Chapter 7 Literature Part One British Literature

An Introduction to British and American Culture Learning Focus Beowulf The Canterbury Tales William Shakespeare Daniel Defoe Brontë Sisters; Charles Dickens; Thomas Hardy Joseph Conrad; Virginia Woolf

An Introduction to British and American Culture Before You Read Warm-up 1. Who is the winner of Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007? ___________________________________ 2. Have you ever watched any movie that is adapted from British literary works? ____________________________________ 3. Director Feng Xiaogang’s film “The Banquet” has been called the Chinese version of Hamlet. How much do you know about the play Hamlet? ____________________________________

An Introduction to British and American Culture Beowulf Beowulf, a long poem from Anglo-Saxon times It is the national epic of the English people. This poem has more than 3,000 lines.

An Introduction to British and American Culture Beowulf It tells the story of the 6th century Swedish warrior Beowulf and his conflict with a terrible monster Grendel and his mother.

An Introduction to British and American Culture Death of Arthur Medieval romances became a popular form of literature during the medieval age. The stories of King Arthur and his knights reflect the spirit of knighthood.

An Introduction to British and American Culture Death of Arthur The best known version of this story is Thomas Malory’s “Morte D’Arthur” (Death of Arthur).

An Introduction to British and American Culture The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer is the father of modern English poetry. Canterbury is an important Christian church. The Canterbury Tales is made up of a series of stories.

An Introduction to British and American Culture The Canterbury Tales The prologue of this poem provides a framework for the tales. The story of the wife of Bath is the most well known in all these tales.

An Introduction to British and American Culture Christopher Marlow ( ) Three famous plays : 1.Tamburlaine (1587) 《帖木耳大帝》 2.The Jew Of Malta (1592) 《马耳它的犹太人》 3.The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus (1588) 《浮士德博士的悲剧》

An Introduction to British and American Culture William Shakespeare ( ) He is regarded as one of the founders of realism in world literature. Hamlet is the most performed play in the world.

An Introduction to British and American Culture William Shakespeare ( ) The other great tragedies are Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Of the comedies, The Merchant of Venice is quite famous.

An Introduction to British and American Culture English Novel Daniel Defoe ( ) Robinson Crusoe describes how Crusoe makes great efforts to overcome the hardships and difficulties he encounters on the island...

An Introduction to British and American Culture English Novel Jonathan Swift ( ) Gulliver’s Travels was a fierce attack on human foolishness and social evils. This novel tells separately about the voyages to Lilliput, to Brobdingnag ， to Laputa ， and the voyage to the country of the Houhnhnms.

An Introduction to British and American Culture English Novel Jane Austen ( ) Her novels reveal women’s longing for freedom in married life. Her most famous novel is Sense and Sensibility.

An Introduction to British and American Culture Jane Austen ( ) 佳句赏析 “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in profession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” 凡是有财产的单身汉，必定需要娶位太太，这 已经成了一条举世公认的真理。

An Introduction to British and American Culture English Novel The Brontë Sisters Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Emily’s Wuthering Heights are the most successful. Jane Eyre tells the story of an orphan, who has a loveless childhood at a terrible boarding school.

An Introduction to British and American Culture English Novel Charles Dickens ( ) He described his miserable experience in his novel David Copperfield. Oliver Twist tells the story of an orphan child drawn into crime in the London underworld.

An Introduction to British and American Culture Charles Dickens ( ) 佳句赏析 “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…” 这是最好的时代，这是最坏的时代；这是智慧 的时代，这是愚蠢的时代；这是信仰的时期， 这是怀疑的时期 ……”

An Introduction to British and American Culture English Novel Thomas Hardy ( ) Tess of the D’Urbervilles is Hardy’s most moving story. This story tells the tragic fate of Tess, a beautiful country girl. Characters: Tess, Alec D’urbervilles, Angel Clare

An Introduction to British and American Culture The Twentieth Century Literature Joseph Conrad ( ) Joseph Conrad is one of the most famous English modernist writers. Joseph Conrad adopted a critical attitude towards colonialism.

An Introduction to British and American Culture Joseph Conrad His most famous story is The Heart of Darkness. It’s a story of a river boat journey in central Africa to investigate an exploitative European ivory trader called Mr. Kurtz.

An Introduction to British and American Culture The Twentieth Century Literature Virginia Woolf ( ) Her work was concerned with the female consciousness. Her novel penetrated into the mind of the character. Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and The Waves. The “stream of consciousness” technique: the unorganized flow of thought onto the page.

An Introduction to British and American Culture The Twentieth Century Literature George Orwell ( ) Animal Farm and 1984 were his most popular novels is a powerful satire on the totalitarian tendency in modern states. This novel arouses the reader’s awareness of the danger of totalitarianism.

An Introduction to British and American Culture The Twentieth Century Literature Doris Lessing (1919- ) Doris Lessing was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature on October 11, Her novels and stories are mainly concerned with people in the social and political upheavals of the 20th century

An Introduction to British and American Culture Doris Lessing (1919- ) The Children of Violence ( ): a sequence of five novels The Golden Notebook describes the spiritual growth of Anna Wulf, a woman writer.