英国文学简史

小蜜茶 · 发表于 2017-2-8 15:15

英国文学简史完全版

A Concise History of British Literature
Chapter 1 English Literature of Anglo-Saxon Period
I.Introduction《英美文学选读》课程教学大纲

一、课程基本信息
课程代码：080040
课程名称：英美文学选读
英文名称：British and American Literature
课程类别：专业选修课
学时：36
学　　分：2
适用对象: 英语专业本科3年级学生
考核方式：考查 (课堂活动、作业和考勤占30%；课程论文占70%)
先修课程：
二、课程简介
本课程由英国文学和美国文学两个部分组成。主要内容包括英美文学发展史及代表作家的简要介绍和作品选读。文学史部分从英美两国历史、语言、文化发展的角度，简要介绍英美两国文学各个历史断代的主要历史背景，文学文化思潮，文学流派，社会政治、经济、文化等对文学发展的影响，主要作家的文学生涯、创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格、思想意义等；选读部分主要节选了英美文学史上各个时期重要作家的代表作品，包括诗歌、戏剧、小说、散文等。
This course is made up by two parts: British literature and American literature including the history of British literature and American literature, representative writers and anthology of some famous works. From the aspects of the development of the history, language and culture, The part of history simply introduces the influences of the historical backgrounds, cultural trends, schools of literature, politics, economy and culture on British literature and American literature of different times; it also introduces the major writers’ literary life, creative thoughts, art characteristics and the themes, characters’ portraying, language styles, and structures of their masterpieces. The part of anthology extracts some important writers’ masterpieces of each epoch, including poetry, drama, novel, prose, etc.

三、课程性质与教学目的
设置本课程旨在使学生对英美两国文学形成与发展的全貌有一个大概的了解；并通过阅读具有代表性的英美文学作品，理解作品的内容，学会分析作品的艺术特色并努力掌握正确评价文学作品的标准和方法。由于本课程以作家作品为重点，因此学生要仔细阅读原作。通过阅读，努力提高语言水平，增强对英美文学原著的理解，特别是对作品中表现的社会生活和人物感情的理解，提高他们阅读文学作品的能力和鉴赏水平；并且通过讨论加强学生对文学本质的意识，提高他们的综合人文素质，增强他们对西方文学及文化的理解

四、教学内容及要求
第一章  中世纪英国文学
（一）目的与要求
通过本章的学习，了解英国文学的起源和产生的历史文化背景，以及中世纪英国文学的特点；了解该时期的重要作家文学生涯、创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格、思想意义等。
（二）教学内容
  第一节
1．主要内容英国早期的三次征服
2．基本概念和知识点罗马征服盎格鲁萨克逊征服日尔曼征服
3．问题与应用（能力要求）英国早期的三次征服对英国的影响
   第二节
1．《贝奥武甫》
2．头韵诗史诗体
3．史诗《贝奥武甫》的大概内容
第三节
1. 乔叟及《坎特伯雷故事集》
2. 英国诗歌之父英雄对句《坎特伯雷故事集》的主题和结构
3. 《坎特伯雷故事集》中主要人物的刻画
（三）课后练习
1. Who were the earliest settlers of Britton/England? What do you know about them (home, language, belief, life style)?
2. What are the 3 conquests? What effects they had upon the nation?
3. Ideologically what is the most significant change in people’s spiritual life?
4. How was the nation developed politically or what changes were there in the form of the social structure?
5. In terms of literature, what influence had the French upon England?
6. How many languages were spoken during the French reign? How do you understand modern English as a language?
7. What was the form of literature at the time? What features does it have?
8. What are the 3 periods/stages of Chaucer’s literary career?
9. In what way do we call Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales the first work of English literature?
（四）教学方法与手段
   教师讲授、团队合作、课堂讨论

第二章  文艺复兴时期英国文学
（一）目的与要求
      通过本章的学习，了解文艺复兴运动和人文主义思潮产生的历史、文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征和基本主张，及其对同时代及后世英国文学乃至文化的影响；了解该时期重要作家的文学生涯、创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格、思想意义等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品，了解其思想内容和写作特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。
   （二）教学内容
         第一节
         1. 文艺复兴运动概述
         2. 意大利文艺复兴运动的兴起人文主义思潮文艺复兴时期的文学渊源英国的文艺复兴宗教改革运动及影响
         3. 人文主义思潮对英国文学的影响
         第二节
         1. 英国文艺复兴时期的文学
         2. 伊丽莎白时代的历史文化背景伊丽莎白时代的戏剧伊丽莎白时代的诗歌
         3. 伊丽莎白时代的戏剧和诗歌兴盛的原因
         第三节
         1. 文艺复兴时期的主要作家及其代表作
         2. 埃德蒙。斯宾塞《仙后》克里斯托夫.马洛《浮士德博士的悲剧》威廉.莎士比亚的喜剧《威尼斯商人》、悲剧《哈姆雷特》、十四行诗（18）弗兰西斯.培根《论学习》
         3. 莎士比亚戏剧的代表作品及其故事梗概、情节结构、人物塑造、语言风格、思想意义
（三）课后练习
1. What is Renaissance? How and why did it come about?
2. What is the development of drama? What were the original forms and content and practice of drama?
3. Why did drama flourish in Elizabethan age? Who are the major playwrights of the time?
4. Who is Marlowe? What contributions did he make to English drama?
5. Who is Shakespeare? What famous and great plays (history, comedy, tragedy)? What features?
6. What did Ben Jonson write about? What representative work?
7. Prepare the excerpt from Hamlet (31-32). What is it mainly about? What humanist idea can you find in the soliloquy?
8. What was the most important translation of the time?
（四）教学方法与手段
      教师讲授、团队合作、分组讨论

第三章十七世纪英国文学
（一）目的与要求
      通过本章的学习，了解英国十七世纪资产阶级革命的历史、文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征和基本主张；了解该时期重要作家的文学生涯、创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格、思想意义等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品，了解其思想内容和写作特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。
   （二）教学内容
         第一节
         1. 英国资产阶级革命
         2. 君主独裁克伦威尔王室复辟光荣革命
         3. 英国革命的根源
         第二节
         1. 英国资产阶级革命时期主要作家及其代表作
         2. 约翰.弥尔顿史诗《失乐园》约翰.邓恩玄学诗派
         3. 史诗《失乐园》的故事梗概、主题结构、人物塑造、语言风格和作品的意义
（三）课后练习
1. What was the most important social event during the mid-17th century?
2. What were the two most popular forms of lyric?
3. Why is Milton the greatest poet of the period? What is the significance of Paradise Lost?
（四）教学方法与手段
      教师讲授、团队合作、分组讨论、课堂讨论

