English Literature英国文学

I. Old English Period (450-1066)II. The Medieval Period (1066-14thcentury)1. Geoffrey Chaucer

(1340?-1400)

2. William Langland3. John Gower

(1332?-1400?)(1330-1408?)

III. The Renaissance Period (14thmid-17th century)1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Thomas More Edmund Spenser Christopher Marlowe William Shakespeare Francis Bacon Ben Jonson John Donne John Milton

(1478-1535)(1552-1599) (1564-1593) (1564-1616) (1561-1626)

(1573-1637)(1572-1631) (1608-1674)

IV. The Neoclassical Period (16601798)1. John Bunyan2. Alexander Pope(1628-1688)(1688-1744)

3. Daniel Defoe4. Jonathan Swift 5. Henry Fielding 6. Samuel Johnson 7. Richard Brinsley Sheridan

(1660-1731)(1667-1745) (1707-1754) (1709-1784) (1751-1816)

8. Thomas Gray

(1716-1771)

V. The Romantic Period (1798-1832)1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Robert Burns William Blake William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge George Gordon Byron Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats Jane Austen Walter Scott

(1759-1796) (1757-1827) (1770-1850) (1772-1834) (1788-1824) (1792-1822) (1795-1821) (1775-1817) (1771-1832)

VI. The Victorian Period (1836-1901)1.2. 3.

4.5. 6.

7.8.

Charles Dickens William M. Thackeray The Bronte Sisters ① Charlotte Bronte ② Emily Bronte ③ Anne Bronte Alfred Tennyson Robert Browning George Eliot Thomas Hardy Robert Louis Stevenson

(1812-1870)(1811-1863)

(1816-1855)(1818-1848) (1820-1849)

(1809-1892)(1812-1889) (1819-1880)

(1840-1928)(1850-1894)

VII. The Modern Period (1901present)1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

George Bernard Shaw John Galsworthy William Butler Yeats T. S. Eliot D. H. Lawrence James Joyce Virginia Woolf Joseph Conrad

(1856-1950)(1867-1933) (1865-1939) (1888-1965) (1885-1930)

(1882-1941)(1882-1941) (1857-1924)

I.

Old English Period (450-1066)

Old English poetry the religious group (on biblical themes) the secular group Beowulf the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons romantic typical example of Old English poetry represented the pagan poetry alliteration

England was conquered by the Romans (55

BC), the Anglo-Saxons (410 AD), and the Normans (1066 AD). The Anglo-Saxons brought to England the Germanic language and culture. The Normans brought a fresh wave of Mediterranean civilization, which includes Greek culture, Roman Law and the Christian religion.

II.

The Medieval Period (1066-14thcentury)

(second half of the 14th century) Three great Middle English Poets 1. Geoffrey Chaucer the father of English poetry

the first one to use the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter to write poems The Canterbury Tales

2. William Langland a more realistic writer Piers Plowman

3. John Gower produced the best romance of the period Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Romance is a popular literary form in the

medieval period. Romance ---It uses narrative verse or prose to sing knightly adventures or other heroic deeds. Romantic love is an important part of the plot in r

omance. If the epic reflects a heroic age, the romance reflects a chivalric one.

III. The Renaissance Period (14thmid-17th century)1. Thomas More Utopia

2. Edmund Spenser known as “the poets’ poet” buried beside his master Chaucer in Westminster

Abbey The Faerie Queene

an allegory written in Spenserian stanza

The Shepherd’s Calendar

3. Christopher Marlowe

1st great English dramatist the father of English tragedy the pioneer of English drama perfected the blank verse and made it the principal medium of English drama Dr. Faustus (seek for knowledge)

based on the German legend

Tamburlaine (seek for power) The Jew of Malta (seek for money) The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

one of the most beautiful lyrics in English literature

4. William Shakespeare 38 plays; 154 sonnets; 2 long poems 1591-1611, in the prime of his dramatic career

hero (inpiduals representing certain types) soliloquy, irony, disguise Tragedy a. Hamlet (based on a widespread legend in northernEurope)b. Othelloc. King Lear

Macbeth e. Romeo and Juliet f. Julius Caesar g. Antony and Cleopatra h. Troilus and Cressida i. Coriolanus j. Timon and Athensd.

Comedy a. A Midsummer Night’s Dream b. The Merchant of Venice c. Twelfth Night