (骑士抒情诗)，a popular literary form in the medieval period) uses narrative verse or prose to sing knightly adventures or other heroic deeds, whose motifs（主题, 主旨） of the quest is for truth, beauty and kindness. Chaucer(乔叟): whose masterpiece is The Canterbury

5、 Tales坎特伯雷故事集. The famous character of his works is the Wife of Bath. Chaucer employed the heroic coupletverse form (英雄双韵诗形式) with true ease and charm for the first time in the history of English literature. He is the father of English poetry.英国文学The renaissance periods1.仙后一部寓言(allegory), 人物象征意义与主题.

6、The Faerie is an allegory. The Red-crosse Knight stands for St.George, the patron saint of England, and he also represent Holiness.A lovely Ladie, virgin Una, symbolizes the thruth or the true faith of religion.A milke white lambe reprents the God.Dragon and infernall feend refer the SatanThe theme

7、is not “Arms and the man,” but something more romantic“fiece warres and faithful loves”.2. 斯宾塞的诗歌特点The five main quailites of spensers poetry are:1) a perfect melody;2) a rare sense of beauty;3) a splendid imagination;4) a lofty purity and seriousness;5) a dedicated idealism.3.浮士德的主题Dr. Faustus is a

8、 play based on the German legend of a magician aspiring for knowledge and finally meeting his tragic end as a result of selling his soul to the Devil. The plays dominant moral is human than religious. It celebrates the human passion for knowledge, power and happiness; it also reveals mans frustratio

9、n in realizing the high aspiration in a hostile moral order. And the confinement to time is the cruelest fact of mans condition.4.威尼丝商人的故事及主题 The play has a double plot: 1) BassanioPortia 2) AntonioShylockThe traditional theme of the play is to praise the friendship betweem Antonio and Bassanio, to

10、idealize Portia as a heroine of greate beaulity, wit and loyalty, and to expose the insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew. Tody, many people tend to regard the play as a satire of the christians hypocrisy and their false standards of frindship and love, their cunning way of pursuing worldliness(

11、俗心, 俗气) and their unreasoning prejudice against Jews.5Milton的三部作品Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes.英国文学The neoclassical periods1Bunyan的天路历程是一部寓言(allegory)，其主题及名利场的寓意The Pilgrims Progress is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. Its purpose is to urge people

12、 to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation through constant struggle with their own weakness and all kinds of social evils. Its predominant metaphor life as a journey is simple and familiar. The objects that Christian meets are homely and commonplace, and the scence presented a typical Engl

13、ish ones, but throughout the allegory a spiritual signifiance is added to the commonplace details.The Vanity Fair symbolizes human world, for “All that cometh is vanity.” Everything and anything in this world is “vanity”, having no value and no meaning. The Vanity Fair, a “marcket selling nothingnes

14、s” of all sorts, is a dirty place originally built up by devils, but, this town “lay” in the way to the Celestial City, meaning pilgrims had to resist the tempatations there way through. So, the depiction of the “Fair” in selling things worldly and in attracting people bad, represents John Bunyans r

15、ejection of the worldly seekings and pious longing for the pure and charming “Celestial City” his Christian ideal.2鲁宾逊的意义Robinson is here a real hero: a typical eighteenth-century Enlish middle-class man, with a great capacity for work, inexhaustible energy, courage, patience and persistence in over

16、coming obstacles, in stuggling against the hostile natural environment. He is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist.3Gullivers Travel的四个部分The book contains four parts.The first part LilliputThe second part BrobdingnagThe third part flying IslandThe fourth part Houyhnhnm land

17、, Yahoo As a whole, the book is one of the most effcetive and devastating criticisms and satires of all aspects in then English and European life socially, politically, religiously, philosophically, scientifically, and morally.4Fielding的贡献Fielding has been regarded by some as “Father of the English

18、Novel”.He was first to set out, both in theory and practice, to write specifically a “comic epic in prose,” the first to give the modern novel its structure and syle. Before him, the relating of a story in a novel was either the Episolary form or the picaresque form, but fielding adopted “the third-

