1.(1) Modernism (现代主义)
A movement of experiment in new techniques in writing. Modernist fiction represented a trend drifting away from the tradition of the 19th century realism. It put emphasis on the description ogoometimes it is call ed modern psychological fiction. Lawrence is a typical representative of it
Realism（现实主义）
Realism was a loosely used term meaning truth to the observed facts of life （especially when they are gloomy）。Realism in literature is an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity.
Realism现实主义: An elastic and ambiguous term with two meanings. (1) First, it refers generally to any artistic or literary portrayal of life in a faithful, accurate manner, unclouded by false ideals, literary conventions, or misplaced aesthetic glorification and beautification of the world. It is a theory or tendency in writing to depict events in human life in a matter-of-fact, straightforward manner. It is an attempt to reflect life "as it actually is"--a concept in some ways similar to what the Greeks would call mimesis. (2) Secondly and more specifically, realism refers to a literary movement that developed out of naturalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although realism and the concern for aspects of verisimilitude have been components of literary art to one degree or another in nearly all centuries, the term realism also applies more specifically to the tendency to create detailed, probing analyses of the way "things really are," usually involving an emphasis on nearly photographic details.These writers include such diverse artists as Mark Twain, Tolstoy, &Thomas Hardy.
Modernism（现代主义）: Around the two world wars, many writers and artists began to suspect and be discontent with the capitalism. They tried to find new ways to express their understanding of the world. It was a movement of experiments in techniques in writing. It flourished in the 20s and 30s in English literature.They turned their interest to describing what was happening in the minds of their characters. Because of their emphasis on the psychological activities of the characters, their writings are also called psychological novels. The Representatives are W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot,D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Foster, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf
Modernism: 1) The rise Of modernism movement Modernism rose out of skepticism and disillusionment of capitalism, which made writers and artists search for a new ways to express their understanding of the world and the human nature. The French symbolism was the forerunner of modernism. The First World War quickened the rising of all kinds of literary trends of modernism, which,
toward the 1920s, converged into a mighty torrent of modernist movement. The major figures associated with the movement were Kafka, Picasso, Pound, Eliot, Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. Modernism was somewhat curbed in the 1930s. but after World War II, Varieties of modernism, or post-modernism, rose again with the spur of Sarter’s existentialism. However, they gradually disappe ared or diverged into other kinds of literary trends in the 1960s. 2) The characteristics of modernism ●Modernism marks a strong and conscious break with the past, by rejecting the moral, religious and cultural values of the past.
●Modernism emphasizes on the need to move away from the public to the private, from the objective to the subjective. ●Modernism upholds a new view of time by emphasizing the psychic time over the chronological one. It maintains that the past, the present and the future are one and exist at the same time in the consciousness of individual as a continuous flow rather than a series of separate moments.
●Modernism is, in many respects, a reaction against realism. It rejects rationalism, which is the theoretical base of realism; it excludes from its major concern the external, objective, material world, which is the only creative source of realism; it casts away almost all the traditional elements in literature like story, plot, character, chronological narration, etc., which are essential to realism. As a result, the works created by the modernist writers can often be labeled as anti-novel, anti-poetry or anti-drama
[22] Realism:（写实主义） A term used in literature and art to present life as it really is without sentimentalizing or idealizing it. Realistic writing often depicts the everyday life and speech of ordinary people. This has led, sometimes to an emphasis on sordid details.