第四章  启蒙运动时期英国文学
（一）目的与要求
      通过本章的学习，了解当时席卷欧洲的启蒙运动和新古典主义文学流派产生的历史背景、主要特征和基本主张，及其对同时代及后世英国文学的影响；了解该时期一些重要作家的创作生涯、创作思想和艺术特色及其代表作品的结构、主题、人物刻画、语言风格、社会意义等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品，了解其思想内容和写作特点，提高理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。
   （二）教学内容
         第一节
         1. 启蒙运动
         2. 启蒙运动产生的时代背景启蒙运动的人文观启蒙运动的理性准则
         3. 启蒙运动对英国文学的影响
         第二节
         1. 新古典主义
         2. 新古典主义的创作旨意新古典主义的文学渊源新古典主义对散文、诗歌、戏剧创作的标准
         3. 新古典主义对英国文学的影响
         第三节
         1. 启蒙运动时期的主要作家及其代表作
         2. 英国现实主义小说的诞生（中叶）哥特式小说与伤感主义文学的兴起（后叶）约翰.班扬《天路历程》亚历山大.蒲伯丹尼尔.笛福《鲁滨逊漂流记》乔纳森.斯威夫特《格列佛游记》亨利.菲尔丁《汤姆.琼斯》理查德.比.谢立丹《造谣学校》托马斯.格雷《写在教堂墓地的挽歌》
         3. 斯威夫特讽刺散文的语言风格
（三）课后练习
1. What was the most important intellectual event of the time?
2. The 18th century is called an age of the bourgeoisie. Why? And what effect it had on literature of the century? Why did English novel appear in this century?
3. What are the major forms of literature?
4. What have neo-classicism and realism got to do with the Enlightenment Movement?
5. Why did literature of Sentimentality and Gothicism come into being in the latter part of the century?
（四）教学方法与手段
      教师讲授、团队合作、分组讨论、课堂讨论

第五章浪漫主义时期英国文学
（一）目的与要求
      通过本章的学习，了解浪漫主义文学产生的历史、文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征、基本主张、及其对同时代及后世英国文学乃至文化的影响；了解该时期重要作家的文学生涯、创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格、思想意义等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品，了解其思想内容和写作特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力
   （二）教学内容
         第一节
         1. 浪漫主义时期概述
         2. 浪漫主义时期英国社会的政治、经济、文化背景法国大革命对英国的影响浪漫主义文学创作的基本主张英国浪漫主义文学的特点
         3. 浪漫主义文学对同时代及后世英国文学的影响
         第二节
         1. 浪漫主义时期的主要作家及其代表作
2. 威廉.布莱克《天真之歌》威廉.华兹华斯《序曲》  塞.特.科勒律治《老水手之行》乔治.戈登.拜伦《唐璜》珀.比.雪莱《西风颂》约翰.济慈《夜莺颂》简.奥斯汀《傲慢与偏见》
         3. 《傲慢与偏见》的故事梗概、主题结构、人物塑造、语言风格及作品的意义
（三）课后练习
1. How is the period defined in time?
2.What was the historical background, politically, economically and ideologically?
3. What was the predominant genre of literature? Who were the important writers of the time?
4. In what way was romanticist literature different from that of neoclassicism in the 18th century, such as in form, guiding principle, subject matter, purpose, style, etc.?
（四）教学方法与手段
      教师讲授、团队合作、分组讨论、课堂讨论

第六章维多利亚时期时期英国文学
（一）目的与要求
      通过本章的学习，对19世纪维多利亚时代的英国的政治、经济、历史、文化背景，对维多利亚时代的诗歌、散文、小说在创作思想上的进步和创作技巧上的改革，以及对该时代主要作家的生平、观点、创作旨意、艺术特点及其代表作的主题、结构、语言、人物刻画等都有一个全面的了解。并通过作品选读加深体会感受，增强对作品的理解和鉴赏能力。
   （二）教学内容
         第一节
         1. 维多利亚时代的历史背景
         2. 早期的经济发展与社会动乱中期的繁荣昌盛和社会稳定晚期的势力衰退和社会道德观念的改变功利主义思潮的泛滥
         3. 科学发现对传统的社会和宗教观念的影响
         第二节
         1. 维多利亚时期的文学的特点和主要作家及其代表作
         2. 批判现实主义小说查尔斯.狄更斯《雾都孤儿》布朗蒂姐妹《简.爱》《呼啸山庄》阿尔弗雷德.丁尼生《国王叙事诗》罗伯特.布朗宁《指环与书》乔治.艾略特《米德尔马契》托马斯．哈代《德伯家的苔丝》
         3. 《简.爱》中女主人公的形象
（三）课后练习
1. What is the historical background politically, economically and ideologically?
2. What is the predominant form of literature during this period?
3. Who are the representative writers? And what was the literary tendency?
4. What changes came about towards the end of the century?
（四）教学方法与手段
      教师讲授、团队合作、分组讨论、课堂讨论

第七章二十世纪时期英国文学
（一）目的与要求
      通过本章的学习，了解20世纪批判现实主义文学和现代主义文学产生的历史、文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征、基本主张、及其对现当代英国文学乃至文化的影响；了解该时期重要作家的文学创作思想、艺术特色、及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格、思想意义等; 同时结合注释，读懂所选作品，了解其思想内容和写作特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。
   （二）教学内容
         第一节
         1. 现代时期概述
         2. 20世纪英国社会的政治、经济、文化背景现代主义文学的兴起与衰落现代主义文学创作的基本主张英国现代主义文学的特点
         3. 现代主义文学对当代英国文学的影响
         第二节
         1. 20世纪英国主要作家及其代表作
         2. 萧伯纳《华伦夫人的职业》约翰.高尔斯华绥《现代喜剧》威廉.勃特勒.叶芝《驶向拜占庭》 T. S.  艾略特《荒原》戴维.赫伯特.劳伦斯《儿子与情人》詹姆斯.乔伊斯《尤利西斯》
         3. 乔伊斯的作品对现当代世界文学的影响
（三）课后练习
1. What is the historical background of the period?
2. What is modernism?
3. What is postmodernism?
（四）教学方法与手段
      教师讲授、团队合作、分组讨论、课堂讨论

第八章浪漫主义时期美国文学
（一）目的与要求
      通过本章学习，了解19世纪初期至中叶美国文学产生的历史、文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征、基本主张，及其对同时代和后期美国文学的影响；了解该时期主要作家的文学创作生涯、创作思想、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题思想、人物刻画、语言风格等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品并了解其思想内容和艺术特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。
   （二）教学内容
         第一节
         1. 美国浪漫主义时期概述
         2. 浪漫主义文学产生的社会及文化背景清教主义思想新英格兰超验主义
         3. 美国浪漫主义在文学上的表现
         第二节
         1. 美国浪漫主义时期的主要作家及其代表作
         2. 华盛顿.欧文《见闻札记》拉尔夫.华尔多.爱默生《论自然》纳撒尼尔.霍桑《红字》华尔特.惠特曼《草叶集》赫尔曼.梅尔维尔《白鲸》
         3. 惠特曼的《草叶集》的主创意图、思想情感及诗体形式
（三）课后练习
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”:
1. How does the speaker’s mood change throughout the poem?
2. Why is the word “nevermore” repeated again and again?
3. What musical devices does the poet use in the poem?
4. What do you think of Poe’s philosophy of composition?
（四）教学方法与手段
      教师讲授、团队合作、分组讨论、课堂讨论

