英美文学作者作品.doc

英国部分 The Old English Period （450-1066） Four nations: 1. Celts 2. The Roman Conquest3. Angles, Saxons and Jutes4. Norman Conquest 《贝尔沃夫》Beowulf Epic：a long narrative poem, majestic both in theme and style. Epics deal with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance. Alliteration：the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases. The medieval period （1066 - middle 14th century） Norman Conquest (1066) Impact？ 1. Politically, a feudal system was established. 2. Religiously, the Rome-backed Catholic Church had a stronger control over the country. 3. Linguistically, three languages co-existed in England, French, Latin and the Old English. Romance：（popular literary form in the medieval period） It is a literary style popular in the Middle Ages dealing, in verse or prose, with legendary or supernatural subjects and characters. It is applied to tales specifically concerned with knightly adventures or other heroic deeds. epic vs romance：The romance and the epic are similar forms, but epics tend to be longer and less concerned with love.“The epic reflects a heroic age, the romance reflects a chivalric one.” Three greatest works： 1.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 2.William Langland Piers Plowman 3.Geoffrey Chaucer The Canterbury Tales 1.Geoffrey Chaucer - the father of English poetry? The Canterbury?Tales 坎特伯雷故事集 Comments： 1. Chaucer greatly contributes to the founding of the English literary language. He is the first great poet who wrote in the English language. 2. Chaucer introduces heroic couplet from France to English poetry, instead of alliterative verse. 3. Chaucer is the forerunner of humanism. Heroic Couplet: a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter. Iambic foot：Iambic foot has a pattern of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables beginning with an unstressed syllable. Ballad： It is a short?narrative?folk song that fixes on the most dramatic part of a story. It comes from un