英美文选.pptVIP

Unit I A brief introduction to the course A Sketch of the History of British literature Early and medieval English literature Chaucer and his The Canterbury Tales 5th - 15th century : Early and Medieval English Literature Late 15th - early 17th century The English Renaissance The 17th century literature: English Bourgeois Revolution Late 17th - Mid 18th century: The Enlightenment literature 1798-1832: Romanticism in England 1832-1918: English Critical Realism 1918-1945: The Modernist Literature 1945- : The Contemporary Literature Early and Medieval English Literature Part I The Anglo-Saxon Period (449-1066) Part II The Anglo-Norman period(1066—1350) Part III Geoffrey Chaucer (1340—1400) The Making of England The English people are of a mixed blood. The early inhabitants in the island now we call England were Britons, a tribe of Celts. From the Britons the island got its name of Britain, the land of Britons. The Britons were a primitive people who lived in the tribal society. In 55 B.C., Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar, the Roman conqueror. But as soon as the Romans landed on shore of the island, the Britons fought like lions under the leadership of their chieftain. Britain was not completely subjugated to the Roman Empire until 78 A.D. With the Roman Conquest the Roman mode of life came across to Britain also. The Roman occupation lasted for about 400 years. It was also during the Roman rule that Christianity was introduced to Britain. The English Conquest In the middle of 5th century, Britain was invaded by swarms of pirates. They were three tribes from Northern Europe: The Angles, Saxons and Jutes. And by the 7th century these small kingdoms were combined into a united kingdom called England, or the land of Angles. The three tribes had mixed into a whole people called English, the Angles being the most numerous of the three. And the three dialects called Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, wh