第九章现实主义时期美国文学
（一）目的与要求
      通过本章的学习，了解美国19世纪中期现实主义文学产生的历史、文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征、基本主张、及其对同时代和后期美国文学的影响；了解该时期的主要作家的文学创作生涯、人生观及价值观及其代表作品的主题思想、人物刻画、语言风格；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品并了解其思想内容和艺术特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。
   （二）教学内容
         第一节
         1. 现实主义时期概述
         2. 美国南北战争美国现实主义文学的先驱达尔文主义和法国小说家佐拉的影响
         3. 美国现实主义文学产生的社会和文化背景
         第二节
         1. 美国现实主义时期的文学
         2. 占主导地位的美国现实主义小说现实主义文学中的地方色彩小说现实主义文学中的自然主义倾向
         3. 现实主义文学和自然主义倾向之异同
         第三节
         1. 美国现实主义时期的主要作家及其代表作
         2. 马克.吐温《哈克贝里.费恩历险记》亨利.詹姆斯《黛西.米勒》艾米莉.狄金森西奥多.德莱塞《嘉丽妹妹》
      3. 狄金森诗歌的创新和艺术特色
（三）课后练习
Mark Twain, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”:
   1. What realistic elements can you find in this story?
   2. What role does language play in the story?
3. How is the story narrated?
（四）教学方法与手段
      教师讲授、团队合作、分组讨论、课堂讨论

第十章现代主义时期美国文学
（一）目的与要求
      通过本章的学习，了解20世纪初期至中叶美国现代文学产生的历史、文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征、基本主张，及其对当代美国文学发展的影响；了解该时期主要作家的文学生涯、创作意图、艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构、人物刻画和语言风格等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品，了解其思想内容和写作特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。
   （二）教学内容
         第一节
         1. 两次世界大战期间的美国文学
         2. 两次世界大战马克思主义理论和弗洛伊德学说欧洲现代派艺术意象派诗人象征主义迷惘的一代表现主义
         3. 两次世界大战期间美国文学产生的历史及文化背景
         第二节
         1. 战后美国文学
         2. 垮掉的一代黑人小说犹太人小说实验小说（荒诞派小说）美国现代文学多元化的现象
         3. 战后美国文学产生的历史及文化背景
         第三节
         1. 美国现代时期的主要作家及其代表作
         2. 埃兹拉.庞德《地铁站一瞥》罗伯特.弗洛斯特《雪夜停马在林边》尤金.奥尼尔《毛猿》司各特。菲兹杰拉德《了不起的盖茨比》欧内斯特。海明威《老人与海》威廉.福克纳《喧嚣与骚动》
         3. 选读《给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰》：主题结构、人物刻画、语言风格
（三）课后练习
Ezra Pound, “In a Station of the Metro”:
   1. How is the central image in the poem related to the subject the poet intends to present?
2. In what way do you think the Imagists learned from the ancient Chinese poetry?
3. What disadvantages can you find with the Imagist theory?
William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”:
1. Why is Emily’s House the most appropriate setting for the story? Discuss the ways in which Faulkner uses Miss Emily’s house as an appropriate setting.
2. Why does Faulkner use this particular narrator? Is this narrator reliable? Does the sex of the narrator affect the telling of the story?
3. What is the disadvantage of taking Emily as a symbol of the post-Civil-War South?
4. How do you explain Emily’s behavior? What is the writer’s attitude toward Emily?
5. How does this story handle the linked themes of female oppression and empowerment? What does it say about the various kinds of male-female relationships in American society of this period?
（四）教学方法与手段
      教师讲授、团队合作、分组讨论、课堂讨论

五、各教学环节学时分配
教学环节

教学时数

课程内容讲

课习
题
课讨
论
课实验其他教学环节小

计
第一章中世纪英国文学 2 2
第二章文艺复兴时期英国文学 2 2 4
第三章十七世纪英国文学 1 1 2
第四章启蒙运动时期英国文学 1 1 2
第五章浪漫主义时期英国文学 2 2 4
第六章维多利亚时期时期英国文学 2 2
第七章二十世纪时期英国文学 2 2
第八章浪漫主义时期美国文学 2 4 6
第九章现实主义时期美国文学 2 4 6
第十章现代主义时期美国文学 2 4 6
合计 18 2 16 36

六、推荐教材和教学参考资源
1．桂扬清、吴翔林编注《英美文学选读》.北京：中国对外翻译公司出版，1985年6月
2．程爱民《美国文学阅读教程》.南京：南京师范大学出版社，1996年8月
3．刘炳善《英国文学简史》.上海：上海外语教育出版社，1993年4月
4．常耀信《美国文学简史》.天津：南开大学出版社，1990年6月
5．吴伟仁《英国文学史及选读》.北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1988年12月
6．王守仁《英国文学选读》.北京：高等教育出版社，2001年9月
7．张伯香《英国文学教程》.武汉：武汉大学出版社，1997年11月
8．罗经国《新编英国文学选读》.北京：北京大学出版社，1996年5月
9．李正栓、李翠婷《英国文学学习指南》.北京：清华大学出版社，1998年12月
10．常耀信《美国文学选读》.天津：南开大学出版社，1991年5月
11．李正栓、李翠婷《美国文学学习指南》.北京：清华大学出版社，1998年7月
12．陈嘉《英国文学史》.北京：商务印书馆，1992年4月
13．陈嘉《英国文学作品选读》.商务印书馆，1982年6月
14．胡荫桐、刘树森《美国文学教程》.天津：南开大学出版社，1995年8月
15．刘海平、王守仁《新编美国文学史》.上海：上海外语教育出版社，2002年
16．吴伟仁《美国文学史及选读》.北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1990年6月

七、其他说明


大纲修订人：黄薇                      修订日期：2007.4.3
大纲审定人：                            审定日期：


