英语文学杰作教案.docx

1、英语文学杰作教案Lecture 1 British literature has a relatively short history, comparing to Chinese literature, which is about 3,000 years old, if we count it from Shijing (诗经)(BC 1100-600). From Beowulf, British literature has about 700-800 year long history, but the contents or coverage is very rich or wide

2、. No one can study it thoroughly even if he puts all his life on it. So I would like to say I know only a little about British literature. But I do know that there are three kinds of writing on literature:A. Forming a theory creatively, expressing ones view about the origin of literature. Those writ

3、ers use the history of literature as their notes and the facts to support their theory. The creativity is important, but the coverage is not wide enough. We would say that is criticism rather than history. The History of British Literature written by Frenchman Taine is an outstanding one of this kin

4、d and so is白话文学史written by胡适之.B. The second type is the author would say or hint his criticism while describing authors and works. The famous Cambridge British Literature is this kind. Criticism can help readers understand but readers must know a lot before they can accept the criticism, otherwise,

5、they could not understand what the criticisms are about. Besides, criticisms may not be absolute principles. Though it may be very authoritative, it should be used best as reference.C. The third kind is textbooks. They focus on facts, not criticisms. Readers are those who like literature. And our wa

6、y is the third. Of course there are some other kinds which are not so important such as 偏重于文学史的政治经济的背景，尤其是根据唯物史观来衡量文学的那一宗派，偶尔中肯，时而牵强，甚至沦为偏颇的宣传，那是不足取的. We are not going to talk about them here.The 15th Century (1400-1585)I. Teaching Purpose: to let students know more about the father of English liter

7、ature-Geoffrey Chaucer and Thomas MoreII. Important and difficult points: General Prologues and UtopiaIII. Teaching method: Two students making oral presentation; Explaining with discussionIV. Assignments: two students of each class will be assigned to make an oral presentationV. Teaching contents:A

8、t the first half of this century England was in war. The One Hundred Years War ended in the fifties but the War of Roses began at almost the same time. Yorkshires symbol was white rose and Lancastershires was red. In 1485 Henry Tudor (Duke of Lancaster) beat his opponent, became Henry VII, married t

9、he former king Edwards wife. After that England began to have a very peaceful and prosperous life and laymen also began to get education, which was proved by the words “literal laymen” in religious documents. And all these paved the road for the Renaissance. This is also a barren time for literature

10、. We can only find some writers who imitated Chaucer and those writers can be divided into two groups: the English and the Scottish. Two really important writers are Sir Thomas Molory and William Caxton. The former wrote Le Morte dArthur consisting of 21 books, which included all the stories about K

11、ing Arthur, telling the birth and death of almost everybody concerned. One of the two editions kept was printed by Caxton in 1485, which was the year the War of Roses ended. The latter was famous because he set up the first printing house in Great Britain, which promoted the development of literatur

12、e very much. He himself also wrote and translated something.Dramas and Ballads in the Middle AgePreview: p.p. 56-58; 71-83Plays are watched and ballads are sung by people and none are for people to read. Thus the above-mentioned literary works were for the middle and upper class, not for the common

13、people because they were illiterate. In two hundred years after Chaucer written literature did not develop much but drama and ballad developed quite fast because education was far from developed. The oldest play is called liturgical drama (仪式剧). It originated from Mass (弥撒) in churches. It was imita

14、tion of certain rituals. After some time miracle plays (奇迹剧) appeared because people got tired of the liturgical dramas. Because this kind of play sometimes can make people laugh Pope Innocent III (英诺森三世) ordered that it should be no plays in churches in 1210. Till the end of the 13th century plays

15、were out of churches completely. Interestingly this made plays developed even faster. Miracle plays were about the stories in the Bible. Still after some time miracle plays could not satisfy peoples need and a new kind of play replaced them gradually. The new kind is called morality play (道德剧). Mora

16、lity plays were no longer stories from the Bible. They personified abstract ideas and the noted one is called The Summoning of Everyman. One kind of lyric (抒情诗) is the popular ballad. Ballads are in the form of ballad stanza (民歌体), which consists of four lines with the first and the third lines having four meters (音步) and the second and the fourth lines having three meters and alternative rhymes (隔行压韵) abcb. Sometimes there are refrains (复