英美文化重点.docVIP

Chapter one Anglo-saxon peotry 的特点 Story is based on partly historical and partly legendary materials. It contains paganism and Christian elements, There is special technical structure. They are three alteration per line, two in the first half line and one on. They are seafaring people and brave in their action. The old Saxon word “angul” means a hook, from which we can surmise that they lived by the sea and their lives were related to fishing. The name Saxon is from “seax”, that is, a short sword, and from that name we can judge that they were hardy fighters. Beowulf Like Homer’s poetry, Beowulf sings of the exciting adventure of a great legendary hero whose physical strength demonstrates his high spiritual qualities, his resolution to serve his country and kinsfolk, his time courage, excretes cireluet and his love of honor. Chapter two Middle English 3 centuries after Norman conquest. Two languages were used side by side in England, Latin and French were the languages of the upper classes, spoken at courts and used in churches and schools, official edicts and documents and literary works were written in Latin. Old English was weakened and a huge number of French and Latin words absorbed. What’s more, inflectional forms of the words were dropped and formal grammar simplified. religious literature 定义 教堂文学 The church had a virtual monopoly of literature during much of the Middle Ages. The church nor only had this direct claim upon the majority of literate men but also was itself a larger producer of books in the physical sense as well as a maintainer of libraries. Chapter three Geoffrey chaucer 其伟大在何处 Chaucer’s work gives a comprehensive picture of Chaucer’s time. The pilgrims cover a wide range of characters in the England of the time, from noblemen to peasants As a commoner he had a sympathy with and an understanding of the lower classes as is shown in his attitude towards the ploughman and the poor person. Chaucer wrote in the London dialect of his day, w