1. The historical background
（1） Before the Germanic invasion
（2） During the Germanic invasion
a. immigration;
b. Christianity;
c. heptarchy.
d. social classes structure: hide-hundred; eoldermen （lord） – thane - middle class （freemen） - lower class （slave or bondmen: theow）;
e. social organization: clan or tribes.
f. military Organization;
g. Church function: spirit, civil service, education;
h. economy: coins, trade, slavery;
i. feasts and festival: Halloween, Easter; j. legal system.
2. The Overview of the culture
（1） The mixture of pagan and Christian spirit.
（2） Literature: a. poetry: two types; b. prose: two figures.
II.Beowulf.
1. A general introduction.
2. The content.
3. The literary features.
（1） the use of alliteration
（2） the use of metaphors and understatements
（3） the mixture of pagan and Christian elements
III.The Old English Prose
1.What is prose?
2.figures
（1）The Venerable Bede
（2）Alfred the Great
Chapter 2 English Literature of the Late Medieval Ages I. Introduction
1. The Historical Background.
（1） The year 1066: Norman Conquest.
（2） The social situations soon after the conquest.
A. Norman nobles and serfs;
B. restoration of the church.
（3） The 11th century.
A. the crusade and knights.
B. dominance of French and Latin;
（4） The 12th century.
A. the centralized government;
B. kings and the church （Henry II and Thomas）;
（5） The 13th century.
A. The legend of Robin Hood;
B. Magna Carta （1215）;
C. the beginning of the Parliament
D. English and Latin: official languages （the end）
（6） The 14th century.
a. the House of Lords and the House of Commons—conflict between the Parliament and Kings;
b. the rise of towns.
c. the change of Church.
d. the role of women.
e. the Hundred Years' War—starting.
f. the development of the trade: London.
g. the Black Death.
h. the Peasants' Revolt—1381.
i. The translation of Bible by Wycliff.
（7） The 15th century.
a. The Peasants Revolt （1453）
b. The War of Roses between Lancasters and Yorks.
c. the printing-press—William Caxton.
d. the starting of Tudor Monarchy（1485）
2. The Overview of Literature.
（1） the stories from the Celtic lands of Wales and Brittany—great myths of the Middle Ages.
（2） Geoffrye of Monmouth—Historia Regum Britanniae—King Authur.
（3） Wace—Le Roman de Brut.
（4） The romance.
（5） the second half of the 14th century: Langland, Gawin poet, Chaucer.
II.Sir Gawin and Green Knight.
1. a general introduction.
2. the plot.
III.William Langland.
1. Life
2. Piers the Plowman
IV.Chaucer
1. Life
2. Literary Career: three periods
（1） French period
（2） Italian period
（3） master period
3. The Canterbury Tales
A. The Framework;
B. The General Prologue;
C. The Tale Proper.
4. His Contribution.
（1） He introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types.
（2） He is the first great poet who wrote in the current English language.
（3） The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.
V. Popular Ballads.
VI.Thomas Malory and English Prose
VII.The beginning of English Drama.
1. Miracle Plays.
Miracle play or mystery play is a form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching its height in the 15th century. The simple lyric character of the early texts was enlarged by the addition of dialogue and dramatic action. Eventually the performance was moved to the churchyard and the marketplace.
2. Morality Plays.
A morality play is a play enforcing a moral truth or lesson by means of the speech and action of characters which are personified abstractions – figures representing vices and virtues, qualities of the human mind, or abstract conceptions in general.
3. Interlude.
The interlude, which grew out of the morality, was intended, as its name implies, to be used more as a filler than as the main part of an entertainment. As its best it was short, witty, simple in plot, suited for the diversion of guests at a banquet, or for the relaxation of the audience between the divisions of a serious play. It was essentially an indoors performance, and generally of an aristocratic nature.
Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance I.A Historical Background
II.  The Overview of the Literature （1485-1660）
Printing press—readership—growth of middle class—trade-education for laypeople-centralization of power-intellectual life-exploration-new impetus and direction of literature.
Humanism-study of the literature of classical antiquity and reformed education.
Literary style-modeled on the ancients.
The effect of humanism-the dissemination of the cultivated, clear, and sensible attitude of its classically educated adherents.
1. poetry
The first tendency by Sidney and Spenser:  ornate, florid, highly figured style.
The second tendency by Donne: metaphysical style—complexity and ingenuity.
The third tendency by Johnson: reaction——Classically pure and restrained style.
The fourth tendency by Milton: central Christian and Biblical tradition.
2. Drama
a. the native tradition and classical examples.
b. the drama stands highest in popular estimation: Marlowe – Shakespeare – Jonson.
3. Prose
a. translation of Bible;
b. More;
c. Bacon.
II.English poetry.
1. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard （courtly makers）
（1） Wyatt: introducing sonnets.
（2） Howard: introducing sonnets and writing the first blank verse.
2. Sir Philip Sidney—poet, critic, prose writer
（1） Life:
a. English gentleman;
b. brilliant and fascinating personality;
c. courtier.
（2） works
a. Arcadia: pastoral romance;
b. Astrophel and Stella （108）: sonnet sequence to Penelope Dvereux—platonic devotion.
Petrarchan conceits and original feelings-moving to creativeness—building  of a narrative story; theme-love originality-act of writing.
c. Defense of Poesy: an apology for imaginative literature—beginning  of literary criticism.
3. Edmund Spenser
（1） life: Cambridge - Sidney's friend - “Areopagus” – Ireland - Westminster Abbey.
（2） works
a. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry in Renaissance.
b. Amoretti and Epithalamion: sonnet sequence
c. Faerie Queene:
l The general end——A romantic and allegorical epic—steps to virtue.
l 12 books and 12 virtues:  Holiness, temperance, justice and courtesy.
l Two-level function: part of the story and part of allegory （symbolic meaning）
l Many allusions to classical writers.
l Themes: puritanism, nationalism, humanism and Renaissance Neoclassicism—a Christian humanist.
（3） Spenserian Stanza.
III.English Prose
1. Thomas More
（1） Life: “Renaissance man”, scholar, statesman, theorist, prose writer, diplomat, patron of arts
a. learned Greek at Canterbury College, Oxford;
b. studies law at Lincoln Inn;
c. Lord Chancellor;
d. beheaded.
（2） Utopia: the first English science fiction.
Written in Latin, two parts, the second—place of nowhere.
A philosophical mariner （Raphael Hythloday） tells his voyages in which he discovers a land-Utopia.
a. The part one is organized as dialogue with mariner depicting his philosophy.
b. The part two is a description of the island kingdom where gold and silver are worn by criminal, religious freedom is total and no one owns anything.
c. the nature of the book: attacking the chief political and social evils of his time.
d. the book and the Republic: an attempt to describe the Republic in a new way, but it possesses an modern character and the resemblance is in externals.
e. it played a key role in the Humanist awakening of the 16th century which moved away from the Medieval otherworldliness towards Renaissance secularism.
f. the Utopia
（3） the significance.
a. it was the first champion of national ideas and national languages; it created a national prose, equally adapted to handling scientific and artistic material.
b. a elegant Latin scholar and the father of English prose: he composed works in English, translated from Latin into English biography, wrote History of Richard III.
2. Francis Bacon: writer, philosopher and statesman
（1） life: Cambridge - humanism in Paris – knighted - Lord Chancellor – bribery - focusing on philosophy and literature.
（2） philosophical ideas: advancement of science—people:servants  and interpreters of nature—method: a child before nature—facts and observations: experimental.
