英国文学的教案(刘炳善简史)

希望对喜欢英语学习的同学有所帮助

Lecture 1
Part 1 Early and Medieval English Literature
“Early” here means English literature in primitive and slavery society.
“Medieval period” is a quite special period in English history. In Chinese “Medieval” or “The Middle Age” means “中世纪”. You may hear something about this period. It was called “The Middle Age” because it was considered as the time between ancient world and the modern world. Here “Medieval” means English literature in feudal England before the Renaissance.
I. Early English Literature (Anglo-Saxon Literature)
1, Historical Background
1 The earliest inhabitants of the British Isles were Britons, a tribe of Celts. Today most Celts lived in Scotland and Wales.
2 From 55 B.C. to 410 A. D. Romans conquered the Great Britain. The Roman army was led by Julius Caesar, who was a very famous figure in ancient Rome. He was a famous general and conquered lot of places in Europe and then he became dictator of Rome. He had famous words “I came, I saw, I conquered”. You can see how strong this man’s will is.
Consequence of Roman conquest: a network of highways; scores of towns, including London; Roman lifestyle
3 English Conquest
?Shortly after Romans’ retreat, the Britain was invaded by Anglos, Saxons and Jutes. And by the 7th century Old English emerged.
?Anglo-Saxon period witnessed a transition from tribal society to feudalism.
?Anglo-Saxons were Christianized in the 7th century. Before Christianization, Anglo-Saxons believed in old northern European mythologies. If you are interested in old Britain mythologies you may read the famous novel “The Lord of the Rings”, which was a collection of old northern European mythologies. The Christianization of Anglo-Saxons influenced the record of old English literature.
2, Beowulf —— National epic of English people
1 Definition of epic: an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero
2 Story of Beowulf
?Ask students to read the story of Beowulf on textbook by themselves and then ask them “What are the three adventures mentioned in the story?”
?The story of Beowulf includes three adventures: killing monster Grendel, killing Grendel’s mother and killing a fire dragon.
3 Some important points
?“Beowulf” is a folk legend brought to England by Anglo-Saxons from their continental homes. However it also reflected the features of the tribal society in Britain.
?Originally Beowulf, the great epic, was in oral form and it must be a collective creation.
?Beowulf in the epic is a legendary figure. In formal history you can not find a man named Beowulf.
④ Artistic features of “Beowulf”
?Using alliteration
Definition of alliteration: a rhetorical device, meaning some words in a sentence begin with t
he same consonant sound（头韵）
Some examples on P5
?Using metaphor and understatement
Definition of understatement: expressing something in a co

希望对喜欢英语学习的同学有所帮助

ntrolled way
Understatement is a typical way for Englishmen to express their ideas. You may find some examples on P6
⑤ Epic tradition in Europe
long narrative verse, part-historical and part-legendary origin
This tradition can be traced back to Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. Similar works in Europe are “Edda” and “Saga” from Iceland etc. (referring to 《欧洲文学史》)
3, “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”
? The book was conceived by King Alfred the Great. He also organized and supervised the writing process of the book.
?This book is a very important historical document and specimen of Anglo-Saxon prose.
II, Medieval English Literature
1, Historical Background
1 Norman conquest in 1066 marks the establishment of feudalism in England.
2 By the end of the 14th century, the Middle English emerged.
3 The ecclesiastics, from the monks and the clergy to the bishops and archbishops, together possessed over one third of the land in the country and owned numerous serfs, and had their tithes and ecclesiastical courts and the backing of the Pope in Rome. They had much political as well as religious power. Understanding the great influence of Christianity in the medieval Europe is very important for you to understand their literature because Christianity is one of the two resources of European culture. (referring to 《欧洲文化入门》)




Lecture 2
2. The Romance（骑士文学）
1 Definition of the Romance: a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. (P10)
* Knight is a special group of people existed in the Middle Age in Europe. Nearly all nobles were knights. However, nobody was born a knight. One nobleman who want to become a knight must experience hard training and then the king will give him knighthood.
* Codes of the Knight（骑士准则）:protect the weak, fight for church, loyal to your lord, loyal to King, respect women of noble birth（西方人对于男士良好风度的概念起源于这些骑士准则，是以西方有“骑士风度”说法。）（参阅《欧洲文化入门》）
2 The great majority of the romances fall into three groups: matters of Britain, matters of France and matters of Rome.
* Charlemagne, a very great French emperor, 查理曼大帝 （参阅《欧洲文化入门》）
* Alexander the Great, a very great emperor in ancient Greece, 亚历山大大帝，目前埃及名城亚历山大就是以他的名字命名 （参阅《欧洲文化入门》）
3 The Romance of King Arthur and his Round Table knights, whose origin was in Celtic legend, is comparatively the most important for the history of English literature, especially the works called “Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight”.关于亚瑟王的传说来自英国的凯尔特民族的传说，《格温爵士和绿衣骑士》的故事可以在陈 …… 此处隐藏：6508字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……