英国文学简介--GeneralIntroductiontoBritishLiterature课件

General Introduction to British LiteratureWhat does literature consists of?NovelPoemDramaProseLiterature works are all about beauty-appreciation.British literature is the quintessence of British culture made by its people throughout years of process of development,and most precious jewel of world literature.Reading British literary works can enable us to gain deeper insights into its culture.Different stages of British Literature1.Medieval Literature(approximately from 500 BC to 1485)BeowulfBeowulf,a typical example of Old English poetry,is regarded as the greatest national epic of the Anglo-Saxons.The epic describes the heroic deeds of a Scandinavian hero,Beowulf,in fighting against the monster Grendel,his revengeful mother,and a fire-breathing dragon.The poem conveys a hope that the righteous will triumph over the evil.Medieval LiteratureRomanceRomance is a popular literary form in the medieval England.It sings knightly adventures or other heroic deeds.Chivalry(such as bravery,honor,generosity,loyalty and kindness to the weak and poor)is the spirit of romance.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,1375-1400Medieval LiteratureGeoffrey ChaucerHe is regarded as the father of English poetry.The Canterbury Tales is his masterpiece.He presents,for the first time in English literature,a comprehensive realistic picture of the medieval English society and creates a whole gallery of vivid characters from all works of life.It was Chaucer who made London dialect the foundation for modern English speech.His characterization is vivid.2.British Literature during Renaissance Period(late 15th century-early 17 century)Renaissance and HumanismThe word Renaissance means rebirth.It meant the reintroduction into Western Europe of the full cultural heritage of Greece and Rome.The essence of the Renaissance is Humanism which emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life.Humanists voiced their beliefs that man was the center of the universe and man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of the present life,but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders.2.British Literature during Renaissance PeriodEdmund SpenserHe is acclaimed as the poets poet in English literature.His poetry is noted for such qualities as a perfect melody,a rare sense of beauty,a splendid imagination,a lofty moral purity and seriousness,and a dedicated idealism.He created the Spenserian stanza.His masterpiece is The Faerie Queene.2.British Literature during Renaissance PeriodFrancis BaconHe is a philosopher,a scientist and the first English essayist.He lays the foundation for modern science with his insistence on scientific way of thinking and fresh observation rather than authority as a basis for obtaining knowledge.He is best known for his Essays that is the first example of that genre in English literature.2.British Literature during Renaissance PeriodChristopher MarloweHe is the most gifted of University Wits.University Wits refer to a group of scholars during the Elizabethan Age who graduated from either Oxford or Cambridge.They came to London with the ambition to become professional writers.Some of them later became famous poets and playwrights.They were called University Wits.Thomas Greene,Thomas Kyd,John Lily and Christopher Marlowe were among them.They paved the way,to some degree,for the coming of Shakespeare.2.British Literature during Renaissance PeriodWilliam ShakespeareHe is the greatest of all Elizabethan dramatists.His literary career falls into four periods.He wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets.His sonnets represent the finest poetic craftsmanship of Elizabethan poetry.The themes of his sonnets are about love,friendship,the destructive effects of time,the quickness of physical decay,and the loss of beauty,vigor,and love.3.17th Century British LiteratureJohn MiltonAs a real revolutionary,a master poet and a great prose writer,Milton holds an important place in the history of English literature.He produced three epics:Paradise Lost,Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.3.17th Century British LiteratureJohn DonneHe is the leading figure of the Metaphysical School.The most striking feature of Donnes poetry is his frequent use of conceit.He is a religious poet obsessed with death.The Songs and Sonnets is probably his best-known lyrics.Love is the basic theme.Donne holds that the nature of love is the union of soul and body.3.17th Century British LiteratureJohn BunyanHe is a religious novelist whose style was modeled after that of the English Bible.His language is concrete and vivid.His masterpiece,The Pilgrims Progress,is the most successful religious allegory.4.British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement Period(late 17th century-mid 18th century)The Enlightenment MovementEnlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement which flourished in France and swept through Western Europe in the 18th century.The movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance from 14th century to the mid-17th century.Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas.It celebrated reason or rationality,equality and science.It advocated universal education.Literature at the time became a very popular means of public education.Famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers like John Dryden,Alexander Pope,Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele,the two pioneers of familiar essays,Jonathan Swift,Richard Bringsley Sheridan,Daniel Defoe,Henry Fielding and Samuel Johnson,etc.The Enlightenment MovementNeoclassicismIn the field of literature,the Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works.This tendency is known as neoclassicism.The neoclassicists hold that forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers such as Homer and Virgil and those of the contemporary French ones.They believed that the artistic ideas should be order,logic,restrained emotion and accuracy,and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity.4.British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement PeriodAlexander PopeHe is a representative of the Enlightenment and the greatest poet of the Neoclassical period.He is the first to introduce rationalism to England.He strongly advocated neoclassicism,emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rules of order,reason,logic,restrained emotion,good taste and decorum.4.British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement PeriodJonathan SwiftHe is a master satirist.He is almost unsurpassed in the writing of simple,direct,precise prose.He defined a good style as proper words in proper places.4.British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement PeriodSamuel JohnsonHe was the last great neoclassicist enlightener in the late eighteenth century.He compiled the first English dictionary-A Dictionary of the English Language.4.British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement PeriodDaniel DefoeRobinson Crusoe is Defoes masterpiece.In the novel,Defoe traces the growth of Robinson from a naive and artless youth into a shrewd and hardened man,tempered by numerous trials in his eventful life.He is portrayed as the very prototype of the empire builder and the pioneer colonist.The novel eulogizes the hero of the hard-working class,and shows his sympathy for the poor and the unfortunate in his society.SentimentalismSentimentalism is a pejorative term do describe false or superficial emotion,assumed feeling,self-regarding postures of grief and pain.In literature it denotes overmuch use of pathetic effects and attempts to arose feeling by“pathetic”indulgence.The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith is a case in point.4.British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement PeriodOliver GoldsmithHe is the outstanding representative of the English sentimentalist school.The Graveyard SchoolThe Graveyard School refers to a school of poets of the 18th century whose poems are mostly devoted to a sentimental lamentation or meditation on life,past and present,with death and graveyard as themes.Thomas Gray is considered to be the leading figure of this school and his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is its most representative work.4.British Literature during the Enlightenment Movement PeriodThomas GrayHe was the leading figure of the Graveyard School.5.British Literature during Romantic Period(1798-1832)RomanticismIn the mid-18th century,a new literary movement called Romanticism came to Europe and then to England.It was characterized by a strong protest against the bondage of neoclassicism,which emphasized reason,order and elegant wit.Instead,romanticism gave primary concern to passion,emotion,and natural beauty.In the history of literature,romanticism is generally regarded as the thought that designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience.The English Romantic Period is an age of poetry.Major romantic poets include Blake,Wordsworth,Coleridge,Byron,Shelley and Keats.Romanticism prevailed in England from 1798 to 1837.5.British Literature during Romantic PeriodRobert BurnsHe is the greatest Scottish poet in the late 18th century.In his poetry he glorifies a natural man-a healthy,joyous and clever Scotch peasant.He wrote in Scottish dialect,drawing his inspiration from the treasury of Scottish folklore.His poetry is rich in such qualities as love,humor,pathos and love of nature.All these qualities suggest the coming of English Romanticism.5.British Literature during Romantic PeriodWilliam BlakeHe is one of major English Romantic poets in the 19th century.The distinctive feature of his poetry is the symbolism in wide range.He is famous for his two volumes of poems:Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.Childhood is central to Blakes concern in these two volumes of poems.5.British Literature during Romantic PeriodWilliam WordsworthHe is the leading figure of the English Romantic poetry,and he is regarded as a worshipper of nature.His Lyrical Ballads,written with Coleridge,marked the beginning of Romanticism in English poetry.He defined poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,which originates in emotion recollected in tranquility.He was one of Lake Poets.5.British Literature during Romantic PeriodSamuel Taylor ColeridgeHe is one of the major Romantic poets in the 19th century England.His actual achievement as poet can be divided into two remarkably diverse groups:the demonic and the conversational.He and Wordsworth composed Lyrical Ballads.He is one of Lake Poets.5.British Literature during Romantic PeriodGeorge Gordon ByronHe is a leading Romantic poet whose chief contribution is his creation of the Byronic hero,a proud,mysterious rebel figure of noble origin.5.British Literature during Romantic PeriodPercy Bysshe ShelleyHe is regarded as one of the greatest of all English poets.His lyrics such as The Cloud,To a Skylark and Ode to the West Wind are best-known.5.British Literature during Romantic PeriodJohn KeatsHe is one of the major English Romanticists in the 19th century.He wrote best odes in English literature.6.Realist British Literature(30s of 19th century-1918)Critical RealismCritical Realism is a term applied to the realistic fiction in the late 19th and early 20th century.It means the tendency of writers and intellectuals in the period between 1875 and 1920 to apply the methods of realist fiction to the criticism of society and the examination of social issues.Realist writers were all concerned about the fate of the common people and described what was faithful to reality.Charles Dickens is the most important critical realist.6.Realist British LiteratureRobert BrowningHe is considered as the most original poet of the Victorian Age.The name of Browning is often associated with the term dramatic monologue.6.Realist British LiteratureAlfred TennysonHe was the most prolific poet in the 19th century English literature.His