（3） “Essays”: 57.
a. he was a master of numerous and varied styles.
b. his method is to weigh and balance maters, indicating the ideal course of action and the practical one, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each, but leaving the reader  to make the final decisions. （arguments）
IV.English Drama
1. A general survey.
（1） Everyman marks the beginning of modern drama.
（2） two influences.
a. the classics: classical in form and English in content;
b. native or popular drama.
（3） the University Wits.
2. Christopher Marlowe: greatest playwright before Shakespeare and most gifted of the Wits.
（1） Life: first interested in classical poetry—then in drama.
（2） Major works
a. Tamburlaine;
b. The Jew of Malta;
c. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.
（3） The significance of his plays.
V. William Shakespeare
1. Life
（1） 1564, Stratford-on-Avon;
（2） Grammar School;
（3） Queen visit to Castle;
（4） marriage to Anne Hathaway;
（5） London, the Globe Theatre: small part and proprietor;
（6） the 1st Folio, Quarto;
（7） Retired, son—Hamnet; H. 1616.
2. Dramatic career
3. Major plays-men-centered.
（1） Romeo and Juliet——tragic love and fate
（2） The Merchant of Venice.
Good over evil.
Anti-Semitism.
（3） Henry IV.
National unity.
Falstaff.
（4） Julius Caesar
Republicanism vs. dictatorship.
（5） Hamlet
Revenge
Good/evil.
（6） Othello
Diabolic character
jealousy
gap between appearance and reality.
（7） King Lear
Filial ingratitude
（8） Macbeth
Ambition vs. fate.
（9） Antony and Cleopatra.
Passion vs. reason
（10） The Tempest
Reconciliation; reality and illusion.
3. Non-dramatic poetry
（1） Venus and Adonis; The Rape of Lucrece.
（2） Sonnets:
a. theme: fair, true, kind.
b. two major parts: a handsome young man of noble birth; a lady in dark complexion.
c. the form: three quatrains and a couplet.
d. the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
VI.Ben Jonson
1. life: poet, dramatist, a Latin and Greek scholar, the “literary king” （Sons of Ben）
2.contribution:
（1） the idea of “humour”.
（2） an advocate of classical drama and  a forerunner of classicism in English literature.
3. Major plays
（1） Everyone in His Humour—“humour”; three unities.
（2） Volpone the Fox
Chapter 4 English Literature of the 17th Century I.A Historical Background
II.The Overview of the Literature （1640-1688）
1. The revolution period
（1） The metaphysical poets;
（2） The Cavalier poets.
（3） Milton: the literary and philosophical heritage of the Renaissance merged with Protestant political and moral conviction
2. The restoration period.
（1） The restoration of Charles II ushered in a literature characterized by reason, moderation, good taste, deft management, and simplicity. （school of Ben Jonson）
（2） The ideals of impartial investigation and scientific experimentation promoted by the newly founded Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge （1662） were influential in the development of clear and simple prose as an instrument of rational communication.
（3） The great philosophical and political treatises of the time emphasize rationalism.
（4） The restoration drama.
（5） The Age of Dryden.
III.John Milton
1. Life: educated at Cambridge—visiting the continent—involved into the revolution—persecuted—writing epics.
2. Literary career.
（1） The 1st period was up to 1641, during which time he is to be seen chiefly as a son of the humanists and Elizabethans, although his Puritanism is not absent. L'Allegre and IL Pens eroso （1632） are his early masterpieces, in which we find Milton a true offspring of the Renaissance, a scholar of exquisite taste and rare culture. Next came Comus, a masque. The greatest of early creations was Lycidas, a pastoral elegy on the death of a college mate, Edward King.
（2） The second period is from 1641 to 1654, when the Puritan was in such complete ascendancy that he wrote almost no poetry. In 1641, he began a long period of pamphleteering for the puritan cause. For some 15 years, the Puritan in him alone ruled his writing. He sacrificed his poetic ambition to the call of the liberty for which Puritans were fighting.
（3） The third period is from 1655 to 1671, when humanist and Puritan have been fused into an exalted entity. This period is the greatest in his literary life, epics and some famous sonnets. The three long poems are the fruit of the long contest within Milton of Renaissance tradition and his Puritan faith. They form the greatest accomplishments of any English poet except Shakespeare. In Milton alone, it would seem, Puritanism could not extinguish the lover of beauty. In these works we find humanism and Puritanism merged in magnificence.
3. Major Works
（1） Paradise Lost
a. the plot.
b. characters.
c. theme: justify the ways of God to man.
（2） Paradise Regained.
（3） Samson Agonistes.
4. Features of Milton's works.
（1） Milton is one of the very few truly great English writers who is also a prominent figure in politics, and who is both a great poet and an important prose writer. The two most essential things to be remembered about him are his Puritanism and his republicanism.
（2） Milton wrote many different types of poetry. He is especially a great master of blank verse. He learned much from Shakespeare and first used blank verse in non-dramatic works.
（3） Milton is a great stylist. He is famous for his grand style noted for its dignity and polish, which is the result of his life-long classical and biblical study.
（4） Milton has always been admired for his sublimity of thought and majesty of expression.
IV.John Bunyan
1. life:
（1） puritan age;
（2） poor family;
（3） parliamentary army;
（4） Baptist society, preacher;
（5） prison, writing the book.
2. The Pilgrim Progress
（1） The allegory in dream form.
（2） the plot.
（3） the theme.
V. Metaphysical Poets and Cavalier Poets.
1. Metaphysical Poets
The term “metaphysical poetry” is commonly used to designate the works of the 17th century writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne. Pressured by the harsh, uncomfortable and curious age, the metaphysical poets sought to shatter myths and replace them with new philosophies, new sciences, new words and new poetry. They tried to break away from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry, and favoured in poetry for a more colloquial language and tone, a tightness of expression and the single-minded working out of a theme or argument.
2. Cavalier Poets
The other group prevailing in this period was that of Cavalier poets. They were often courtiers who stood on the side of the king, and called themselves “sons” of Ben Jonson. The Cavalier poets wrote light poetry, polished and elegant, amorous and gay, but often superficial. Most of their verses were short songs, pretty madrigals, love fancies characterized by lightness of heart and of morals. Cavalier poems have the limpidity of the Elizabethan lyric without its imaginative flights. They are lighter and neater but less fresh than the Elizabethan's.
VI.John Dryden.
1. Life:
（1） the representative of classicism in the Restoration.
（2） poet, dramatist, critic, prose writer, satirist.
（3） changeable in attitude.
（4） Literary career—four decades.
（5） Poet Laureate
2. His influences.
（1） He established the heroic couplet as the fashion for satiric, didactic, and descriptive poetry.
（2） He developed a direct and concise prose style.
（3） He developed the art of literary criticism in his essays and in the numerous prefaces to his poems.
Chapter 5 English Literature of the 18th Century I.Introduction
1. The Historical Background.
2. The literary overview.
（1） The Enlightenment.
（2） The rise of English novels.
When the literary historian seeks to assign to each age its favourite form of literature, he finds no difficulty in dealing with our own time. As the Middle Ages delighted in long romantic narrative poems, the Elizabethans in drama, the Englishman of the reigns of Anne and the early Georges in didactic and satirical verse, so the public of our day is enamored of the novel. Almost all types of literary production continue to appear, but whether we judge from the lists of publishers, the statistics of public libraries, or general conversation, we find abundant evidence of the enormous preponderance of this kind of literary entertainment in popular favour.
