英国文学史key points 122.docx

1、英国文学史key points 122I. Terms required to remember1. Ode: A long, stately lyric poem in stanzas of varied metrical pattern, written in a dignified formal style on some lofty or serious subject. Odes are often written for a special occasion, to honor a person or a season or commemorate an event. Two fa

2、mous odes are Percy Bysshe Shelleys “ Ode to the West wind” and John Keatss Ode on a Grecian Urn.” The English odes fall into 3 categories: Pindaric ode; Cowleyan ode and Horatian ode. Shelleys ode is of Horatian type.2. Lake poets: The Lake Poets all lived in the Lake District of England at the tur

3、n of the nineteenth century. As a group, they belonged to the first generation of the Romantic poets, represented by William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey.3. Byronic hero:As a leading Romanticist, Byrons chief contribution is his creation of the “Byronic hero”, a proud, myst

4、erious rebel figure of noble origin and. This idealized but flawed character pervades much of Byrons work and appears first in Childe Harolds Pilgrimage. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a cor

5、rupt world, and would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies.4. Utilitarianism In the Victorian age, almost everything was put to the test by the criterion of utility, tha

6、t is, the extent to which it could promote the material happiness. This theory held a special appeal to the middle-classed industrialists, whose greed drove them to exploiting workers to the utmost and brought greater suffering and poverty to the working mass.5. dramatic monologue: a poem in which a

7、 single speaker who is not the poet utters the entire poem to a silent audience of one or more persons at a critical moment. The speaker has a listener within the poem, but we too are his/her listeners, and we learn about the speakers character from what the speaker says. In fact, the speaker may re

8、veal unintentionally certain aspects of his/her character. 7. Stream of Consciousness: The continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind; or a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunct

9、uated or disjoined form of interior monologue.6. Aestheticism: Aestheticism is a Victorian literary movement that was begun in the late 19th century. Followers of the movement believed that art should not be mixed with social, political, or moral teaching. Walter Paters statement “the love of art fo

10、r its own sake” is a good summary of aestheticism. The movement had its roots in France, but it gained widespread importance in England in the last half of the nineteenth century, where it helped change the Victorian practice of including moral lessons in literature. II. Key facts1. Age of Romantici

11、sm(1) Time: 1798 (publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge) to 1832 (death of Sir Walter Scott)(2) Essence: shift from reason to emotion(3) Historical BackgroundFrench Revolution (1789 Bastille) and English Industrial Revolution (end of the 18th century).(4) Feature: An age of poet

12、ry.(5) *lake poets: three poets including William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge and Robert Southey2. William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) (1) Two categories according to themeHe is mainly famous for his poems on nature, such as I wandered lonely as a cloud.He also wrote lots of poems on common peoples li

13、fe, such as The solitary reaper, She dwelt among the untrodden way3. John Keats (1795 - 1821)Keats wrote some nice long poems, but he was mainly famous for his short poems, and he is known as a sensuous poet.4. George Gordon ByronSelected poem: She Walks in Beauty A. Background: Byrons most famous l

14、yrical poem; wrote for his beautiful cousin Mrs Wilmot Horton; taken from Hebrew MelodiesB. (Discussion) In the first stanza, the author used a simile to describe the womans beauty. night of cloudless climes and starry skies; because the woman wore a black mourning gown brightened with spangles.5. P

15、ercy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)雪莱(1) terza rima: iambic pentameter lines arranged in tercets in which line 2 of each tercet rhymes with 1 and 3 of the next, thus: aba bcb cdc ded ee with a final couplet ee.(2) What does the west wind in the poem signify(Answer) the great revolution force which can d

16、estroy all existing vices in human world6. Jane Austen (1775 1817)the first famous English female writer. She lived in the Romantic Age but her novels were anti-romantic. A Romantic novelist but is impressed with neo-classic strains. The major themes of her works are love and marriage.7. Critical Re

17、alism(1) Time: the middle of the 19th century, coincides with the reign of Queen Victoria, thus called Victorian Age (2) Representatives: Charles Dickens ,William Thackeray and George Eliot etc.(3) Featuresintroduction of a new set of characters from the working classstrong hatred for vices existing

18、 in the societyan illusion of bringing about social justice and harmony by reformsAn age of novels.8. Charles Dickens (1812-1870)(1) He is the greatest representative of English critical realism and he was called “the expression of the conscience of his age”.(2) Features of Charles Dickens novelsa.

