British Literature

An Outline of English Literature I. Old English, or Anglo—Saxon, Era ( ) II. Middle English Period ( ) III. The Renaissance Period (1485-early 17th century) IV. The 17th Century V. The 18th Century. VI. The Romantic Age( ) VII. English Literature of Victorian Age ( ) VIII. 20th Century Literature

I. Old English, or Anglo—Saxon, Era ( ) This period extended from about , the year of the Norman-French conquest of England. The Germanic tribes from Europe who overrun England in the 5th century, after the Roman withdraw, brought with the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon language, which is the basis of modern English. They bought also a specific poetic tradition, the formal character of which remained surprisingly constant until the termination of their rule by the Norman- French invaders 6 century later.

Achievements Poetry Much of old English poetry was probably intended to be chanted, with harp (a kind of instrument in Chinese means 竖 琴 ) accompaniment, by Anglo-Saxon scop (poet in Chinese means 吟游诗人 ), often bold and strong, but also mournful and elegiac (sad) in sprit. Major achievement: Beowulf

II. Middle English Period ( ) Extending from 1066 to 1485, this period is noted for the extensive influence of French literature on native English forms and themes.

Achievements Literary Trends: Arthurian Legends and Tales of Chivalry and Adventure: Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

III. The Renaissance Period (1485-early 17th century) Literary Trends: Renaissance and Humanism The Renaissance marks a transition from the medieval to the modern world. This period is characterized by the influence of the classics (in literature, language, and philosophy), as well as an optimistic forward-thinking approach to the potential of humans (known as Renaissance humanism).

Writers and Works: Thomas More: Utopia Edmund Spenser: Faerie Queene Francis Bacon: Essays

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare Works: 154 sonnets, 37 plays, 2 long poems Comedy: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Merchant of Venice Tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet History Plays: Henry IV

The earlier seventeenth century, and especially the period of the English Revolution (1640–60), was a time of intense ferment in all areas of life — religion, science, politics, domestic relations, culture. IV. The 17th Century

Writers and works: John Milton: Paradise Lost 失乐园 John Buyan: The Pilgrim ’ s Progress 天 路历程 (Metaphysical poet) John Donne: Songs and Sonnets 歌与十四行诗 IV. The 17th Century

Literary Traits Enlightenment and Neoclassism, the early age of Romanticism The Enlightenment movement was a progressive intellectual movement which flourished in France and swept the whole western Europe at the time. The enlightenmenters celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science. They called for a reference to order, reason and rule. V. The 18th Century

In the field of literature, enlightenmenters believed that the artistic should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy. seek proportion, unity, harmony and grace in literary expression, in an effort to delight, instruct and correct human beings. Neoclassicism. A revival in literature in the late 17th and 18th centuries, characterized by a regard for the classical ideals of reason, form, and restraint. V. The 18th Century

Poetry: Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Rock Prose: Jonathan Swift: Guilliver ’ s Travels The Rise of the Realistic Novel Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe

VI. The Romantic Age ( ) The literary views: Romanticism constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit. It tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience. It also places the individual at the center of art.

A: Poetry: William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads 抒情歌谣集 Byron: Dan Juan 唐璜 Shelley: Ode to the West Wind 西风颂 John Keats: Ode to a Nightingale 夜莺颂

B. Drama: Byron: Manfred Shelley: Prometheus Unbound C. Novel: Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma. Walter Scott: Ivanhoe

Features of the Victorian Literature: Realism Victorian literature, as a product of its age, naturally took on its quality of magnitude & diversity. It was many- sided and complex, and reflected both romantically and realistically the great changes that were going on in people’s life and thought. Great writers and great works abounded. VII English Literature of Victorian Age

Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities William Thackeray: Vanity Fair Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights Thomas Hardy: Tess of the d ’ Urbevilles

The century was a period of great artistic change, and is dominated by the impact of World War I (1914–18) and World War II (1939–45), as well as by the artistic concerns of modernism (which affected both themes and methods of writing). VIII 20th Century English Literature VIII 20th Century English Literature

Literature Before 1950s Literary Traits: Modernism Modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base. The major themes of the modernist literature are the distorted, alienated and ill relationships between man and nature, man and society, man and man, and man and himself. The modernist writers concentrate more on the private than on the public, more on the subjective than on the objective. They are mainly concerned with the inner being of an individual.

A. Poetry: T. S. Eliot: The Waste Land B. Drama: George Benard Shaw: Saint Joan C. Novel: Henry James: Daisy Miller Joseph Conrad: Lord Jim D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, James Joyce: Ulysses