（3） Neo-classicism: a revival in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of classical standards of order, balance, and harmony in literature. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were major exponents of the neo-classical school.
（4） Satiric literature.
（5） Sentimentalism
II.Neo-classicism. （a general description）
1. Alexander Pope
（1）Life:
a.Catholic family;
b.ill health;
c.taught himself by reading and translating;
d.friend of Addison, Steele and Swift.
（2）three groups of poems:
e.An Essay on Criticism （manifesto of neo-classicism）;
f. The Rape of Lock;
g.Translation of two epics.
（3）His contribution:
h.the heroic couplet—finish, elegance, wit, pointedness;
i.satire.
（4） weakness: lack of imagination.
2. Addison and Steele
（1） Richard Steele: poet, playwright, essayist, publisher of newspaper.
（2） Joseph Addison: studies at Oxford, secretary of state, created a literary periodical “Spectator” （with Steele, 1711）
（3） Spectator Club.
（4） The significance of their essays.
a. Their writings in “The Tatler”, and “The Spectator” provide a new code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie.
b. They give a true picture of the social life of England in the 18th century.
c. In their hands, the English essay completely established itself as a literary genre. Using it as a form of character sketching and story telling, they ushered in the dawn of the modern novel.
3. Samuel Johnson—poet, critic, essayist, lexicographer, editor.
（1）Life:
a.studies at Oxford;
b.made a living by writing and translating;
c.the great cham of literature.
（2） works: poem （The Vanity of Human Wishes, London）; criticism （The Lives of great Poets）; preface.
（3） The champion of neoclassical ideas.
III.Literature of Satire: Jonathan Swift.
1.Life:
（1）born in Ireland;
（2）studies at Trinity College;
（3）worked as a secretary;
（4）the chief editor of The Examiner;
（5）the Dean of St. Patrick's in Dublin.
2. Works: The Battle of Books, A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal, Gulliver's Travels.
3. Gulliver's Travels.
Part I. Satire—the Whig and the Tories, Anglican Church and Catholic Church.
Part II. Satire—the legal system; condemnation of war.
Part III. Satire—ridiculous scientific experiment.
Part IV. Satire—mankind.
IV.English Novels of Realistic tradition.
1. The Rise of novels.
（1）Early forms: folk tale – fables – myths – epic – poetry – romances – fabliaux – novelle - imaginative nature of their material. （imaginative narrative）
（2）The rise of the novel
a.picaresque novel in Spain and England （16th century）: Of or relating to a genre of prose fiction that originated in Spain and depicts in realistic detail the adventures of a roguish hero, often with satiric or humorous effects.
b.Sidney: Arcadia.
c. Addison and Steele: The Spectator.
（plot and characterization and realism）
（3） novel and drama （17the century）
2. Daniel Defoe—novelist, poet, pamphleteer, publisher, merchant, journalist.）
（1）Life:
a.business career;
b.writing career;
c.interested in politics.
（2） Robinson Cusoe.
a. the story.
b. the significance of the character.
c. the features of his novels.
d. the style of language.
3. Henry Fielding—novelist.
（1）Life:
a.unsuccessful dramatic career;
b.legal career; writing career.
（2） works.
（3） Tom Jones.
a.the plot;
b.characters: Tom, Blifil, Sophia;
c.significance.
（4） the theory of realism.
（5） the style of language.
V. Writers of Sentimentalism.
1. Introduction
2. Samuel Richardson—novelist, moralist （One who is unduly concerned with the morals of others.）
（1）Life:
a.printer book seller;
b.letter writer.
（2） Pamela, Virtue Rewarded.
a.the story
b.the significance
Pamela was a new thing in these ways:
a） It discarded the “improbable and marvelous” accomplishments of the former heroic romances, and pictured the life and love of ordinary people.
b） Its intension was to afford not merely entertainment but also moral instruction.
c） It described not only the sayings and doings of characters but their also their secret thoughts and feelings. It was, in fact, the first English psycho-analytical novel.
3. Oliver Goldsmith—poet and novelist.
A. Life:
a.born in Ireland;
b.a singer and tale-teller, a life of vagabondage;
c.bookseller;
d.the Literary Club;
e.a miserable life;
f.  the most lovable character in English literature.
B. The Vicar of Wakefield.
a.story;
b.the signicance.
VI.English Drama of the 18th century
1. The decline of the drama
2. Richard Brinsley Sheriden
A. life.
B. works: Rivals, The School for Scandals.
C. significance of his plays.
a. The Rivals and The School for Scandal are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy.
b. In his plays, morality is the constant theme. He is much concerned with the current moral issues and lashes harshly at the social vices of the day.
c. Sheridan's greatness also lies in his theatrical art. He seems to have inherited from his parents a natural ability and inborn knowledge about the theatre. His plays are the product of a dramatic genius as well as of a well-versed theatrical man.
d. His plots are well-organized, his characters, either major or minor, are all sharply drawn, and his manipulation of such devices as disguise, mistaken identity and dramatic irony is masterly. Witty dialogues and neat and decent language also make a characteristic of his plays.
Chapter 6 English Literature of the Romantic Age I.Introduction
1. Historical Background
2. Literary Overview: Romanticism
Characteristics of Romanticism:
（1） The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
（2） The creation of a world of imagination
（3） The return to nature for material
（4） Sympathy with the humble and glorification of the commonplace
（5） Emphasis upon the expression of individual genius
（6） The return to Milton and the Elizabethans for literary models
（7） The interest in old stories and medieval romances
（8） A sense of melancholy and loneliness
（9） The rebellious spirit
II.Pre-Romantics
1. Robert Burns
（1） Life: French Revolution
（2） Features of poetry
a. Burns is chiefly remembered for his songs written in the Scottish dialect.
b. His poems are usually devoid of artificial ornament and have a great charm of simplicity.
c. His poems are especially appreciated for their musical effect.
d. His political and satirical poems are noted for his passionate love for freedom and fiery sentiments of hatred against tyranny.
（3） Significance of his poetry
His poetry marks an epoch in the history of English literature. They suggested that the spirit of the Romantic revival was embodied in this obscure ploughman. Love, humour, pathos, the response to nature – all the poetic qualities that touch the human heart are in his poems, which marked the sunrise of another day – the day of Romanticism.
2. William Blake
（1） life: French Revolution
（2） works.
l Songs of Innocence
l Songs of Experience
（3） features
a. sympathy with the French Revolution
b. hatred for 18th century conformity and social institution
c. attitude of revolt against authority
d. strong protest against restrictive codes
（4） his influence
Blake is often regarded as a symbolist and mystic, and he has exerted a great influence on twentieth century writers. His peculiarities of thought and imaginative vision have in many ways proved far more congenial to the 20th century than they were to the 19th.
III.Romantic Poets of the first generation
1. Introduction
2. William Wordsworth: representative poet, chief spokesman of Romantic poetry
（1） Life:
a.love nature;
b.Cambridge;
c.tour to France;
d.French revolution;
e.Dorathy;
f.  The Lake District;
g.friend of Coleridge;
h.conservative after revolution.
（2） works:
a. the Lyrical Ballads （preface）: significance
b. The Prelude: a biographical poem.
c. the other poems
（3） Features of his poems.
a.Theme
A constant theme of his poetry was the growth of the human spirit through the natural description with expressions of inward states of mind.
b.characteristics of style.
