范文一:英国文学史及选读
《英文史及选选》选选选国学
Part One: Brief Questions
1.What’s the symbolic meaning of the “Vanity Fair” in Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s
Progress”?
2.What can we see from the Soliloquy of Hamlet?
3.What’s the main idea of “Of Studies” by Bacon?
4.What’re the four stories of “Gulliver’s Travels” by Swift?
5.What’s the writing feature of Beowulf?
6.What’s the contribution made by Geoffrey Chaucer?
7.What’s the historical significance of the Glorious Revolution?
th 8.Explain the literary trends in the 17 century.
Part Two: Detailed Appreciation
9.Read the poem (“Sonnet 18” by Shakespeare) and answer the following
questions.
a)What is the theme of the poem?
b)Explain the rhyme and tone in the poem by drawing the first two lines.
c)Why is the speaker’s loved one more lovely than a summer’s day?
10.Read the poem (“Sonnet 29” by Shakespeare) and answer the following
questions.
a)In the first two thirds of the sonnet, the speaker is complaining about the
misfortunes in his life. What suddenly lifts him out of his bad mood?
b)In the last line, the speaker scorns to change his state with kings. What does
the word “state” mean?
11.Read the poem (“Song: Go and Catch the Falling Star” by Donne) and answer
the following questions.
a)What is the speaker’s tone? What’s his opinion about the constancy of
women?
b)How much impossibility does Donne list in the poem? What are they? What’s the additional impossibilities does he have in mind throughout this
stanza?
12.Read the poem (“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by Donne) and answer
the following questions.
a)Why does Donne’s “Valediction” (a poem of farewell) forbid mourning?
b)Comment on the relation of the various images to each other. Is there a
development of some kind?
13.Read the poem (“The Flea” by Donne) and answer the following questions.
a)Who’re the speaker and the listener? What’s the situation in the poem?
b)How’s the speaker’s reasoning to persuade the listener? And point out the
conceits used in the poem.
Read the poem (“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Gray) and answer 14.
the following questions.
a)How does Gray begin the essay?
b)Where does Gray begin to make a shift from visual to acoustic
perception? Why?
c)From which stanza, does Gray begin to describe the country churchyard?
d)How many sounds does Gray employ in stanza 5? What’re they, and why
does he make a list of these sounds?
e)What’s the main idea of stanza 6?
f)What can we see about the occupation of the dead person from stanza 7?
Please make a list of the words which can certify your guess.
g)What do stanzas 8 and 9 tell us?
15.Read the poem (“The Tiger” by Blake) and answer the following questions.
a)Analyze the form and rhythm of the poem, and what’s the central question
in this poem?
b)What do the lamb and the tiger represent respectively?
16.Read the poem (“London” by Blake) and answer the following questions.
a)Analyze the form and rhythm of the poem.
b)What kind of picture about London do you have in your mind after reading
the poem (London)? Describe in your own words with supportive details
from the poem.
17.Read the poem (“Lines” by Wordsworth), from the beauteous forms in heart, the poet could see into the life of things. How did it come? Analyze it by drawing a
flow chart.
18.Read the poem (“Break, Break, Break” by Tennyson) and answer the following
questions.
a)What feelings of loss arise in the speaker as he looks out at the sea breaking
endlessly against the shore?
b)The meter of lines 1 and 13 obviously differ from that of the whole poem. How do they differ, and how do they control the tone of the poem? What is
the effect of the repetition?
c)In the second stanza, what does the poet describe? What do you think is his
intention for giving such a setting? And how does this setting intensify the
speaker’s mood?
19.Read the poem (“Crossing the Bar” by Tennyson) and answer the following
questions.
a)What overall mood and atmosphere does Tennyson create in this poem?
b)Instead of saying death directly, Tennyson uses a metaphor. What is the
metaphor? How effective is it used?
c)What is Tennyson’s attitude towards death?
Part Three: Reading Comprehension
20.“And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of
thought.”
a)Identify the title and the author.
b)What idea do the lines express?
21.“Whether I went over by the ladder, as first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which I called a door, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remember the next morning, for never frighted hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more
terror of mind than I to this retreat.”
a)Identify the title and the author of the selected part.
b)Why was I so frighted, according to the story?
22.“If he be not apt to beat over matters, let him study the lawyer’s cases. So
every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.”
a)Identify the author and the essay from which the quoted sentences are
taken.
b)What is the essay mainly about?
