英国文学复习笔记整理.doc

英国文学复习笔记整理 1 Although Geoffrey Chaucer was essentially a medieval writer, he bore marks of humanism and anticipated a new era of literature to come. 2 Romance, which uses narrative verse or prose to tell stories of Knightly adventures or other heroic deeds, is a popular literary form in the medieval period. The Renaissance Period Edmund Spencer / Christopher Marlowe / William Shakespeare Francis Bacon / John Donne / John Milton 1. Renaissance: between 14th and mid-17th century. 2. Renaissance means rebirth or revival is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, such as: The rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture, The new discoveries in geography and astrology, The religious reformation and the economic expansion. 3. The Renaissance, therefore in essence is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and Scholars made attempt to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in Medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas that expressed the purity of the rising bourgeoisie, and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. The religious reformation in the early 16th-century England was a reflection of the class struggles waged by the rising bourgeoisie against the feudal class and its ideology 4. Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance The essence of humanism is to emphasize human qualities (1) Capable of individual development in the direction of perfection. (2) They inhabited was theirs not to despise by to question, explore and enjoy. (3) Tomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best representative of the English humanist. 5 Metaphysical poetry: Metaphysical is characterized by passionate thought succession of concentrated image, exercise of elaborate ingenuity and “wit”, John Donne was the famous of the Metaphysical poet. The Metaphysical Poets were men of learning and to show their learning was their endeavor. Edmund Spenser Masterpiece: The Faerie Que