Critical Realism (批判现实主义) Critical realism is one of the literary genres that flourished mainly in the 19th century. It reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of cash upon human nature. Here lies the essentially democratic and humanistic character of critical realism. The English critical realists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classes, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people. In their best works, they used humor and satire to contrast the greed and hypocrisy of the upper classes with the honesty and good-heartedness of the obscure “simple people” of the lower classes. Humorous scenes set off the actions of the positive characters, and the humor is often tinged with a lyricism which serves to stress the fine qualities of such characters. At the same time,bitter satire and grotesque is used to expose the seamy side of the bourgeois society. The critical realists, however, did not find a way to eradicate the social evils they knew so well. They did not realize the necessity of changing 4 the bourgeois society through conscious human effort. Their works do not point toward revolution but rather evolution or reformism. They often start with a powerful exposure of the ugliness of the bourgeois world in their works, but their novels usually have happy endings or an impotent
compromise at the end. Here are the strength and weakness of critical realism. 批判现实主义是盛行于19世纪的文学流派之一，揭示了金钱控制一切对人性的恶劣影响，这正是19世纪批判现实主义民主和人文特点的根源。19世纪的英国批判现实主义者不但讽刺性地描述了资产阶级和其他统治阶级，而且表现了对普通大众的深切同情。在他们最好的作品中，他们利用幽默和讽刺的手法对比了上层阶级的贪婪和虚伪以及下层阶级普通大众的诚实和善良。幽默的场景伴随着正面人物的行动，但是这种幽默略带了柔情的意味，强调了这些人物好的一面。同时，也用辛辣的讽刺和怪诞的风格来揭露资产阶级社会丑恶的一面。但是，批判现实主义者们并没有找到办法消除他们所熟知的社会罪恶，他们没有意识到通过人们有意识的努力来改变资本主义社会的必要性。他们作品中的主要倾向不是革命，而是改革；在他们的作品中，他们通常是在开始时强有力地揭示了资本主义世界的丑恶，最后只是提供一个巧合的喜剧结尾或者以无力的妥协来结束。在这里我们同时看到了批判现实主义的优点和弱点。
批判现实主义
Brief Introduction: A. Time – flourishing in the forties and in the early fifties, produced by the tense class struggle B. Idea – The critical realists described with much vividness and great artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint. They criticized the corrupting influence of the rule of cash upon human nature C. Class nature –bourgeois D. Representatives – Dickens, Thackeray E. Differences between 18th c realism and 19th c critical realism -- profound sympathy for the common people -- the broad social conflicts over and above the fate of mere individuals F. Artistic skills –humour and satire (esp. by Dickens) G. Class limitation –petty-bourgeois reformism ii. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) -- the greatest representative of English critical realism （1）Critical Realism is the main trend of the literary thoughts in the late 19th century. It reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of cash upon human nature. Critical realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint of bourgeoisie reality. As far as the literary form or “genre” is concerned, the major contribution made by the 19th century critical realists lies in their perfection of the novels. Like the realists of the 18th century, the 19th century critical realists made use of the form of novel for full and detailed representations of social and political events, and of the fate of individuals and of whole social classes.
Real ism’s emphasis is mainly on detachment, objectively, and accurate observation, its lucid but restrained criticism of social environment, and the humane understanding that underlay its moral judgments became an integral part of the fabric of modern novel d uring the height of that form’s development, and reproduce the truth of society objectively is the most fundamental significance of realism
（2）What are the main characteristics of the English critical realism?
English critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the early fifties. The critical realists described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief trait of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint. The English critical realists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classes, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people.
In their best works, the greed and hypocrisy of the upper-classes are contrasted with the honesty and good-heartedness of the obscure “simple people” of the lower classes. Hence humor and satire abound in the English realistic novels of the 19th century. The critical realists of the 19th century did not, and, due to their world outlook, could not, find a way to eradicate social evils.
Accuracy
Realism strives for absolute accuracy in the depiction of its subjects, devoid of any unnecessary dramatics or artistic affectation. Realistic works refrain from undue embellishment, aiming for a natural (as opposed to an artificial) tone.
Honesty
Realism seeks the depiction of honesty, rather than hiding things behind distortions or opinions. Unpleasant facts or images are presented as they are, as are plain or unassuming details about the subject. Independence
Philosophical realism stresses the independence of objects from their observer. They have a life and an existence separate from anything else, which will continue regardless of anyone's thoughts on the matter. Ordinariness
The subjects of realistic works are defined not by their exceptional nature, but by how ordinary they are. Shopkeepers are emphasized over military generals, for example, or streetlamps over grandiose mountains. Difficulties
Realistic protagonists are often beset by great forces beyond their control--the natural world, for instance, or the indifference of a larger society--and in many cases they do not triumph in their struggle. Unhappy endings aren't universal in realistic stories, but they are fairly common, while happy endings often entail compromise and pyrrhic victories.