23.“Five hundred carpenters and engineers were immediately set at work to prepare the greatest engine they had. It was a frame of wood raised three inches from the ground, about seven foot long and four wide, moving upon twenty-two wheels.”
a)Identify the title and the author.
b)Why did they make such a great engine?
范文二:英国文学史及选读
《英国文学史及选读》第二册练习题
I. 浪漫主义时期
I. Each of the statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the brackets.
1. English Romanticism is generally said to have begun with_____in 1798.(A)
A. the publication of Lyrical Ballads
B. the death of Sir Scott
C. the birth of William Wordsworth
D. the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament
2. The Romantic Period is first of all an age of_____.(B)
A. Novel B. poetry C. drama D. prose
3. Romanticism does not emphasize_____.(D)
A. the special qualities of each individual’s mind
B. the inner world of the human spirit
C. individuality
D. the features that men have in common
4._____ is not a Romantic poet.(B)
A. William Blake B. Sir Scott C. P. B. Shelley D. Lord Byron
5. _____ is a Romantic novelist but is impressed with neo-classic strains.(C)
A. Walter Scott B. Mary Shelley
C. Jane Austen D. Ann Radcliff
6. _____ is not characteristic of William Blake’s writing.(C)
A. plain and direct language B. compression of meaning
C. supernatural quality D. symbolism
7. Wordsworth published Lyrical Ballads in 1789 with _____.(B)
A. Byron B. Coleridge C. Shelley D. Keats
8. Wordsworth thinks that _____ is the only subject of literary interest.(D)
A. the life of rising bourgeoisie
B. aristocratic life
C. the life of the royal family
D. common life
9. Don Juan is the masterpiece of_____.(A)
A. Lord Byron’s B. P. B. Shelley’s
C. John Keats’s D. Samuel Coleridge’s
10. _____ is not a novel written by Jane Austen.(A)
A. Jane Eyre B. Sense and Sensibility
C. Pride and Prejudice D. Emma
II.维多利亚时期
I. Each of the statement below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the brackets
1. The Victorian period roughly began at the enthronement of Queen Victoria in_____.(B)
A. 1835 B. 1836 C. 1837 D. 1838
2. The critical realists like Charles Dickens in the Victorian period wrote novels_____.(D)
A. representing the 18th century realist novel
B. criticizing the society
C. defending the mass
E. all the above
3. _____is not a Victoria novelist.(D)
A. Charles Dickens
B. George Eliot
C. William Makepeace Thackeray
D. D. H. Lawrence
4. _____ is not a work by Charles Dickens.(C)
A. Oliver Twist B. David Copperfield
C. Middlemarch D. A Tale of Two Cities
5. Wuthering Heights is a masterpiece written by_____.(B)
A. Charlotte Bronte B. Emily Bronte
C. Anne Bronte D. Branwell Bronte
6. _____ is not Thomas Hardy’s work.(A)
A. The Mill on the Floss
B. Tess of the D’Urbervilles
C. Jude the Obscure
D. The Mayor of Casterbridge
7. “My Last Duchess” is _____.(A)
A. a dramatic monologue B. a short lyric
C. a novel D. an essay
8. Tennyson’s “Ulysses” gets its inspiration from the following works or writers except_____.(B)
A. Homer’s Odessey B. Joyce’s Ulysses
C. Dante D. Greek Mythology
9. In the 19th century English literature, a new literary trend _____ appeared. And it flourished in the 1840s and in the early 1950s.(D)
A. romanticism B. naturalism
C. realism D. critical realism
10. The title of the novel Vanity Fair was taken from_____.(A)
A. The Pilgrim’s Progress
B. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
C. Gulliver’s Travels
D. The Canterbury Tales
IV. Name the author of each of the following literary works.
1. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (Charles Dickens)
2. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Bronte)
3. In Memoriam (Alfred Tennyson)
4. The Mill on the Floss (George Eliot)
5. The Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy)
VI. For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly interpret it.
1. That same evening the gentleman in the white waistcoat most positively and decidedly affirmed, not only that Oliver would be hung, but that he would be drawn and quartered into the bargain. Mr.
Bumble shoot his head with gloomy mystery, and said he wished he might come to good; where—unto Mr. Gamfield replied, that he wished he might come to him---which, although he agreed with the beadle in most matters, would seem to be a wish of a totally opposite description. The next morning, the public were once more informed that Oliver Twist was again To Let, and that five pounds would be paid to anybody who would take possession of him.( It is taken from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist. This part describes how Oliver is punished for asking for more to eat and how he is therefore sold at three pound ten to a notorious chimney-sweeper. It reveals that the pitiable state of the orphan boy and the cruelty and hypocrisy of the workhouse board.)
