A General Survey of English Literature(1)

1、1. The Old English PeriodThe Anglo-Saxon Period2. The Medieval Period3. The Renaissance 4. The 17th Century5. The 18th CenturyThe Period of Revolution & RestorationThe Age of Enlightenment in EnglandThe Anglo-Norman Period& Jeoffrey Chaucers Period6. The Romantic Period7. The Victorian Age 8

2、. The Modern PeriodThe Transition from 19th to 20th century in English LiteratureRomanticism in EnglandCritical Realism in England9. The Post-war & Post-modern Period (omitted)About 449 A.D, the Teutonic tribes of Angles, Saxon, andJutes coming from the continent settled in the island, anddrove

3、westward the aboriginal Celts.In 43 A.D. , Roman Emperor Claudius conquered the Britain;for nearly 400 years, Britain had been a Roman province.In 410 A.D. , Roman Empire fell, the Romans withdrew their legions from Britain. The Anglo-Saxon invaders established some small kingdoms in Britain, which

4、by the 7th century were combined into a United Kingdom called England (the land of Angles). Its people were called the English. The language they spoken is generally called Anglo-Saxon or Saxon, which is now called Old English. The Celts had no written language, so their myths and legends were not r

5、ecorded for many centuries. Therefore, English literature actually began with the Anglo-Saxon settlement in England. The literature of this period fall naturally into two divisions pagan and Christian. Pagan represents the poetry which the Anglo-Saxon probably brought with them in the form of oral s

6、agas; Christian represents the writings developed under teaching of the monks. The coming of Christianity meant the wealth of a new language (the culture and literary resources of the Latin language). Beowulf or The Song of Beowulf (p.3-15) In 1066, the English king Edward died without an heir, and

7、the ambitious William, Duke of Normandy, defeated the Anglo-Saxonsat the Battle of Hastings. The Norman conquest ended the purely Anglo-Saxon period and started the medieval period in England. The Literature the Normans brought to England is remarkable for its bright, romantic tales of love and adve

8、nture. English literature is a combination of French and Saxon elements. Anglo-Saxon speech absorbed a large part of the French vocabulary and became the English language. The new Literature was of three classes:1) Matter of France (tales centering about Charlemagne and his peers)2) Matter of Greece

9、 and Rome (tales about Alexander, and about the fall of Troy)3) Matter of Britain (tales about Arthur and his knights of the Round Table) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (p.21-38) The peoples uprising of 1388 raised the question as to the abolition of feudalism. The foundations of the feudal system

10、had already begun to crumble. The glory of the Catholic church was on the wane. England was on the brink of great historical change. Geoffrey Chaucer, one of the greatest narrative poets of England, was the “father of English poetry”. The varied experiences of Chaucers public life his connections wi

11、th the royal household; his contacts with Londoners and country folks gave Chaucer a wide range of knowledge about people from different walks of life. Chaucers creative work vividly reflected the changes which had taken root in English culture of the second half of the 14th century. Chaucers litera

12、ry career is conventionally divided into three periods: 1) the French period (1360s1372);2) the Italian period (c. 13721385); 3) the English period (c.13851400). . The Canterbury Tales(p.43-50) The 16th century in England was a period of the breaking up of feudal relations and the establishing of th

13、e foundations of capitalism. Absolute monarchy was formed in England during the reign (1509-1547) of King Henry , and reached its summit during the reign (1558-1603) of Queen Elizabeth. There was aggravation of the contradiction between the wealth of the ruling classes and the poverty of the people.

14、 New social and economic conditions brought about great changes in the development of science and art. Together with the development of bourgeois relationships and the formation of the English national state, this period is marked by a flourishing of national culture known as the Renaissance. Renais

15、sance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries. It makes a transition from the medieval to the modern world. Renaissance means rebirth or revival. It started in Italy with the flowering of painting, sculpture and literature, and then spread to the rest of Europe. In this period,

16、the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to abolish old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas of the rising bourgeoisie, and to carry out religious reformation. The Renaissance period was marked by a reawakening of interest in learning, in the individual and in

17、the world of nature.The revival of learning led scholars back to the culture of Greece and Rome. Broadly, humanism suggests any attitude which tends to praise the human element or stress the importance of human interests. In a more specific sense, humanism suggests a devotion to those studies suppos

18、ed to promote human culture most effectivelyin particular, those dealing with the life, thought, language, and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Humanism is the keynote of the Renaissance. William Shakespeare (p.68-120) Francis Bacon(p.121-128) Edmund Spenser: The Fairy Queen Thomas More: Utopi

19、a The 17th century was one of the most tempestuous periods in the history. The contradiction between the feudal system and the bourgeoisie had reached its peak and resulted in a revolutionary outburst. There was a long bitter struggle between the peoples Parliament and the throne puritans fighting a

20、gainst the Cavaliers who helped the king. 1) Medieval standards of chivalry, the impossible loves and romances perished;2) The Puritans believed in simplicity of life, and disapproved of the sonnets and the love poetry written in the previous period; 3) The Puritan influence in general tended to sup

21、press literary art;4) In the absence of any fixed standard of literary criticism, there was nothing to prevent the exaggeration of the metaphysical poets; Metaphysical poets refer to the group of poets sharing some of John Donnes poetic features. They tried to break away from the conventional fashio

22、n of the Elizabethan love poetry. 5) Restoration created a literature of its own, that was often witty and clever, but on the whole immoral and cynical. John Donne (p.132-138) John Milton (p.139-149) John Bunyan (p.150-162) In politics, there appeared two hostile parties: the liberal Whigs and the c