6. Plot
(1)Plot refers to the structure of a story, (2) the plot of a literary work includes the rising action，the climax, the falling action and the resolution. It has a protagonist who is opposed by an antagonist ，creating what is called conflict.
5. Point of View（叙述角度）
Point of view can be divided by the narrator‘s relationship with the character，represented by the grammatical person：the first-person narrative，the third-person narrative，and omniscient narrator.
Allegory is a tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. Thus, an allegory is a story with two meaning, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Bildungsroman: a novel that traces the initiation, development, and education of a young person. Examples are Dickens’s David Copperfield and James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Byronic hero is a character-type found in Byron’s narrative Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. He is a boldly defiant but bitterly self-tormenting outcast, proudly contemptuous of social norms but suffering for some unnamed sin. Emily Bronte’s Heath cliff is a later example. Conceit: a kind of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things. A conceit usually provides the framework for an entire poem. An especially unusual and intellectual kind of conceit is the metaphysical conceit, used by certain 17th-century poets, such as John Donne.. Comedy of manners is a kind of comedy representing the complex and sophisticated code of behavior current in fashionable circles of society, where appearances count for more than true moral character. Its humor relies chiefly on elegant verbal wit and repartee. In England, the comedy of manners flourished as the dominant form of Restoration comedy in the works of Etheredge, Wycherley and Congreve. It was revived in a more subdued form in the 1770s by Goldsmith and Sheridan, and later by Oscar Wilde. An epic is a long narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating and celebrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation. Epiphany(顿悟）: a sudden revelation of truth about life inspired by a seemingly trivial incident Heroic couplet is the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter. Intrusive narrator: an omniscient narrator who, in addition to reporting the events of a novel’s story, offers further comments on characters and events, and who sometimes reflects more generally upon the significance of the story. Iambic pentameter: a poetic line consisting of five verse feet, with each foot an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter is the most common verse line in English poetry. Metaphysical poetry: the poetry of John Donne and other 17th-century poets who wrote in a similar style. It is characterized by verbal wit and excess, ingenious structure, irregular meter, colloquial language, elaborate imagery, and a drawing together of dissimilar ideas . Metaphysical Poetry Metaphysical Poetry is commonly used to name the work of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. With a rebellious spirit, the metaphysical poets try to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry. They are characterized by mysticism in content and fantasticality in form. John Donne is the lead ing figure of the “metaphysical school.” Naturalism: a post--Darwinian movement of the late 19th century that tried to apply the laws of scientific determinism to fiction. The naturalists went beyond the realists’ insistence on the objective presentation of the details of everyday life to insist that the materials of literature
①Beowulf: The national heroic epic of the English people. It has over 3,000 lines. It describes the battles between the two monsters and Beowulf, who won the battle finally and dead for the fatal wound. The poem ends with the funeral of the hero. The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use if alliteration. Other features of it are the use of metaphors(暗喻) and of understatements(含蓄). ②Alliteration: In alliterative verse, certain accented(重音) words in a line begin with the same consonant sound(辅音). There are generally 4accents in a line, 3 of which show alliteration, as can be seen from the above quotation. ③Romance: The most prevailing(流行的) kind of literature in feudal England was the Romance. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse(诗篇), sometimes in prose(散文), describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, usually a knight, as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournament(竞赛), or fighting for his lord in battle and the swearing of oaths. ④Epic: An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significantly to a culture or nation. The first epics are known as primacy, or original epics. ⑤Ballad: The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad which is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas(诗节), with the second and fourth lines rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various in kind, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters and class struggle. The paramount(卓越的) important ballad is Robin Hood(《绿林好汉》). ⑥Geoffrey Chaucer杰弗里.