wonderful works show all the qualities of Englands great poets:the dreaminess of Spenser,the majesty of Milton,the natural simplicity of Wordsworth,the fantasy of Blake and Coleridge,the melody of Keats and Shelley,and the narrative vigor of Scott and Byron.6.Realist British LiteratureJane AustenShe was a woman novelist of the 18th century,though she lived mainly in the nineteenth century,for her works show clearly her firm belief in the predominance of reason over passion,the sense of responsibility,good manners and clear-sighted judgment over the Romantic tendencies of emotion and individuality.6.Realist British LiteratureCharlotte BronteShe is one of the three Bronte sisters.Her works are all about the struggle of an individual consciousness towards self-realization,about some lonely and neglected young women with a fierce longing for love,understanding and a full,happy life.All her heroines highest joy arises from some sacrifice of self or some human weakness overcome.6.Realist British LiteratureEmily BronteShe is a poet,novelist,and one of the three Bronte sisters.6.Realist British LiteratureGeorge EliotShe is a woman writer of the latter half of the 19th century.Her real name is Mary Ann Evans.D.H.Lawrence regarded George Eliot as the first novelist that started putting all the actions inside.Most of her novels have two features:moral teaching and psychological realism.6.Realist British LiteratureCharles DickensHe is one of the greatest critical realist writers of the Victorian Age.His works are intended to expose and criticize all the poverty,injustice,hypocrisy and corruptness of the 19th century England,particularly London.All his works are characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.6.Realist British LiteratureWilliam Makepeace ThackerayHe is one of the most important writers of the English critical realism.Through his masterpiece Vanity Fair,Thackeray sharply exposes the vices of his society:hypocrisy,money-worship,and moral degradation.6.Realist British LiteratureThomas HardyThomas Hardy is a great poet as well as a great critical and naturalistic novelist.His novels reveal a profound pessimistic sense of human subjection to fate and circumstance.Most of his novels are set in Wessex,a fictional primitive region.They are known for the vivid description of the vicissitudes of people who live in an agricultural setting threatened by the forces of invading capitalism.These works are known as novels of character and environment.He not only exposed and criticized all sorts of social problems,but finally came to question and attack the Victorian conventions and morals.Hardy experienced a change from being cheerful and optimistic to despairing and pessimistic in his writing career.6.Realist British LiteratureThomas Hardy and his Tess of the D urbervilles6.Realist British LiteratureJoseph ConradHis experience as a sailor made the sea his favorite theme.His works are concerned with the nature and effects of European imperialism both economic and colonial.6.Realist British LiteratureE.M.ForsterIn his novels Forster intermixes a sharp,observant,and bitter social comedy with didactic narrative insistence on the virtues of tolerance and human decency.He advocates breaking down the barrier between races and classes.Contrasts are typical of his novels.6.Realist British LiteratureOscar WildeHe is a spokesman for the aesthetic movement,who advocated the theory of art for arts sake.6.Realist British LiteratureGeorge Bernard ShawHe is considered to be the best-known English dramatist since Shakespeare.Most of his plays can be termed as problem plays.He writes about the relations between men and women,husband and wife,and parents and children;the problems of conscience,character and disposition;the problems of individual and society.7.Modern British Literature(1918-1945)ModernismModernism is an international movement in literature and arts,especially in literary criticism,which began in the late 19th century and flourished until 1950s.Modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base.The modernist writes concentratedly more on the private and subjunctive than on the public and objective,mainly concerned with the inner of an individual.James Joyce,T.S.Eliot,Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner are prominent modernist writers.7.Modern British LiteratureD.H.LawrenceHe is one of the greatest English novelists of the 20th century,and,perhaps,the greatest from a working family.The major concern of his novels consists in the tracing of the psychological development of his characters and in his energetic criticism of the dehumanizing effect of the capitalist industrialization on human nature.He holds that human sexuality is the dominating life force,and defiantly and frankly describes scenes of sex,which is the reason why Lawrence had been accused of pornographic writing.7.Modern British LiteratureVirginia WoolfShe is the most influential and probably the most widely studied woman writer in the twentieth century.7.Modern British LiteratureJames JoyceHe is regarded as the most prominent novelist using the stream-of-consciousness technique.7.Modern British LiteratureT.S.EliotHe is a great modernist poet,an important verse dramatist and a great prose writer.He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948.His poetry conveys his pessimistic view that the modern world is chaotic and its life is futile and fragmentary.Man lives a frustrated and disillusioned life.The modern world is a spiritual wasteland.7.Modern British LiteratureWilliam Butler YeatsHe is considered to be one of the greatest poets in the English literature.He was awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1923.7.Modern British LiteratureDame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie was an English crime novelist,short story writer and playwright.She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott,but she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections that she wrote under her own name.