His poems are characterized by a sympathy with the poor, simple peasants, and a passionate love of nature.
3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge: poet and critic
（1） Life:
a.Cambridge;
b.friend with Southey and Wordsworth;
c.taking opium.
（2） works.
l The fall of Robespierre
l The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
l Kubla Khan
l Biographia Literaria
（3） Biographia Literaria.
（4） His criticism
He was one of the first critics to give close critical attention to language. In both poetry and criticism, his work is outstanding, but it is typical of him that his critical work is very scattered and disorganized.
IV.Romantic Poets of the Second Generation.
1. Introduction
2. George Gordon Byron
（1） Life:
a.Cambridge, published poems and reviews;
b.a tour of Europe and the East;
c.left England;
d.friend with Shelley;
e.worked in Greece: national hero;
f.  radical and sympathetic with French Revolution.
（2） Works.
l Don Juan
l When We Two Parted
l She Walks in Beauty
（3） Byronic Hero.
Byron introduced into English poetry a new style of character, which as often been referred to as “Byronic Hero” of “satanic spirit”. People imagined that they saw something of Byron himself in these strange figures of rebels, pirates, and desperate adventurers.
（4） Poetic style: loose, fluent and vivid
3. Percy Bysshe Shelley: poet and critic
（1） Life:
a.aristocratic family;
b.rebellious heart;
c.Oxford;
d.Irish national liberation Movement;
e.disciple of William Godwin;
f.  marriage with Harriet, and Marry;
g.left England and wandered in EUrope, died in Italy;
h.radical and sympathetic with the French revolution;
i.  Friend with Byron
（2） works: two types – violent reformer and wanderer
（3） Characteristics of poems.
a.pursuit of a better society;
b.radian beauty;
c. superb artistry: imagination.
（4） Defense of Poetry.
4. John Keats.
（1） Life:
a.from a poor family;
b.Cockney School;
c.friend with Byron and Shelley;
d.attacked by the conservatives and died in Italy.
（2） works.
（3） Characteristics of poems
a.loved beauty;
b.seeking refuge in an idealistic world of illusions and dreams.
V. Novelists of the Romantic Age.
1. Water Scott. Novelist and poet
（1） Life:
a.Scotland;
b.university of Edindurgh;
c.poem to novel;
d.unsuccessful publishing firm;
e.great contribution: historical novel.
（2） three groups of novels
（3） Features of his novels.
（4） his influence.
2. Jane Austen
（1） Life:
a.country clergyman;
b.uneventful life, domestic duties;
（2） works.
（3） features of her writings.
Austen's novels are britened by their witty conversation and omnipresent humour. Her stories are skillfully woven together; her plots never leave the path of realism, and have always been sensible. Her language shines with an exquisite touch of lively gracefulness, elegant and refined, but never showy. She herself compared her work to a fine engraving made up on a little piece of ivory only two inches square. The comparison is true. The ivory surface is small enough, but the lady who made the drawings of human life on it was a real artist.
（4） rationalism, neoclassicism, romanticism and realism.
VI.Familiar Essays.
1. Introduction
2. Charles Lamb: essayist and critic
（1） life:
a.poor family;
b.friend of Coleridge;
c.sister Mary;
d.worked in the East India House;
e.a miserable life;
f.  a man of mild character.
g.a Romanticist of the city.
（2） works: Essays of Elia. Three groups.
（3） Features.
a. The most striking feature of his essays is his humour.
b. Lamb was especially fond of old writers.
c. His essays are intensely personal.
d. He was a romanticist
Chapter 7 English Literature of the Victorian Age I.Introduction
1. Historical Background
（1） An age of expansion
（2） The conditions of the workers and the chartist movement
（3） Reforms
（4） Darwin's theory of evolution and its influence
（5） The women question
2. Literary Overview: critical realism.
In Victorian period appeared a new literary trend called critical realism. English critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the 40s and in the early 50s. It found its expression in the form of novel. The critical realists, most of whom were novelists, described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint.
II.Novels of Critical Realists.
1. Charles Dickens.
（1） Life:
a. clerk family;
b. a miserable childhood;
c. a clerk, a reporter, a writer;
d. a man of hard work.
（2） works of three periods.
a. optimize
b. frustration
c. pessimism
（3） Features of his works.
a.character sketches and exaggeration
b.broad humour and penetrating satire
c.complicated and fascinating plot
d.the power of exposure
2. William Makepeace Thackeray
（1） Life:
a. born in India;
b. studied in Cambridge;
c. worked as artist and illustrator and writer.
（2） work: The Vanity Fair
（3） Thackeray and Dickens – features
a. Just like Dickens, Thackeray is one of the greatest critical realists of the 19th century Europe. He paints life as he has seen it. With his precise and thorough observation, rich knowledge of social life and of the human heart, the pictures in his novels are accurate and true to life.
b. Thackeray is a satirist. His satire is caustic and his humour subtle.
c. Besides being a realist and satirist, Thackeray is a moralist. His aim is to produce a moral impression in all his novels.
3. The Bronte Sisters
（1） Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre
（2） Emily Bronte and The Wuthering Heights.
4. George Eliot.
（1） Life:
a. Mary Ann Evans;
b. the rural midland;
c. abandoned religion;
d. interested in social philosophical problems;
e. editor of the Westminster Review;
f. George Henry Lewis.
（2） works
l Adam Bede
l Silas Marner
l Middlemarch
（3） Features of works.
As a moralist, she shows in each of her characters the action and reaction of universal forces and believes that every evil act must bring inevitable punishment to the man who does it. Moral law was to her as inevitable and automatic as gravitation.
5. Thomas Hardy: novelist and poet
（1） Life:
a. Dorchester—“Wexssex;
b. close to peasantry;
c. belief in evolution.
（2） Works:
a. Romances and fantasies
b. novels of ingenuity
c. novels of characters and environment
（3） Ideas of Fate.
Unlike Dickens, most of Hardy's novels are tragic. The cause of tragedy is man's own behaviour or his own fault but the supernatural forces that rule his fate. According to Hardy, man is not the master of his destiny; he is at the mercy of indifferent forces which manipulate his behaviour and his relations with others.
III.English Poets of the Age
1. Alfred Tennyson
（1） life:
a. Cambridge;
b. friend with Hallem;
c. poet laureate.
（2） Works: In Memoriam; Idylls of the King.
2. Robert Browning.
（1） Life: married Elizabeth Barret, a poetess.
（2） Works
（3） the Dramatic Monologue
The dramatic monologue is a soliloquy in drama in which the voice speaking is not the poet himself, but a character invented by the poet, so that it reflects life objectively. It was imitated by many poets after Browning and brought to its most sophisticated form by T. S. Eliot in his The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock （1915）
IV.English Prose of the age
1. Thomas Carlyle
（1） life
（2） works
2. John Ruskin
（1） life
（2） works
（3） social and aesthetic ideas
V. Aestheticism
1. Aestheticism
the basic theory of the aesthetic – “art for art's sake” – was set forth by a French poet, Theophile Gautier. The first Englishman who wrote about the theory of aestheticism was Walter Peter, the most important critical writer of the late Victorian period, whose most important works were studies in the History of Renaissance and Appreciations. The chief representative of the movement in England was Oscar Wilde, with his The Picture of Dorian Gray. Aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life should imitate art, not art imitate life. According to aesthetes, all artistic creation is absolutely subjective as opposed to objective. Art should be free from any influence of egoism. Only when art is for art's sake can it be immortal. It should be restricted to contributing beauty in a highly polished style.
2.  Oscar Wilde