2. Thus, neither having the clue to the other’s secret, they were respectively puzzled at what each revealed, and awaited new knowledge of each other’s character and moods without attempting to pry into each other’s history.
Every day, every hour, brought to him one more little stroke of her nature, and to her one more of his. Tess was trying to lead a repressed life, but she little divined the strength of her own vitality.( It is taken from Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. This part describes how Tess forgets about her past misfortune in the beautiful, pastoral dairy farm and unconsciously gives herself up to the attraction of Angel Clare.)
III. 现代时期
I. Each of the statement below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the brackets
1. Modernism takes_____as its theoretical base.(C)
A. the irrational philosophy B. the theory of psycho-analysis
C. both A and B D. neither A nor B
2. Modernism rose out of_____.(D)
A. skepticism B. disillusion of capitalism
C. irrational philosophy D. al the above
3. Modernism is, in many aspects, a reaction against_____.(B)
A .romanticism B. realism
C. post-modernism D. all the above
4. _____is not a movement in the modern period.(C)
A. “the Angry Young Men” B. “the Beat Generation”
C. “the Lost Generation” D. “the Theater of the Absurd”
5. _____ is not a representative figure in applying the technique of “the stream of consciousness” in his/her writing.(A)
A. D. H. Lawrence B. James Joyce
C. Virginia Woolf D. Dorothy Richardson
6. Waiting for Godot is regarded as the most famous and influential play of the Theater of Absurd. It is written by_____.(B)
A. George Bernard Shaw B. Samuel Beckett
C. John Galsworthy D. Eugene O’ Neill
7. The Waste Land is_____’s most important single poem.(D)
A. Ezra Pound B. William Butler Yeats
C. Alfred Tennyson D. T. S. Eliot
8. _____ is not D. H. Lawrence’s work.(A)
A. Finnegans Wake B. Sons and Lovers
C. Lady Chatterley’s Lover D. The Rain Bow
9. _____ is not James Joyce’s novel.(C)
A. Ulysses B. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
C. Dubliners D. Finnegans Wake
10. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is written by_____.(D)
A. W. H. Auden B. D. H. Lawrence
C. W. B. Yeats D. T. S. Eliot
IV. Name the author of each of the following literary works.
1. Pygmalion (Bernard Shaw )
2. “Sailing to Byzantium” (W. B. Yeats)
3. Woman in Love (D. H. Lawrence)
4. Ulysses (James Joyce)
5. The Man of Property (John Galsworthy)
VI. For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly interpret it.
1. I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.(It is taken from Yeats’s “The lake Isle of Innisfree.” In this poem, Yeats expresses his longing to escape from the city life and to live a secluded life by describing the peaceful, tranquil scene of the lake Isle of Innisfree, a legendary place for hermitage.)
2. Now she began to combat in his restless fretting. He still kept up his connexion with Miriam, could neither break free nor go the whole length of engagement. And this indecision seemed to bleed him of his energy. Moreover. His mother suspected him of an unrecognized leaning towards Clara, and, since the latter was a married woman, she wished he would fall in love with one of the girls in a better station of life. But he was stupid, and would refuse to love or even to admire a girl much, just because she was his social superior.(It is taken from D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. Paul has love affairs with two girls, Miriam and Clara. But he is so dependent on his mother’s love and help that he fails to achieve a fulfilling relationship with either girl.) English Literature ( Book II)
2.William Wordsworth要知道他的 “Lyrical Ballads”前言是英国浪漫主义时期开始的标志,也是宣言。他诗歌的主要两类题材:nature and common people’s lives。
写过的著名作品:I wandered lonely as a cloud; To the cuckoo; Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey; The solitary reaper; We are seven 等等。