19、person narration,” in which the author become the “all-knowing God”.英国文学The romantic periods1Blake青春之歌与经验之歌的比较The Song of Innocence is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and suffering.His Songs of Experiecnce paints a different world, a worl

20、d of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with melancholy tone.The two “Chimney Sweeper” poems are good examples to reveal the relation between an economic circumstance, i.e. the exploitation of child labor, and an ideological circumstance, i.e. the role played by religion in making compiant

21、 to exploitation. The poem from the Songs of Innocence indicates the conditions which make religion a consolation, a prospect(景色, 前景) of “illusory happiness;” the poem from the Songs of the Experience reveals the true nature of religion which helps bring misery to the poor child.2拜伦式英雄Buyrons chief

22、contribution is his creation of the “Byronic hero,” a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burdens of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and would rise single-handedly agains

23、t any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustilbe energies.3KEATS的希腊古瓮颂的主题Ode on an grecian Urn shows the contrast between the permanence of art and the transcience of human passion.4奥丝丁的三种婚姻观Stories of love and marria

24、ge provide the major theme in all Jane Austens novels, in which female chatacters are always playing an active part. In their pursuit of a marriage, they ate usually categorize into three types according to their different attitudes: those who would marry for material wealth and social position, tho

25、se who would marry just for beauty and passion, and those who would marry for true love with a consideration of the partners personal merit as well ad his economical and social status.5.傲慢与偏见的故事及主题Pride and Prejudice mainly tells of the love story between a rich, pround young man Darcy and the beaut

26、iful and intelligent Elizaeth Bennet. None of the daughters can inherit the estate of the family for it has been entailed upon the nearest male heir, Willian Collins, Collins intends to marry and he decides to shoose Elizabeth as a way of making amends for inheriting the familys estate. Collins is a

27、 preposterous(荒谬的) suitor, and Elizabeth rejects the proposal. Another young man called Darcy proposes her, but she has prejudice against him because she thinks that he has nothing but pride. After many twists and turns, they are happily united. This book tells us a great deal about attitude toward

28、marriage in Austens time. Stories of love and marriage provide the major themes in all her novels, Jane Austen tries to say that it is wrong to marry just for money or for beauty, but it is also wrong to marry without it.as it is said in the book that it is a truth universally acknowledged that a si

29、nge man in possession of a good foutune must be in want of a wife.英国文学The victorian periods1Dickens小说的3种角色类型及创作生涯。The best-depicted character of the novelist can be classified into three types:1) the innocent,pesecuted(受迫害的),helpless child character such as Oliver Twist, Little Nell, David Copperfie

30、ld, and Little Dorrit;2) the horrible and grotesque character such ad Fagin, Bill Sikes and Qulip;3) the humourous and comic figures like Mr. Micawber, Sam Weller, and Mrs. Gamp.The best he can do seems to try to retain an optimism with wishful thinking, as in his ealy works, or to express a helples

31、s indignant(愤怒的, 愤慨的) protest（主张, 断言, 抗议）, as in his later novel.Oliver人物的背景The novel is famous for its vivid descriptions of the workhouse and life of the under world in the nineteenth-century London. The authors intimate knowledge of people of the lowest order and of the city itself apparently com

32、es from his journalistic years. Here the novel also presents Oliver Twist as Dickenss first child hero and Fagin the first gretesque figure.2.简爱这个人物及社会意义 Jane Eyre, an orphan child with a fiery spirit and a longing to be loved, a poor , plain, little governess who dares to love her master, a man sup

33、iror to her in many ways, and even is brave enough to declare to the man her love for him , cuts a completely new woman image. She represents those middle-class working women who are struggling for recognition of their bacic rights and equality as a human being.3呼啸山庄介绍的故事梗概及写作特点。Wuthering Heihgts is