乔叟: He was an English author, poet, philosopher and diplomat. He is the founder of English poetry. He obtained a good knowledge of Latin, French and Italian. His best remembered narrative is the Canterbury Tales(《坎特伯雷故事集》), which the Prologue(序言) supplies a miniature(缩影) of the English society of Chaucer’s time. That is why Chaucer has been called “the founder of English realism”. Chaucer affirms men and women’s right to pursue their happiness on earth and opposes(反对) the dogma of asceticism(禁欲主义) preached(鼓吹) by the church. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man’s energy, intellect, quick wit and love of life. Chaucer’s contribution to English poetry lies chiefly in the fact that he introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic(抑扬格) meter(the “heroic couplet”) to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. ⑦【William Langland威廉.朗兰: Piers the Plowman《农夫皮尔斯》】
名词解释 Renaissance:The Renaissance indicates a revival of classical (Greek and Roman) arts and sciences in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world. Sonnet: A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter and most often in one of the two rhyme schemes: the Italian(or Petrarchan) or Shakes pearean ( or English ). A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme and meter .It has two main forms :the shakespearean sonnet and the Italian sonnet. Shakespeare Sonnet: a lyric with three quatrains and one couplet, rhyming ababcdcdefefgg, consisting of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter restricted to a definition rhyme scheme. A Shakespearean sonnet consists of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter, in which a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is repeated five times. The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g; the last two lines are a rhyming couplet. Enlightenment: the movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centries, a progressive intellectual movement, reason (rationality), equality & science (the 18th century) The Age of Enlightenment (also called the Age of Reason) refers to the 18th_ century England.The Enlightenment was a progressive intellectual movement.It celebrated reason (rationality), equality, science and human beings’ ability to perfect themselves and their society and it aimed to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern ,philosophical and artistic ideas. Romanticism: it flourished in literature, philosophy, music, and art in Western culture during most if the nineteenth century, beginning as a revolt against classicism. In it, emotion over reason, spontaneous emotion, a change from the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit, poetry should be free from all rules, imagination, nature, commonplace. Dramatic monologue: A kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to one or more listeners whose replies are not given in poem. The occasion is a crucial one in the speaker’s life, and the dramatic monologue reveals the speaker’s personality as
课件上找的 1)classicism 2)realism 3)sentimentalism 1.Epic: 史诗 A long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epics were drawn from an oral form and were transmitted by song and recitation before they were written down. 2.Alliteration: 头韵 A rhetorical device, meaning some words in a sentence begin with the same consonant sound（头韵）. 3.Kenning:比喻的复合辞(=metaphor) A figurative, usually compound expression used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry; for example, storm of swords is a kenning for battle. 4.Understatement: expressing something in a controlled way. 5.Romance:传奇 A long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. 6.Renaissance文艺复兴（欧洲14至16世纪） Renaissance in European history, refers to the period between 14th century to 17th century. “Renaissance” means “revival”, the revival of interest in and getting rid of conservatism in feudalist Europe and introducing new ideas that express the interests of the rising bourgeoisie. The Renaissance, which means “rebirth” or “revival”, is actually an intellectual