3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge两首名诗:The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Kubla Khan主要写作supernatural题材。
4. George Gordon Byron,Byronic Heroes (名词解释); 著名作品:Child Harold’s Pilgrimage要知道大致内容,另外此诗用Spenserian Stanza写成;Don Juan要知道大致内容。
5. Percy Bysshe Shelley著名作品:Queen Mab; The Revolt of Islam; Prometheus Unbound(lyrical drama,要知道大致内容及此剧与古希腊的“被束缚的普罗米修斯”不同之处及其意义。)其它名作: Ode to the West Wind; To a skylark等等。
6. John Keats著名作品:Ode to Autumn; Ode to a Nightingale; Ode on a Grecian Urn”。注意
Keats与Byron和Shelley的不同,Keats的诗歌没有两人那么强的革命性,他的诗歌主要是为了缔造一个唯美的世界,为了追求美而写作的。
7. Charles Lamb:The Essays of Elia (humorous, archaisms, quotations from other writers)
8. Walter Scott: founder and great master of the historical novel; his death marks the ending of Romantic Period in English literature; famous novels: Rob Roy, Ivanhoe; features of his novels. English Critical Realism
10. Charles Dickens主要作品: The Pickwick Papers (first novel); Oliver Twist; Dombey and Son; David Copperfield; A Tales of Two Cities等等,对这些主要作品除了第一部以外剩下的要对情节,主要人物形象,主题及其意义有所了解,另外要知道狄更斯的小说的特色。
12. Jane Austen主要作品:Pride and Prejudice其它5部小说知道名字即可,对于《傲慢与偏见》简单看一下它的情节和主要人物。Austen的写作特点:thin plot, mostly everyday life of simple country society; good at writing young girls; modest satire; witty dialogues。
13. Charlotte Bronte主要作品Jane Eyre,要知道其情节和意义,另外简爱的人物形象也比较重要。
14. Emily Bronte主要作品Wuthering Heights,情节,人物形象及意义。勃朗特姐妹的小说虽然写作在批判现实主义时期,但其作品有明显的浪漫主义特色,比如包含的一些supernatural elements,特别体现在呼啸山庄中。
15. George Eliot主要作品: Adam Bede, The Mill on Floss.
Prose-writers and poets of the mid and later 19th century
16. Alfred Tennyson主要作品: In Memoriam, The Idylls of the Kings;有名的短诗Break, Break, Break; Crossing the bar等,此人政治态度保守,作品追求形式上的完美,富于音乐性和色彩。
17. Robert Browning introduced dramatic monologue to poetry. His famous poems: “Home-thoughts from abroad” etc. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “Sonnets from the Portuguese”.
18. Aestheticism唯美主义(名词解释)Oscar Wilde主要作品,写作特点及其意义简要了解。 Twentieth Century English Literature
19. John Galsworthy: 主要作品 “The Forsyte Saga”注意这是两个trilogy构成的,可不是一本小说,其中比较重要的是 “The Man of Property”就是书上介绍的那一部,要知道此部小说主人公的名字,以及这个主人公的性格,和小说主题。
20. George Bernard Shaw主要作品Mrs Warren’s Profession和Major Babara,对他作品的主要人物,情节,主题和意义要了解,他是比较重要的一个作家。
21. T. S. Eliot比较重要,特别是他的The Waste Land要知道包括哪几个部分,大概是什么情节,有什么象征意义,主题是什么,有什么写作特点。另外他著名的文章Tradition and the Individual Talent被认为是manifesto of modernist poetry.
22. Modernist fiction put emphasis on the description of the characters’ psychological activities under the influence of Austrian doctor Sigmund Freud’s theories.
23. D. H. Lawrence重点作品Sons and Lovers这个作品明显受到弗洛伊德影响,特别是其中体现的Oedipus complex,对其人物,主题要有了解;The Rainbow及其续篇Women in Love要有简单了解,特别是对其主题。Lady Chatterley’s Lover简单了解即可。劳伦斯的思想特点以及局限性要了解。
25. James Joyce其它作品简单了解,但Ulysses非常重要,需要知道题目来源,题目的含义,小说的主人公和情节,以及主题。
26. Virginia Woolf重要的意识流作家,主要作品要指导。书上主要介绍的是Mrs. Dalloway,其实她的其它几部作品特别是To the Lighthouse也比较出名,需要了解一下。
名词解释
Modernism is a general term applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental and avant-garde trends in literature of the early 20th century, including Symbolism, Futurism, Expressionism, Imagism, Vorticism, Dada, and Surrealism, along with the innovations of the unaffiliated writers. Modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base. It is a reaction against realism. It rejects rationalism which is the theoretical base of realism; it excludes from its major concern the external, objective, material world, which is the only creative source of realism; by advocating a free experimentation on new forms and new techniques in literary creation, it casts away almost all the traditional elements in literature such as story, plot, character, chronological narration, etc., which are essential to realism. As a result, the works created by the modernist writers can often be labeled as anti-novel, anti-poetry or anti-drama.