（1） Life: dramatist, poet, novelist and essayist, spokesman for the school of “Art for art's sake”, the leader of the Aesthetic movement
（2） works
l The Happy Prince and Other Tales
l The Picture of Dorian Gray
l The Importance of Being Earnest
Chapter 8 English Literature of the first half of the 20th Century I.  Historical Background
1. rational changes on old traditions, in social standards and in people's thoughts
2. the high tide of anti-Victorianism
3. the First World War
4. the success of women's struggle for social and civil rights
II.Overview of the Literature – the Modernism
1. What is modernism?
The reaction against the value of Victorian society and the theme of its literature that began in the 1890s, particularly with the so-called dissident writers, was manifested in the early decades of the 20th century by drastic changes in form, vocabulary, and image. These changes were not limited to England. The movement, which has come to be called modernism, was international in scope and drew heavily on the French Symbolist poets as well as on the new psychological teachings of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and their followers in Vienna and Switzerland.
2. Features of modernism
（1）Complexity
（2）Radical and deliberate break with traditional aesthetic principles
（3）Back to Aristotle
3. Development of modernism after WWII
Section 1 Poetry I.  A General Survey
1. The century has produced a large number of both major and minor poets, many of whom have received general acclaim.
2. Many writers of significant works of fiction also write distinguished poetry.
3. The poets of the 20th century have tended to group themselves into schools whose poetry has particular distinguishing characteristics.
II.Thomas Hardy
1. life
2. works
（1）his poetry
a.Wessex Poems and Other Verses
b. Poems of the Past and the Present
c.Time's Laughing Stocks
d. Moments of Vision
e.Late Lyrics and Earlier
f.  The famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwell
g.Winter Words
（2）his fictions
a.Tess of the D'Urbervilles
b. Jude the Obscure
c.The Return of the Native
d. Far from the Madding Crowd
e.The Mayor of Casterbridge
3. point of view
According to his pessimistic philosophy, mankind is subjected to the rule of some hostile mysterious fate, which brings misfortune into human life.
III. William Butler Yeats
1. Life – poet and dramatist
2. Works
（1）his poetry
a.The Responsibilities
b. The Wild Swans at Coole
c.The Tower
d. The Winding Stair
（2）his dramas
a.The Hour Glass
b. The Land of Heart's Desire
c.On Baile's Strand
（3）his book of philosophy – Visions
3. style
He is a celebrated and accomplished symbolist poet, using an elaborate system of symbols in his poems. Some of his symbols are simple, whereas others are difficult to comprehend. But read as a whole, his poetry is elucidated by itself and gives the reader many memorable stanzas and lines of great poetry. He is referred to by T. S. Eliot as “the greatest poet of our age – certainly the greatest in this （i.e. English） language”.
IV. Thomas Stearns Eliot
1. life- poet, playwright, literary critic
2. works
（1）poems
l The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
l The Waste Land （epic）
l Hollow Man
l Ash Wednesday
l Four Quarters
（2）Plays
l Murder in the Cathedral
l Sweeney Agonistes
l The Cocktail Party
l The Confidential Clerk
（3）Critical essays
l The Sacred Wood
l Essays on Style and Order
l Elizabethan Essays
l The Use of Poetry and The Use of Criticisms
l After Strange Gods
3. point of view
（1）The modern society is futile and chaotic.
（2）Only poets can create some order out of chaos.
（3）The method to use is to compare the past and the present.
4. Style
（1）Fresh visual imagery, flexible tone and highly expressive rhythm
（2）Difficult and disconnected images and symbols, quotations and allusions
（3）Elliptical structures, strange juxtapositions, an absence of bridges
5. The Waste Land: five parts
（1）The Burial of the Dead
（2）A Game of Chess
（3）The Fire Sermon
（4）Death by Water
（5）What the Thunder Said
Section 2 Fiction I.  The Continuing of Realism
1. The two characteristics of 20th century fiction
（1）Modernism
（2）Continuation of the tradition of realism
2. The beginning
3. General features
II.John Galsworthy
1. life
2. works
（1）The Island Pharisees
（2）Turgenev
（3）The Man of Property
（4）In Chancery
（5）Forsyte Saga
（6）The End of the Chapter
（7）The Silver Box
（8）Strife
3. point of view
The novels and plays of Galsworthy give a complete picture of English bourgeois society. A bourgeois himself, Galsworthy nevertheless clearly saw the decline of his class and truthfully portrayed this in his works. Yet his criticism of the bourgeoisie was limited to the spheres of ethics and aesthetics only. He aimed to improve his class, wishing it might retain its ruling position in society. His bourgeois conservatism is particularly evident in the works written after WWI and the October Revolution. Facing the crisis of British imperialism and the growing forces of socialism, Galsworthy began to idealize the decadent bourgeoisie. This is particularly evident in his last trilogy The End of the Chapter.
4. style
（1）strength and elasticity
（2）powerful sweep
（3）brilliant illustrations
（4）deep psychological analysis
III. Stream of Consciousness
1. James Joyce
（1）life
（2）major works
a.A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
b. Dubliners
c.Ulysses
d. Finnegans Wake
（3）significance of his works
a.He changed the old style of fictions and created a strange mode of art to show the chaos and crisis of consciousness of that period.
b. From him, stream of consciousness came to the highest point as a genre of modern literature.
c.In Finnegans Wake, this pursue of newness overrode the normalness and showed a tendency of vanity.
2. Virginia Woolf
（1）life
（2）works
a.Mrs. Dalloway
b. To the Lighthouse
c.The Waves
d. Orlando
e.Flush
f.  The Years
g.Between the Acts
h.A Room of One's Own
i.  Three Guineas
j.  Modern Fiction
k. The Common Reader （2 series）
（3）point of view
a.She challenged the traditional way of writing and created her novels in a new way.
b. She thought the depiction of details darkened the characters.
c.She called the writers for writing about events of daily life that gave one deep impression.
3. influence
（1）The stream of consciousness presented by Joyce and Woolf marks a total break from the tradition of fiction and has promoted the development of modernism.
（2）However, at the same time, because of the newness in form but hard to understand, this kind of fiction cannot attract readers.
（3）The writers showed interest in the psychological depiction of the bourgeoisie but neglected the conflict that most people cared about at that time.
IV. David Herbert Lawrence
1. life
2. works
（1）Sons and Lovers
（2）The Rainbow
（3）Women in Love
（4）Lady Chatterlay's Lover
3. his influence
Section 3 Drama I.  Overview
1. the development of science （light） and the revival of drama
2. social dramas
3. the renaissance of Irish dramas
4. the poetic drama
5. different schools of drama
II.George Bernard Shaw
1. life
2. works
（1）Widower's Houses
（2）Man and Superman
（3）Major Barbara
（4）Pygmalion
（5）Heartbreak House
（6）Mrs. Warren's Profession
（7）The Apple Cart
（8）Saint Joan
3. point of view
（1）Shaw was very much impressed by the Norwegian dramatist Ibsen.
（2）He opposed the idea of “art for art's sake”, maintaining that “the theatre must turn from the drama of romance and sensuality to the drama of edification”.
（3）He sought from the beginning to expose the hypocrisy, stupidity, and conventionality of the English way of life as he saw it with a rich wit and lively sense of comedy.
（4）His heroes and heroines are always unheroic, unromantic, common sense people, and he used them to convey ideas.
4. style
（1）Shaw is a critical realist writer. His plays bitterly criticize and attack English bourgeois society.
（2）His plays deal with contemporary social problems. He portrays his situations frankly and honestly, intending to shock his audiences with a new view of society.
（3）He is a humorist and manages to produce amusing and laughable situations.

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