23、onservative Tories. Besides, there was a third partyJacobites. With the establishment of constitutional monarchy in England, the authoritative power fell into the hands of parliament. In economy, the industrial revolution forced its way into England. With the development of the society, there was ra

24、pid development of social life, and there arose the Enlightenment both in England and in other lands in Western Europe. The Enlightenment was an expression of struggle of the then progressive bourgeoisie against feudalism. The Enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudice and o

25、ther survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual deeds and requirements of the people. They welcome religious intolerance, fiercely attack the church power, called on the development of science and technology an

26、d freedom of politics and academic thinking. Generally speaking, the literature of the 18th centurymay be divided into three periods according to the development of the Enlightenment. 1) the reign of neo-classicism (17001745): This period was characterized by neo-classicism, and its fine expression

27、was in poetry and then in prose. Representatives: Joseph Addition, Richard Steel, and Alexander Pope. Neo-classicism was the dominant literary theory of the late17th and early 18th century England. It was a reaction against the intricacy and occasional obscurity, boldness and the extravagance of Eur

28、opean literature of the late Renaissance, in favor of simplicity, clarity, restraint, regularity, and good sense. 2) the beginnings of realistic novel (1740s-1750s) This period saw the early growth of realistic novels. Representatives: Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding,

29、 T.G. Smollett Along with the depiction of morals and manners and social mode of life, the writers of the Enlightenment began to display an interest in the innermost life of an individual. 3) Sentimentalism & Pre-romanticism (the rest decades of the century) In this period, the decline of the gr

30、eat enlightenment brought about sentimentalism and pre-romanticism as protests against the social reality of the day. Representatives: Thomas Gray, Oliver Goldsmith, Laurence Sterne (sentimentalism); William Blake, Robert Burns (pre-romanticism) Sentimentalism is a trend of thought beginning at the

31、second half of 18th century in England. It carefully depicts persons 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 subjec

32、t. Their works are always melancholy, obscure, and full of pessimism. Pre-romanticism was another conspicuous trend in the English literature of the latter half of the 18th century. It originated among the conservative groups of men of letters as a reaction against Enlightenment and found its most m

33、anifest expression in the “Gothic novel”. It was marked by a strong protest against the bondage of Classicism, by the recognition of the claims of passion and emotion, and by a renewed interest in medieval literature. Jonathan Swift (p.186-223) Joseph Addition (p.224-238) Henry Fielding (p.238-249)

34、Daniel Defoe (p.171-186) Thomas Gray (p.249-256) Oliver Goldsmith (p.258-263) William Blake (p.282-290) Robert Burns (p.290-300) Richard Brinsley Sheridan (p.264-281) Industrial Revolution and French Revolution had a strong influence on Britain. Fighting for “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” also b

35、ecomes British national spirit. . Romanticism began with the publication of William Wordsworths Lyrical Ballads in collaboration with S. T. Coleridge and ended with the death of Walter Scott. William Blake & Robert Burns represents the spirit of Pre-romanticism, Romanticism gave primary concern

36、to passion, emotion, and natural beauty. The romanticists believed in human progress and improvement and advocated the freedom to express personal feelings. It is an expression of the ideology and sentiment of those discontented with, and opposed to, the development of capitalism and an expression o

37、f dissatisfaction with the bourgeois society. The Romanticists were more interested in the spontaneous feelings. They sought to escape from the limitations of reality. Romanticism has two schoolsthe passive (Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey) and the active (Byron, Shelley, and Keats). George Gordo

38、n Byron(P.24-49) Percy Bysshe Shelley(p.50-68) John Keats(p.69-84) William Wordsworth (p.7-23) Walter Scott(p.84-115) Jane Austen(p.116-130) Charles Lamb(p.131-144) This age is usually subdivided into the following phases: the early Victorian Period (1832-1848), the Mid-Victorian Period (1848-1870),

39、 and the late Victorian Period (1870-1902). All in all, the Victorian Age was a period of rapid growth, development, and reform. This period has been generally considered as one of the most glorious in the English history. In 1832, the Reform Bill was passed, which placed the power of the nation int

40、o the hands of the wealthy industrialists. After 1832, the conflict between labour and capital became sharper, which resulted in the Chartist Movement (1836-1848), During the next 20 years, England settled down to a time of prosperity and relative stability. But the last three decades of the century

41、 witnessed the decline of the British Empire. Victorian literature, as a product of its age, represented the reality and spirit of the age, and naturally took on its quality of magnitude and diversity. It was many-sided and complex, and reflected both romantically and realistically the great changes

42、 that were going on in peoples life and thought. Great writers and great works abounded. In this period, novel became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of progressive thought. Prose and poetry were also produced in this period. In addition to the trend of critical re

43、alism, there appeared other trends, such as Aestheticism, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In literature, Realism has been defined as the truthful recapitulation of reality. English critical realism flourished in the forties and early fifties of the 19th century. The critical realists described with much

44、 vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society, and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic view point. They not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classes, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people. William Makepeace Thackeray(P.187-208) Charlotte Bronte & Emily Bronte(p.230-278) Thomas Hood(p.278-287) Charles Dickens(p.156-186) George Eliot(p.209-230) Alfred Tennyson(p.288-295) Elizabeth Barrett Browning(p.131-144) Robert Browning(p.296-302) The last quarter of the 19th century