Stream-of-consciousness is one of the modern literary techniques, which is used to depict the mental and emotional reactions of characters to external events, rather than the events themselves. It adopts the psycho-analytic approach in literary creation to explore the existence of subconscious and unconscious elements in the mind more thoroughly and see more clearly how men are thrown into existence. As opposed to usages of conventional plot structure, description, and characterization,the action is presented in terms of images and attitudes within the mind of one or more figures, often to get at the psychic nature of the characters at a level distinct from that of their expression of ordered, verbalized thought. It was represented by James Joyce (Ulysses), Virginia Woolf (To the Light House, The Waves) and William Faulkner (The Sound and Fury).
Apostrophe顿呼法: A figure of speech in which an absent or a dead person, an abstract quality, or something nonhuman is addressed directly.
Critical Realism: The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the fouties and in the beginning of fifties. The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality. But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils.
Dramatic monologue: A kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to one or more listeners whose replies are not given in the poem. The occasion is usually a crucial one in the speaker’s personality as well as the incident that is the subject of the poem.
[1] Lake Poets n. English poets at the beginning of the 19th century who lived in the
Lake District and were inspired by it。 Lake Poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey have often been mentioned as the
[2] Romanticism : A term loosely applied to literary and artistic movements of the
late 18th and 19th cent. Romanticism was in effect a revolt of the English
imagination against the neoclassical reason, which prevailed from the days of Pope to those of Johnson. The Romantic Movement expressed a more or less negative attitude toward the existing social and political conditions that came with industrialization and the growing importance of the bourgeoisie. Romantics saw men essentially as an individual in the solitary state and emphasized the special qualities of each individual's mind. In essence it designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience. It also places the individual at the center of art, making literature most valuable as an expression of his or her unique feelings and
particular attitudes, and valuing its accuracy in portraying the individual's
experiences. The romantics extol the faculty of the imagination, write about nature and they get inspiration form nature, turn to the humble people and the common everyday life for subjects and turn to other times and places, where the qualities they valued would be convincingly depicted.
Rhyme The repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem.
Symbolism A literary movement in the late19th century, characterized by the use of symbols to represent things.
范文三:英国文学史及选读I
英国文学史及选读I Part II
History and anthology of English literature
Review: Beowulf is essentially an aristocratic poem concerned with the heroic ideal of kings and kingship in N. Europe. The social patterns described in the poem are rigidly feudal, highly violent. Battle is a way of life. Strength and courage are basic virtues for both kings and his warriors. The hero-king strives to do better than any one else the things that are vitally important to the happy life of his people. The king should protect his people and show gentleness and generosity to his warriors. And in return, his warriors should show absolute obedience and loyalty to the king. By praising Beowulf’s wisdom, strength and courage, and by glorifying his death for his people, the poem presents the heroic ideal of a king and his good relations to his warriors and people.
Old English Literature
Part II The Anglo-Norman Period 1066-1350
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Historical Background:
Middle English Literature sometimes it’s also called= Medieval English Literature
In 1066, at the battle of Hastings, the Normans headed by William, the energetic Duke of Normandy, defeated the Anglo-Saxons. The leader of Harold was killed, thus, William, the Conqueror, became the King of England.
The Normans were originally a hardy race of sea rovers inhabiting Scandinavia. In the 10th century, they conquered a part of northern French, which is still called Normandy, and rapidly adopted French civilization and the French language.
The Consequence of the Conquest:
1, Politically, a feudalist system was established.
2, Religiously, the Rome-backed Catholic Church had a much stronger control over the country. 3, Languages, after the conquest, 3 languages co-existed in England. Old English was spoken only by the common English people; French became the official language used by the King and the Norman lords; and Latin became the principal tongue of church affairs and was used by the clergymen and scholars in universities.
Three chief effects of the Conquest:
1, the bringing of Roman civilization to England;
2, the growth of nationality, i. e. a strong centralized government, instead of the loose union of Saxon tribes;
3, the new language and literature, which were proclaimed in Chaucer.
The Conquest opened up England to the whole European continent, so that with the introduction of the culture and literature of France, Italy and other European countries a fresh wave of Mediterranean civilization came into England.
The Literature:
Characteristic: The literature which they brought to England is remarkable for its bright, romantic tales of love and adventure, in marked contrast with the strength and somberness of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
This period covers about 4 centuries. In the early part of the period, i. e. from 1066 up to the mid-14th century, there’s not much to say about literature in English. It’s almost a barren period in literary creation. But in the second half of the 14th century, English literature starts to flourish with the appearance of writers like G. Chaucer, W. Langland, J. Gower, and others. Anglo-Saxon speech simplified itself by dropping of its Teutonic inflections, absorbed eventually a large part of the French vocabulary, and became the English language.