Byronic hero A proud, mysterious, rebellious, gloomy figure of noble origin, with fiery passions and unbending will, expresses Byron’s own ideal of freedom. He rises against tyranny and injustice, but he’s merely a lone fighter striving for personal freedom. Sonnet A sonnet is a 14-line lyric poem with a single theme. Sonnets vary but are usually written in iambic pentameter, following one of two traditional patterns: the Petrarchan or Italian sonnet and the Shakespearean or English sonnet. A sonnet generally expresses a single theme or idea. Sonnet是一种欧洲传统的非常有影响力的诗歌形式。从形式上来说它有14行诗构成，通常是五步抑扬格，有着严格的特定的押韵方式。莎士比亚的十四行诗非常出名。 Lake Poets The Lake Poets all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known, although their works were uniformly disparaged by the Edinburgh Review. They are considered part of the Romantic Movement 早期浪漫主义诗人Wordsworth，Coleridge和Southey，也被称为湖畔派诗人。他们都住在英国西北部的湖区，并且在文学和社会见解上有着一致性。湖畔派诗人主要回忆快乐的旧英格兰时代，把自然看作是精神上的避难所，因为他们惧怕即将到来的工业化和城市化。 Metaphysical poetry（玄学派诗歌） Metaphysical poetry is commonly used to name the work of the17t
名词解释 1．Romance: a long composition, in verse or in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, especially for the knight. The most popular theme employed was the legend of King Arthur and the round table knight. 2．Ballad: a story told in song, usually in four-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. 3．Heroic Couplet: a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter, and written in an elevated style. 4．Renaissance: a revival or rebirth of the artistic and scientific revival which originated in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe. It has two features: a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature and keen interest in activities of humanity. 5．Sonnet: 14-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter. 6．Blank verse: poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. 7．Enlightenment: a revival of interest in the old classical works, logic, order, restrained emotion and accuracy. 8．Neoclassicism: the Enlightenment brought about a revival of interest in Greek and Roman works. This tendency is known as Neoclassicism. 9．Sentimentalism:it was one of the important trends in English literature of the later decades of the 18th century. It concentrated on the free expression of thoughts and emotions, and presented a new view of human nature which prized feeling over thinking, passion over reason. 10．Romanticism: imagination, emotion and freedom are certainly the focal points of romanticism. The particular characteristics of the literature of romanticism include: subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism; freedom from rules; solitary life rather then life in society; the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason; and love of and worship of nature. 11．Lake Poets: the English poets who lived in and drew inspiration from the Lake District at the beginning of the 19th century. 12．Byronic Heroes: a variant of the Romantic heroes as a type of character( enthusiasm, persistence, pursuing freedom), named after the English Romantic Poet Gordon Byron. 13．Realism: seeks to portray familiar characters, situations, and settings in a realistic manner. This is done primarily by using an objective narrative point of view and through the buildup of accurate detail. 14．Aestheticism: an art movement supporting the emphasis of aesthetic values more than socio-political themes for literature, fine art, music and other arts. 15．Stream-of-Consciousness: it is a literary technique that presents the thoughts and feelings of a character as they occur without any clarification by the author. It is a narrative mode. 16．Dramatic Monologue: a kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to one or more listeners whose replies are not given in the poem. 17．Iambic Pentameter: a poetic line consisting of five verse feet, with each foot an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, that is, with each foot an iamb. 18．Epic: a long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. 19．Elegy: a poem of mourning, usually over the death of an individual; may also be a lament over the passing of life and beauty or a meditation of the nature of death; a type of lyric poem. 20．Canto: a section of a long poem. The cantos can be a great poem
《英国文学史及选读》第一册复习要点 1. : ; ; , （此处可能会有填空，选择等小题） 2. （名词解释） 3. “ ”: a ’s 4. （名词解释） 5. 6. : ; ( ; 124 , 24 ; ; ; : ) 7. (名词解释)8. （名词解释）9 —— 10. （名词解释）11. （名词解释）12. “ ” 13. “” . “ ”（推荐阅读，学习写正式语体的英文文章的好参照，本文用词正式优雅，多排比句和长句，语言造诣非常高，里面很多话都可以引用做格言警句，非常值得一读） 14. 四大悲剧比较重要，此外就是罗密欧与朱立叶了，这些剧的主题，背景，情节，人物形象都要熟悉，当然他最重要的是这是肯定的。他的也很重要，最重要属18。（其戏剧中著名对白和几首有名的十四行诗可能会出选读） 15. 三大史诗非常重要，特别是和。对于需要知道它是写成的，故事情节来自，另外要知道此书和的形象。 16. ——’s 17. —— ; : , . 18. （名词解释） 19. （名词解释） 20. ——“ ”
21. ——“ ”这个比上面那个要重要，注意这个报纸和我们今天的报纸不一样，它虚构了一系列的人物，以这些人物的口气来写报纸上刊登的散文，这一部分要仔细读。 22. ’s ’s 23. : “ ”, “ ”, “ ”, “ ”; () 24. : “’s ”此书非常重要，要知道具体内容，就是游历过的四个地方的英文名称，和每个部分具体的讽刺对象; （我们主要讲了三个地方）“A ”比较重要，要注意作者用的也就是反讽手法。 25. 18 . 26. : “ ”, “ ”, 当然是比较重要，剧情要清楚，的形象和故事中蕴涵的早期黑奴的原形，以及殖民主义的萌芽。另外注意的和，另外是。 27. ——“” ( ), “ ”, “ ” 28. : “ ”, “ ”, “ ”第一个和第三个比较重要，需要仔细看。他是一个比较重要的作家，另外也被称为 . 29. ——“ ”项狄传 30. ——“ ” 31. ——“ ”(), “ ” () ( ), “ ” (), “ ” (), “ ” (), “ ” ( ) 32. （名词解释） 33. ——“ a ”（英国诗歌里非常著名的一首，曾经被誉为“有史以来英国诗歌里最好的一首”）(a 墓园派诗人) * / ”: A , a , , . , ’s
