《highlights in english literature 英国文学复习资料》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《highlights in english literature 英国文学复习资料（22页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、Highlights in English LiteratureThe earliest literature of the English people, like that of many other peoples, originated from the collective efforts of the people, usually when they were working or resting from their labors. Stories based on history or legend or contemporary events were narrated o
2、rally and often sung during festivities and other occasions, chiefly for entertainment. Some of the more interesting of these narratives were passed from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation, and as they were told and sung by different singers at different times, additions were made to t
3、hem or deletions were taken from them. The most monumental literary work in English literature in the Old English or Anglo-Saxon period (from the 5th century to 1066) is Beowulf. It is the only important single poem handed down in the written form and is preserved intact. Probably existing in oral f
4、orm in the 6th century, it is believed to have been written in the 7th or 8th century although its manuscript extant now can be dated back to the 10th century. Composed of 3183 lines of alliterative verse (Alliteration, also known as “head rhyme” or “initial rhyme,” is a verse form which means the r
5、epetition of the same sounds, usu. initial consonants of words or of stressed syllables in any sequence of neighboring words, e.g. “lord of language.” Alliterative verse is a verse in which the chief principle of repetition is alliteration rather than rhyme), it is the longest of the early English p
6、oems preserved today.Beowulf is an epic, telling the story of Beowulf, a national hero, who went to fight against the enemies in defense of his country.An epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes in a grand ceremonious style, who was usu. protected or
7、 descended from gods, performed supernatural exploits in battle or in marvelous voyages in saving or founding a nation. A romance is a verse narrative that sings of knightly adventures or other heroic deeds, and usu. emphasizes the chivalric love of the Middle Ages Europe. Although romances were sti
8、ll written in the second half of the 14th century to celebrate the knightly deeds of the past, chivalry was rapidly losing its glamour. The early flowering of the Renaissance, which began first in Italy in the 14th century, soon spread to France and by the end of the 14th century the writings of (Fr
9、ancesco Petrarca) Petrarch (1304-74, poet and scholar) and (Giovanni) Boccaccio (1313-75, writer) already started to exert their influence on many English writers. Superstition prevalent through the Middle Ages was beginning to lose ground in the minds of the people with the gradual dawning of scien
10、ce in Europe. The second half of the 14th century marked the deterioration and decline of feudalism in England and the great economic and political changes had their impact on literature, and English literature flourished after three centuries of comparative lull.William Langland is well remembered
11、for his work, Piers the Plouman, (which he began probably in 1362 and was preoccupied in his last twenty years) which can be divided into two parts: the vision of Piers the Plouman and the vision of Do-wel, Do-bet, and Do-best. “Piers the Plouman” contains two themes: the exposure of the corruption
12、of the Court and the Church (the ruling class) and the expression of the misery of the exploited and oppressed (the ruled class), and thus holds up a mirror to England in Langlands time.Geoffrey Chaucer was the greatest writer in the second half the 14th century. Born of a wine-merchants family, he
13、served as a court page in 1357. He was in the English army fighting in France in 1359, and after being taken prisoner, he was released and returned to England in 1360. He took education at the Inner Temple where he received training for a career at the court from 1361 to 1367. He entered the service
14、 of King Edward III and went to the European Continent nine times on some diplomatic errands from 1367 to 1377. He journeyed to Genoa and Florence in Italy from December to May 1373 and was made Controller of Customs and Subsidy of Wools, Skins and Hides in the port of London in 1374. He was appoint
15、ed Controller of the Petty Customs on Wines and other merchandise in 1382 and became one of the justices of the peace for Kent in 1385 and was elected M. P. for Kent in 1386. He died in 1400 and was buried in the Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey. Chaucer served in his lifetime in a great variety of
16、 occupations, working as courtier, office-holder, soldier, ambassador and legislator. He had broad and intimate acquaintance with people high and low in all walks of life and knew well the whole social life of his time. His varied career had its impact on his writing, which is quite evident in his masterwork The Canterbury Tales.Chaucers greatest contribution to English literature lies in the fact that he introduced the heroic couplet (two rhymed lines