Therefore, English literature is also a combination of French and Saxon elements.
Comparison:
In comparison with the Old English Literature, 1)Middle English literature is uttered by more voices, deals with a wider range of subjects and is in a greater diversity of styles, tones and genres.
2) Popular folk literature also occupies and important place in this period. Its presentation of life is not only accurate but also in a lively and colorful way, though the originality of thought is often absent in the literary works of this period. 3) The Middle English literature strongly reflects the principles of the medieval Christian doctrine, which are primarily concerned with the issue of personal salvation. An emphasis has also been placed on the humanity of Christ and the imagery of human passion. Love has largely superseded fear, and explorations into undiscovered regions of the heart offer fresh possibilities for introspection.
Christian Orthodoxy: the life in this world is only a preparatory stage for eternal happiness, a period of suffering and repenting for man. By providing forbearance as the only answer for man’s troubles and considering the reformation of this world neither possible nor desirable.
We study:
A, Geoffrey’s History, which is valuable as a source book of literature, since it contains the native Celtic legends of Arthur;
B, the work of the French writers, who made the Arthurian legends popular;
C, Riming Chronicles, i. e. history in doggerel verse, like Laysmon’s brut;
D, Metrical Romances, or tales in verse.
The English Romance deals with 3 major subjects:
A, The “Matter of France”, a collection of tales centering about Chalemagne and his peers, chief of which is the Chanson de Roland; Chalemagne was a real person, the mighty ruler of France and
neighboring countries around 800 A. D. The French Kings claimed to be his heirs. Hence, the epics which told how he saved Christendom gave the French crown a special dignity. They were enjoyed by the warlike nobles who owed allegiance to it. But they were not so well suited to the taste of other countries, or to the fast-changing audience of the later 12th century.
B, The “Matter of Greece and Rome”, an endless series of fabulous tales about Alexander, and about the fall of Troy; it covered everything that had come down from the ancient Romans, and from the Greeks also. This included Roman history and poetry, which were preserved in ancient books copied out by the monks, it also included Greek mythology. Western Europe knew less about this, because most of the Greek manuscript were far away in the Balkans, Constantinople, and the Near East. But stories like the Trojan War and the Voyage of the Argonauts were fairly familiar. So were the pagan gods, under their Latin names, such as Jupiter and Venus.
C, The “Matter of Britain”, meant the legendary history of Britain, which was growing more and more popular after about 1150 as a rival source to the others. Here is where King Arthur came in. By far the best loved of the British legends were those that dealt with Arthur and his brave company of knights. To most foreigners who took any interest in such topics, medieval England was the land of King Arthur, and Arthur was what they were apt to think of when England was mentioned.
Medieval Romance:
Romance which uses narrative verse or prose to sing of knightly adventures or other heroic deeds is a popular literary form in the Middle Ages.
It has developed the characteristic medieval motifs of the quest, the forest, the garden, the test, the meeting with the evil giant and the encounter with the beautiful beloved. The hero is usually the knight, who sets out on a journey to accomplish some goal-to protect the church and the poor, to attack infidelity, to rescue a maiden, to meet a challenge, or to obey a knightly command; there is often a liberal use of the improbable, sometimes even supernatural, things in romance such as mysteries and fantasies; romantic love is an important part of the plot in romance; characterization is standardized, so that heroes, heroines and wicked stewards can be easily moved from one romance to another; the structure is loose and episodic; the language and style are simple and straightforward. The importance of romance itself can be seen as a means of showing medieval aristocratic men and women in relation to their idealized view of the world. If the epic reflects a heroic age, the romance reflects a chivalric one.
Many Arthurian romances, Chief of which are those of
Gawain
Launcelot
Merlin
The Quest of the Holy Grail
The Death of Arthur.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
It’s the most accomplished example of medieval romance and a poem of rich psychological and
moral interest. Its unknown author was Chaucer’s contemporary, but his alliterative verse form was old-fashioned even in his own day, and his dialect, that of Northwest England, is also very difficult for the modern readers. However, superficially the poem is an account of a typical chivalric adventure, and amalgam of a number of the best-known motifs of Arthurian romance-a challenge by a mysterious superhuman knight, a bargain which turns out to have unforeseen consequences, a lone quest, an attempted seduction of a Christian knight by a bewitching temptress. And the courtly romances are also married to archetypal folk myths and to religion.