19、A tendency to depict the grotesque characters (His characters always have peculiar habits, manners or behaviors) (such as Micawber)b. Believing in social reforms to change the world, thus sometimes created unnatural happy ending for his novelsc. Delicate structure and plot (well-designed and attract

20、ive)d. Good at depicting pathetic scenes to arouse sympathye. Good at using rhetorical devices to make his language vivid and humorous(3) Three stages of his literary lifeA. 18361841, the first period, Period of youthful optimist: fun, high spirit, naive optimismB. 1842-1850, the second period- Peri

21、od of excitement, irritation and frustrationC. The third period, a Period of steadily intensifying pessimism, showing underlying tone of bitterness, loss of hope for English bourgeois society9. The Bronte Sisters(1) The Bronte Sisters Charlotte Bronte (39 years), Emily Bronte (30 years) and Anne Bro

22、nte (29 years)(2) Charlotte wrote 4 novels; Emily 1 novel (Wuthering Heights) and Anne 2 novels.(3) The success of the novel Jane Eyre also due to its introduction to the English novel the first governess heroine Jane Eyre. (4) Jane Eyre is a work of critical realism as well as the first and one of

23、the most popular works of the working middle- class women. It is the first governess novel in the history of English literature.10. Alfred Tennyson(1) The second half of the 19th century in England produced a number of outstanding poets such as Alfred Tennyson, Robeert Browning, Charles Swinburn and

24、 others. The two greatest English poets: Browning & Tennyson. Their poetry was characterized by experiments with new styles and new ways of expression.(2) Alfred Tennyson, English poet often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. Tennyson succeeded Wordsworth as Poet La

25、ureate in 1850. (3) His short lyric Break, Break, Break is written in memory of Tennysons best friend, Arthur Hallam, whose death has a lifelong influence on the poet.11. Robert Browningnoted for his mastery of dramatic monologue. His poetry belongs to the 20th-century rather than to the Victorian a

26、ge. It is in Brownings hands that “dramatic monologue” reaches its maturity and perfection. “My Last Duchess” is Brownings best-known dramatic monologue.12. Thomas Hardy (1) Thomas Hardy is one of the most important novelists in the Victorian Era and the first important poet in the 20th century. Har

27、dy is a transitional figure between the Victorian Age and the 20th century. In many ways, he belonged more to the 20th century than to the 19th century.(2) Hardys novels are all Victorian in date. Most of them are set in Wessex, the fictional primitive and crude rural region which is really the home

28、 place he both loves and hates. They are known for the vivid description of the vicissitudes of people who live in an agricultural setting menaced by the forces of invading capitalism. (3) Unlike Dickens, most of Hardys novels are tragic. The cause of tragedy is not mans own behavior or his own faul

29、t but the supernatural forces that rule his fate. (4) Hardy himself divided his novels into three groups:1). Romances and Fantasies 2). Novels of Ingenuity3). Novels of Character and Environment13. Oscar WildeHe was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated

30、 art for arts sake; and he was the object of celebrated civil and criminal suits involving homosexuality and ending in his imprisonment.Aestheticism is a Victorian literary movement that was begun in the late 19th century. The movement had its roots in France, but it gained widespread importance in

31、England in the last half of the nineteenth century, where it helped change the Victorian practice of including moral lessons in literature. Wildes greatest successes were his society comedies. Within the conventions of the French “ well-made play” (with its social intrigues and artificial devices to

32、 resolve conflict), he employed his paradoxical, epigrammatic wit to create a form of comedy new to the 19th-century English theatre. 14. George Bernard Shawthe greatest critical realistic playwright in the 20th century England. 15. Modernist Novelists1) James Joyce, Virginia Woolf , and D.H. Lawrence are the three best known among the modernist novelists.2) D.H. Lawrence is one of the very original and controversial writers of the early 20th century. He is traditional in f