英美文学教程笔记.docVIP

English Literature Chapter One English Literature in the Middle Age (5th -15th ) Main points: I. Background information of the Anglo-Saxon period. II. Literary characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon period. III. Background information of the Anglo-Norman period. IV. Literary characteristics of the Anglo-Norman period. V. Important literary works and men of letters of the Anglo-Norman period. VI. Geoffrey Chaucer I . Background information of the Anglo-Saxon period The period can be roughly divided into two stages: the Anglo-Saxon period and the Anglo-Norman period. 1.The making of the nation. 1.1 The inhabitants of the nation The native Celts凯尔特人(they inhabit in what is now Ireland, Wales and Scotland ) the Roman Conquest ( this conquest was led by Julius Caesar in 55B.C., which lasted 4 centuries, but it made little influence on the nation’s literature ) the Anglo-Saxon Conquest in about 449 by three Teutonic tribes 条顿部落 the Anglos, the Saxons, the Jutes. The Anglo-Saxons were Christianized in the 7th century, which influenced the literature in two aspects: one is the great number of Christian poetry which forms an important part of English literature of this period; the other is Christian color in pagan works, for the monks recorded the oral literature with their Christian ideas. (The ideas usually do not go with the content of the whole being.) 1.2 The language In the 7th, the three tribes mixed into a whole people called English and the language spoken by them is generally called Anglo-Saxon, that is the Old English. II. Literary characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon period. The main literary form of the period is poetry and there are two groups: pagan poetry and religious poetry, and often Christian one. The most important works left is Beowulf《贝奥武甫》or《贝尔武夫》 The introduction to Beowulf It is the earliest complete epic in English literature and it is regarded as the national epic of the English people. Definition of epic or national epic 史诗: it is a poetic account