The story: P 21 of the book of Mr. Wu Weiren’s book.
Canto 1: On New Year’s day, while Arthur and his knights are keeping the Yuletide feast at Camelot, a gigantic knight in green enters the banquet hall on horseback and challenges the bravest knight present to an exchange of blows; that is, he will expose his neck to a blow of his own big battle-ax, if any knight will agree to abide a blow in return. Gawain accepts the challenge, takes the battle-ax, and with one blow sends the giant’s head rolling through the hall. The Green Knight, evidently a terrible magician, picks up his head and mounts his horse. He holds out his head and the ghastly lips speak, warning Gawain to be faithful to his promise and to seek through the world till he finds the Green Chapel. There, on next New Year’s day, the Green Knight will meet him and return the blow.
Canto 2: Gawain’s long journey through the wilderness on his steed Gringolet, and his adventures with storm and cold, with wild beasts and monsters, as he seeks in vain for the Green Chapel. With the help of God, he finds the Green Chapel finally. He is welcomed by one host of one castle appearing in front of him, and settled down for a little while.
Canto 3: The life in the castle, a curious compact between him and the host, the host goes out to hunt in the day time, and he stays home, when the host comes back at night, the should exchange their winning in the day time. While the host goes hunting, the host’s wife, the young woman, tries to induce Gawain, but ends with a kiss to Gawain, so the first night and the second night, whatever Gawain gives back the host are the 2 kisses, but the third time, the woman gives him a ring first, but he refused, so she gives him a green girdle, he accepts it since it can protects its wearer not be wounding by any beat. He keeps this as secret. So when the host comes back, he concealed this secret.
Canto 4, In the Green Chapel, the Green Knight appears, and as promised, Gawain offers his neck for the blow. Twice the ax swings harmlessly, but the third time, it falls on his shoulder and wounds him. Then Green Knight explains the things, he’s the lord of the castle, the first two swings of the ax were harmless because Gawain had been true to his compact and twice returned the kiss. The last blow had wounded him because he concealed the gift of the green girdle, which belongs to the Green Knight and was woven by his wife. Moreover, the whole thing was arranged by Morgain the fay-woman (an enemy of Queen Guenevere, who appears often in the Arthurian romances). Full of shame, Gawain throws back the gift and is ready to atone for his deception, but the Green Knight things he has already atoned, and presents the green girdle as a free gift. Gawain returns to Arthur’s court, tells the whole story frankly, and ever after that the knights of the Round Table wear a green girdle in his honor.
Geoffrey of Monmouth: he won the heart of Europe, by launching the “Matter of Britain” and by putting King Arthur on the map as a figure of historic stature. 1134-1140, he wrote a book in Latin entitled “The History of the Kings of Britain” and offered the earliest full account of King Arthur whose popularity throughout the Middle Ages and beyond was enormous.
Just as Virgil had sought to glorify Rome by linking it with Troy through Aeneas, Geoffrey sought to exalt Britain by deriving its monarchs from a grandson of Aeneas, Brutus by name, who, together with a group of refugees from the fall of Troy, found his way to Britain and who, as its first king, named the island after him. After Brutus there is a long line of Kings descended from him. Among them are King Lud, founder of London, and King Arthur. Geoffrey also provided stories about King Lear, Cymbeline, Gorbaduc and others, which were later to inspire Shakespeare, Milton and other writers in their creation.
William Langland (1332?-1400?): he was probably born in Shropshire, but mostly lived in London. “Piers the Plowman”, bitterly satirizes corruption among the clergy and the secular authorities, and upholds the dignity and value of labor, it’s written in a style of imaginative vigour and clarity with strong alliterations. Describing a panorama of medieval society. Dream vision---searching for truth-that is, the love of God.
The Prologue describes how the poet fell asleep on a May morning by the side of the Malvern Hills, and beheld a lofty tower, with a dungeon in a dell beneath it, and between them a fair field full of folk. The tower is heaven, the dungeon is Hell, and the fair field is the field of the world, full of all manners of men, the needy and the rich.
The first vision portrays the reformation of secular society.
In the second vision, the moral improvement is already being corrupted. Piers Plowman himself emerges, an ordinary laboring man, he knows truth in the way Holy Church dexribed, through “Kynede knowynge”, Piers immediately sets the world to work and has backsliders punished by Hunger.