34、 the story about two families and an intruding stranger.The Earnsshaw family Mr. Earshaw, his wife, their son Hindley and their daugter Catherine.The Linton family Mr. Linton, his wife, their son Edar and their daughter Isabella. An intruding stranger Healthcliff, The sory is told mainly by Nelly, C

35、atherines old nurse, to Mr. Lockwodd, a temporary tenant at Gramge. The latter too gives an account of what he sees at Wuthering Heignts. And part of the story is told through Isabellas letters to Nelly. While the central interest is maintained, the sequence of its development is constantly disorder

36、ed of by flashbacks. This makes the story all the more enticing(引诱的, 迷人的) and genuine.4Eliot和夏洛特笔下妇女的特点比较Charlote pay attention to those middle-class working women who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being, such as Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre.George Eliot show

37、s a particular concern for the destiny of Women, especially those with great intelligence, potential and social aspirations, such as Dorothea in Middlemarch.5.苔丝故事和社会意义The novel is one of the best and most popular work by Hardy. It is a fierce attack on the hypocritical morality of the bourgeois soc

38、iety and the capitalist invasion into the country and destruction of the English peasantry towards the end of the century. Tess, as a pure woman brought up with the traditional idea of womanly virtue, is acused and destroyed by both Alec and Angel, agents of the the destructive force of the society.

39、 And the misery, the poverty and the heartfelt pain she suffers and her final tragedy give rise to a most bitter cry of protest and denunciation(谴责, 告发) of society. Of course, naturalistic tendency is also strong in the novel. In a way, Tess seems to be led to her final destruction step by step by F

40、ate. Coincidence adds one “wrong” to another until she is caught up in a dead-end.英国文学The modern periods1现代时期的特征及主题Modernism rose out of Skepticism and disillusion of capitalism.The French symbolism heralded(预示；预报) modernism. After the First World War, all kinds of literary trends of modernism appea

41、red: expression_rism, surrealism, futurism, Dadaism, imagism and stream of consiousness. Towards the 1920s, these trends converged into a mightly torrent of modernism movement.Modernism is, in many aspects, is reaction against realism, and it rejects rationalism.Modernism takes the irrational philos

42、ophy and the the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base. The major themes of the modernist literature are disordered, alienated and ill relationships between man and nature, man and society, man and man, and man and himself.2.萧伯纳的戏剧特点As a realistic dramatist, he took modern social issues

43、as his sujects. Most of his plays are concerned with political, economic, moral, or religious problem, and thus, can be termed as problem plays. His plays have one passion only, i.e. indignation, one against all the social evils;In characterization, two devices of his are worthy of note: his vivid d

44、epiction of one character at the expense of another; and sharacters being representative of ideas of views;Much of his drama is constructed around the inversion of conventional theatrical situation.Shaws plays do not work by plots. It is the vitality of the long, unbroken talk that take primacy over

45、 mere story.3.The Man of Property的人物关系及主题The novel centers itself on the Soames-Irene-Bosinney triangle. Soames Forsyte, a typical Forsyte, represents the essence of the principle that the accumulation of wealth is the sole aim of life, for he considers everything in terms of ones property. Irene, h

46、is young and beautiful wife, on the contrary, loves art and cherishes noble ideals of life. Because Soames never pays attention to her, she was not happy, In order to please his wife, Soames asks Bosinnery, a young architect, to build a country house for them. During the designing and building the h

47、ouse, Irene and Bosinney fall in love each other. Rumors arise and Soames wants his revenge, in the end, Bosinney died in a car accident and Irene left Soames.The theme of this novel is that of the predominant possessive instinct of the Forsyte and its effects upon the personal relationships of the

48、family with the underlying assumption that human relationships of the contemporary English society are merely an extension(延长, 扩充, 范围) of property relationships.4. Yeats的创作生涯的三个阶段As a young man in the last decades of the 19th century,Yeats began has poetic career in the romantic tradition. The major themes are usually Celtic legends, local folktales, or stories of the heroic age in Irish history. The overall style of his early poetry is very delicate with nat