英国文学简史

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Early and Medieval

• Origins
  • The Britons ，the tribe of Celts
  • The Roman Conquest（55BC-410AD)
    • Cause：the lure of treasures；to publish
    • Influence：Roman mode of life（theater，Rome Bath巴斯浴场，） the efficient ruling system（troops，law，tax） Roman roads（broad，Hadrian Wall哈德良长城） towns（London，trading centre） Latin language Introduce Christianity
  • The English Conquest
    • The Germanic tribes（Angles，Saxons，Jutes）
    • by 7th century,the 7 small kingdoms were combined into a united kingdom,England. The three tribes had mixed into a whole people,English.
    • the military democracy grown out of the gens
    • The three dialects spoken was Anglo-Saxon,or Old English.
    • Social condition
      • The Anglo-Saxon period witnessed a transition from tribal society to feudalism
    • Religious belief
      • Old mythology of Northern Europe Christianized in the seventh century
  • Beowulf
    • Status
      • English literature began with the Anglo-Saxon settlement in England Anglo-Saxon Poetry
      • The national epic of the English people,over 3,000lines
      • Reflect the features of the tribal society of ancient times
    • Spots
      • Beowulf is the nephew of king of Danes.A terrible monster,Grendel, visit the Hrothgar from night to the night and carries warriors away. Beowulf sails for Denmark and let the Grendel retreat wounded. Grendel’s mother comes to avenge her son’s death. Beowulf follow the bloody trail to the edge of a lake,he plunges into water and finds a hall.At last, he cuts off the head of the mother,and he finds the body of Grendel himself and cuts off his head as well. He becomes the king and reigns over his people for fifty years.He fights a fire dragon and both of them are dead.
    • Analysis
      • Background
        • Hard environment:northwestern coast,impenetrable forests,stormy northern ocean, Brave but superstitious
      • features
        • Beowulf is faithful to his people.
        • Its poem form is the use of alliteration. The use of metaphors and of under statements.
• Feudal
  • The Norman Conquest 1066-
    • The Danish Invasion
      • About 787,English began to be troubled by bands of Danish vikings. King Alfred the Great (849-901)succeeded in driving the Danes off. He encouraged education and literature.He translated some works from Latin. Under his encouragements, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (昂格鲁撒克逊编年史）was done,which is a monument of Old English prose.
      • The Danes occupied the country in 1013,and held it for 30 years.
    • The Norman Conquest
      • Battle of Hastings 1066.10.14
        • Harold 二世 VS William of Normandy, William won.
      • He confiscated（没收）the lands of English lords, bestowed（给予）large patches of land to his barons.
      • Domesday Book（末日审判书）,is about the land and taxes property.
      • marks the establishment of feudalism in England.
      • Influence
        • Language
          • The Norman lords ,courier （侍臣）spoke French.
          • The scholar wrote in Latin.(Chronicles，religious poems)
          • Common people spoke English
          • By the end of fourteenth century,when Norman’s and English intermingled, English was once more the dominant speech in the country.
  • social feature
    • Classes
      • Landlords
        • Nobleman,knights,bishops,archbishops,abbots （男修道院院长）belong to the ruling class
      • Peasants
        • Toiled all the year round and paid rent to the gentle folks in grain,service,or cash,with little left to sustain themselves
  • Miseries of the peasants
    • Black Death swept over the country 1348-1349,a third of the population perished(死亡）of this terrible plague.
    • Hundred Year’s War. (1337-1360,1369-1380,签订二十年停战协议，1415-1424，1424-1453，法国胜利，英格兰几乎丧失法国所有领土） The burden of war expenditure fell upon the common people.
  • The rising of 1381
    • Reason
      • The peasants could endure no longer and the famous Rising of 1381 broke out.
    • Leader
      • Wat Tyler, John Ball
    • Result
      • The rising was treacherously and bloodily repressed, and Ball and his comrades were arrested and hanged.
    • Influence
      • Shake the feudal system in England to the root
  • Literature
    • The Romance
      • Definition
        • A long composition ,sometimes in verse ,sometimes in prose,describing the life and adventures of a noble hero
        • The central character was the knights,a man of noble birth skilled in the use of weapons. He was devoted to the church and the king. Chivalry （骑士制度）
      • theme
        • loyalty to the king and lord Have nothing to do with the common people
      • Audience
        • The court of the castle Recited by professional minstrels(游方艺人）or written to be read aloud
      • The Death of King Arthur 亚瑟王之死
        • translated from French by Sir Thomas Malory William Caxton, the printer of the book
        • It has its origin in Celtic legends
        • His original may be traced to an ancient Celtic chieftain Arthur of Wales who led victorious battles against the Saxons.
        • A series of legends about him were fabricated(编造） by medieval poets and writers,especially by French romancers.
        • Influence
          • Malory converted the long and involved sentences of the French romances into simple ,idiomatic English prose.
    • William Langland 1332-1400
      • Piers the Plowman
        • A long poem of over 7,000 lines. written in the old alliterative verse, each line contained three alliterative words, two of which were placed in the first half, and the third in the second half.
        • Set forth (陈述）a series of wonderful dreams,through which we can see a picture of feudal England.It opens with the author’s visionary wandering in the Malvern Hills,where he fell asleep,dreaming of a fair field full of people. Some are industrious employed in ploughing and sowing,only in order that the idlers懒汉 might waste the fruits of their labor.
        • One of the greatest English poems. It’s written in the form of a dream vision, and the author tells his story under the guise表现形式 of having dreamed it. This was a usual method in medieval literature.
    • The Ballad
      • Is a story told in song,usually in 4-line stanzas,with the second and fourth lines rhymed.
      • Are in various English and Scottish dialects.
      • The Robin Hood Ballads
    • Geoffrey Chaucer