1. Ballad(民谣) A ballad originally is a song intended as an accompaniment to a dance or a popular song. In the relatively recent sense, now most widely used, a ballad is a single, spirited poem in short stanzas, in which some popular story is graphically narrated. The ingredients of ballads usually include a refrain, stock descriptive phrases, and simple, terse dialogue. 2. Alliteration(头韵) It refers to a repeated initial consonant to successive words and it is the most striking feature in its poetic form. In alliterative verse, certain accented words in a line begin with the same consonant sound. There are generally 4 accents in a line, three of which show alliteration, and it is the initial sound of the third accented syllable that normally determiners the alliteration. In old English verse, alliteration is not an unusual or expressive phenomenon but a regular recurring structural feature of the verse. 3. Sonnet (十四行诗) It is a poem of 14 lines (of 11 syllables in Italian and 10 in English), typically in rhymed iambic pentameter. Sonnets characteristically express a single theme or idea. The sonnet was introduced to England by Sir T. Wyatt and developed Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey) and was thereafter widely used notably in the sonnet sequences of Shakespeare, Sidney, and Spenser. 4. Tragedy(悲剧) The word is applied broadly to dramatic works in which events move to a fatal or disastrous conclusion. It is concerned with the harshness and apparent injustice of life. Often the hero falls from power and his eventual death leads to the downfall of others. The tragic action arouses feelings of awe in the audience. 5. Lyric(抒情诗) As a genre, it was the tradition of popular song flourishing in all the medieval literatures of Western Europe. In England lyric poems flourished in the Middle English period, and in the 16th century, heyday of humanism. This tradition was enriched by the direct imitation of ancient models. During the next 200 years the links between poetry and music was gradually broken, and the term “lyric” came to be applied to short poems expressive of a poet’s thoughts or feelings. 6. Epic(史诗) It is a poem that celebrates in the form of a continuous narrative the achievements of one or more heroic personages of history or tradition. Among the great epics of the world may be mentioned the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and Paradise Lost. 7. Renaissance(文艺复兴) The word “renaissance” means rebirth or revival. It is commonly applied to the movement or period of great flowering of art, architecture, politics, and the study of literature, usually seen as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern worn world. It came about under the influence of Greek and Roman models. It began in Italy in the late 14th century, reached the highest development in the early 16th century, and spread to the rest of Europe in the 15th century and afterwards. Its emphasis was humanist: that is , on regarding the human figure and reason without a necessary relating of it to the superhuman.
Part One: Early and Medieval English Literature 1. Beowulf: national epic of the English people; Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatements 3. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”: a famous roman about King Arthur’s story 4. Ballad（名词解释） 5. Character of Robin Hood 6. Geoffrey Chaucer: founder of English poetry; The Canterbury Tales (main contents; 124 stories planned, only 24 finished; written in Middle English; significance; form: heroic couplet) 7. Heroic couplet (名词解释) Part Two: The English Renaissance 8. The Authorized Version of English Bible and its significance9. Renaissance（名词解释） 10.Thomas More??Utopia 11. Sonnet（名词解释） 12. Blank verse（名词解释） 13. Edmund Spenser “The Faerie Queene”; Amoretti (collection of his sonnets) Spenserian Stanza（名词解释） 15. Christopher Marlowe (“Doctor Faustus” and his achievements) Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th[1] to the early 11th century,[2] and relates events described as having occurred in what is now Denmark and Sweden. Commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature, Beowulf has been the subject of much scholarly study, theory, speculation, discourse, and, at 3182 lines, has been noted for its length. 3 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The "Green Knight" offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time 4 A ballad is a poem usually set to music; thus, it often is a story told in a song[1]. Any myth form may be told as a ballad, such as historical accounts or fairy tales in verse form. It usually has foreshortened, alternating four-stress lines ("ballad meter") and simple repeating rhymes, often with a refrain 5