自考英美文学精华篇.docVIP

Name Writers Features Writings Writings Features English Literature The Renaissance Period 1. age: 1500-1660 2. background: stimulated by the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek classic; Englands Golden Age, especially in literature; the Church of England broke away from the Catholic Church 3. features: (1)New poetical forms introduced, e.g. blank verse and sonnet;(2) the English drama based itself on the models of Roman and Greek classics and the precedents from Italy and Spain (3)the universal tend of humanism in emphasizing mans dignity and his worldly happiness Edmund Spenser 1. The poets poet; 2. Perfect melody; a rare sense of beauty; a splendid imagination; a lofty moral purity and seriousness; a dedicated idealism The Faerie Queen (The Shepheades Calender Epithalamion) An allegory; a historical poem to present the example of a perfect gentleman; a hero represent one of the 12 virtues; fierce warres and faithful loves Christopher Marlowe (Blank verse University wit） 1. perfected blank verse and turned it into the principal medium of English drama 2. created a series of images of the Renaissance hero for English drama Dr Fauctus The Passionate Shepherd to His Love 1. symbolic of a humanist in the Renaissance; based on the German legend of a magician aspiring for knowledge and finally meeting his tragic end as a result of selling his soul to the Devil William Shakespeare The greatest playwright and the most popular sonnet writer; a creation of characters; skillful plot construction; irony; a good use of a language; skilled in various poetic forms; of three quatrains and a couplet(三节四行诗加一节偶句)national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity—“The King’s government must be carried on” (在一个强大英明的君主统治下的国家，统一是非常必要的) (Each hero has his weekness of nature: Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind; Othello’s inner weakness is made use of by the outside evil force; the old king Lear who is unwilling to total