英文文学导论论文.docVIP

The Survey of British Literature 计科1102班张健 学号2011013762 Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, it is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction. The survey of British literature can be devided into 7 periods. Old and Medieval periods (450---1066) After the fall of the Roman Empire and the withdrawal of Roman troops from Albion , the aboriginal Celtic population of the larger part of the island was soon conquered and almost totally exterminated by the Teutonic tribes of Angles , Saxons and Jutes who came from the continent and settled in the island , naming its central part Anglia , or England. For nearly four hundred years prior to the coming of the English , Britain had been a Roman province . In 410 A.D. the Romans withdrew their legions from Britain to protect Rome herself against swarms of Teutonic invaders . About 449 a band of Teutons , called Jutes , left Denmark , landed on the Isle of Thanet . Warriors from the tribes of the Angles and the Saxons soon followed , and drove westward the original inhabitants. The literature of this period falls naturally into two divisions , ---Religious and Secular . In reading the earliest poetry of England it is well to remember that all of it was copied by the monks , and seems to have been more or less altered to give it a religious coloring. The Song of Beowulf can be justly termed England’s national epic and its hero Beowulf ---one of the national heroes of the English people . The only existing manuscript of The Song of Beowulf was written by an unknown scribe at the beginning of the 10th century and was not discovered until 1750 . The Song was composed much earlier , and reflects events which took place on the Continent approximately