英国文学第一讲
[ 2006-2-17 0:15:00 | By: literature123 ]
- Basic Objectives: understanding historical background of early and medieval period in Great Britain; comprehending definition of epic, alliteration and understatement; understanding the contents of Beowulf; comprehending nature and artistic feature of Beowulf
- Knowledge Enlargement: epic tradition in the whole Europe; Christianity’s great influence on the Medieval Europe
- Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Textbook: A Short History of English Literature by Liu Bingshan
- Students: English Majors, Grade Three
- Procedures
- 1, Introduction
- ① How to Study Literature?
- English literature has a long history and contains much wealth. To learn it well, we need to pay attention to the following points:
- 1. Historical Development (Periods of English Literature) :
- Historical Development will help you remember things, because each period is characterized with its own historical and artistic features.
- 2. Historical background:
- Historical background helps us understand the theme of works, the characters' personality, etc.
- 3. Characteristics of a period and individual writers and works (their themes, characters, contents, artistic features and so on)
- 4. Literary terms: definitions of some special term concerning with literature.
- 5. Read the original if possible
- I may give you some excerpts from those original works, mostly essays and poems. However, we have no time to discuss novels on our class because time is too limited. So I hope you can read some great works made by famous English writers. It’ll make you get a direct impression about those writers’ artistic features and it’ll make your English improve a lot.
- ② Recommended book list
- ·王佐良，李赋宁等主编《英国文学名篇选注》商务印书馆出版（图书馆可找到）
- ·陈嘉《英国文学史》商务印书馆出版（各名校外语系要求的考研必读书）
- ·杨周翰《欧洲文学史》人民文学出版社（扩展知识）
- ·王佐良《欧洲文化入门》外语教学与研究出版社（涉及文化背景的内容可查阅）
- ③ Arrangement of the class
- In this semester we’ll meet each other 32 times totally. I planned to spend 30 or 31 times on our textbook. And 1 time for introducing popular English literature such as Harry Potter and introducing the research methods of literature.
- ④ How Shall We Cooperate?
- 1, Preview and review
- 2. In-class lecture & discussion: My part & your part
- 3. After-class reading & research: Dictionary, notes, library, internet
- 4. Assessment: Classroom presentation 20%; Final exam (paper) 70%; Small thesis writing 10%
- 2, Course book
- Part 1 Early and Medieval English Literature
- “Early” here means English literature in primitive and slavery society.
- “Medieval period” is a quite special period in English history. In Chinese “Medieval” or “The Middle Age” means “中世纪”. You may hear something about this period. It was called “The Middle Age” because it was considered as the time between ancient world and the modern world. Here “Medieval” means English literature in feudal England before the Renaissance.
- I. Early English Literature (Anglo-Saxon Literature)
- 1, Historical Background
- ① The earliest inhabitants of the British Isles were Britons, a tribe of Celts. Today most Celts lived in Scotland and Wales.
- ② From 55 B.C. to 410 A. D. Romans conquered the Great Britain. The Roman army was led by Julius Caesar, who was a very famous figure in ancient Rome. He was a famous general and conquered lot of places in Europe and then he became dictator of Rome. He had famous words “I came, I saw, I conquered”. You can see how strong this man’s will is.
- Consequence of Roman conquest: a network of highways; scores of towns, including London; Roman lifestyle
- ③ English Conquest
- ·Shortly after Romans’ retreat, the Britain was invaded by Anglos, Saxons and Jutes. And by the 7th century Old English emerged.
- ·Anglo-Saxon period witnessed a transition from tribal society to feudalism.
- ·Anglo-Saxons were Christianized in the 7th century. Before Christianization, Anglo-Saxons believed in old northern European mythologies. If you are interested in old Britain mythologies you may read the famous novel “The Lord of the Rings”, which was a collection of old northern European mythologies. The Christianization of Anglo-Saxons influenced the record of old English literature.
- 2, Beowulf —— National epic of English people
- ① Definition of epic: an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero
- ② Story of Beowulf
- ·Ask students to read the story of Beowulf on textbook by themselves and then ask them “What are the three adventures mentioned in the story?”
- ·The story of Beowulf includes three adventures: killing monster Grendel, killing Grendel’s mother and killing a fire dragon.
- ③ Some important points
- ·“Beowulf” is a folk legend brought to England by Anglo-Saxons from their continental homes. However it also reflected the features of the tribal society in Britain.
- ·Originally Beowulf, the great epic, was in oral form and it must be a collective creation.
- ·Beowulf in the epic is a legendary figure. In formal history you can not find a man named Beowulf.
- ④ Artistic features of “Beowulf”
- ·Using alliteration
- Definition of alliteration: a rhetorical device, meaning some words in a sentence begin with the same consonant sound（头韵）
- Some examples on P5
- ·Using metaphor and understatement
- Definition of understatement: expressing something in a controlled way
- Understatement is a typical way for Englishmen to express their ideas. You may find some examples on P6
- ⑤ Epic tradition in Europe
- long narrative verse, part-historical and part-legendary origin
- This tradition can be traced back to Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. Similar works in Europe are “Edda” and “Saga” from Iceland etc. (referring to 《欧洲文学史》)
- 3, “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”
- · The book was conceived by King Alfred the Great. He also organized and supervised the writing process of the book.
- ·This book is a very important historical document and specimen of Anglo-Saxon prose.
- II, Medieval English Literature
- 1, Historical Background
- ① Norman conquest in 1066 marks the establishment of feudalism in England.
- ② By the end of the 14th century, the Middle English emerged.
- ③ The ecclesiastics, from the monks and the clergy to the bishops and archbishops, together possessed over one third of the land in the country and owned numerous serfs, and had their tithes and ecclesiastical courts and the backing of the Pope in Rome. They had much political as well as religious power. Understanding the great influence of Christianity in the medieval Europe is very important for you to understand their literature because Christianity is one of the two resources of European culture. (referring to 《欧洲文化入门》)
- Homework
- ·Read excerpts from “Robin Hood and the Bishop”.
- ·Preview P10 to P21 on your textbook.
[ 本帖最后由 yl120872063b 于 2010-1-22 16:01 编辑 ] |
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