In one of the great moments of the poem, a pardon arrives for society; it states simply that those who do well will be saved, while those who sin will be damned.
The only salvation lies in the honest labor and the service of Christ.
In this poem, Langland presents a vivid picture of the life in feudal England by depicting the corruption of wealth, the inadequacies of the government, scoundrels and hypocrites of the clerical profession and lay authorities, and miseries and sufferings of the needy. Like Gower, he is a moralist who seeks to portray not only the world, but also the truth. His vision includes the social, moral and spiritual world.
“Piers the Plowman”, was coordinated by a pull of opposites: between the tower and the dungeon, Christ and anti-christ, good and bad shepherd. Social conduct is a dimension of spiritual conduct.
Verse form sets Langland apart from Chaucer and Gower.
John Gower (1330-1408?): he was a contemporary and a friend of Chaucer’s and shared many of Chaucer’s interests. He had great competence but small originality. He wrote his 3 chief works in different languages.
Speculum Meditantis or Mirour de l’omme (Mirror of Thought, 1376?), in French, is an allegory treating the nature of human beings, their sins and virtues, and their deliverance form sin.
Vox Clamantis ( Voice of Complaint, 1382?), written in Latin elegiac verse, describes Tyler’s Rebellion of 1381 and deals with the faults of the various classes of society.
Confessio Amantis (The Lover’s Confession, 1390?), Gower’s greatest and best-known work, is written in English.
………….
Sir Thomas Malory: end of 14th century, English prose.
Morte Darthur, the death of Arthur, but it describes not only the death of the King, but also his birth andlife, and the wonderful deeds of many of his knights, which are based mainly on earlier Arthurian material in French and English. Chivalric life. The excerpt is on the P34 of Mr. Zhang Boxiang’s book.
…………
Part III Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400)
范文四:《英国文学史及选读》
《英国文学史及选读》第一册复习要点
1. Beowulf: national epic of the English people; Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatements (此处可能会有填空,选择等小题)
2. Romance (名词解释)
3. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”: a famous roman about King Arthur’s story
4. Ballad(名词解释)
5. Character of Robin Hood
6. Geoffrey Chaucer: founder of English poetry; The Canterbury Tales (main contents; 124 stories planned, only 24 finished; written in Middle English; significance; form: heroic couplet)
7. Heroic couplet (名词解释)8. Renaissance(名词解释)9.Thomas More——Utopia
10. Sonnet(名词解释)11. Blank verse(名词解释)12. Edmund Spenser “The Faerie Queene”
13. Francis Bacon “essays” esp. “Of Studies”(推荐阅读,学习写正式语体的英文文章的好参照,本文用词正式优雅,多排比句和长句,语言造诣非常高,里面很多话都可以引用做格言警句,非常值得一读)
14. William Shakespeare四大悲剧比较重要,此外就是罗密欧与朱立叶了,这些剧的主题,背景,情节,人物形象都要熟悉,当然他最重要的是Hamlet这是肯定的。他的sonnet也很重要,最重要属sonnet18。(其戏剧中著名对白和几首有名的十四行诗可能会出选读)
15. John Milton 三大史诗非常重要,特别是Paradise Lost和Samson Agonistes。对于Paradise Lost需要知道它是blank verse写成的,故事情节来自Old Testament,另外要知道此书theme和Satan的形象。
16. John Bunyan——The Pilgrim’s Progress
17. Founder of the Metaphysical school——John Donne; features of the school: philosophical poems, complex rhythms and strange images.
18. Enlightenment(名词解释)
19. Neoclassicism(名词解释)
20. Richard Steele——“The Tatler”
21. Joseph Addison——“The Spectator”这个比上面那个要重要,注意这个报纸和我们今天的报纸不一样,它虚构了一系列的人物,以这些人物的口气来写报纸上刊登的散文,这一部分要仔细读。
22. Steel’s and Addison’s styles and their contributions
23. Alexander Pope: “Essay on Criticism”, “Essay on Man”, “The Rape of Lock”, “The Dunciad”; his workmanship (features) and limitations
24. Jonathan Swift: “Gulliver’s Travels”此书非常重要,要知道具体内容,就是Gulliver游历过的四个地方的英文名称,和每个部分具体的讽刺对象; (我们主要讲了三个地方) “A Modest Proposal”比较重要,要注意作者用的irony也就是反讽手法。
25. The rise and growth of the realistic novel is the most prominent achievement of 18th century English literature.
26. Daniel Defoe: “Robinson Crusoe”, “Moll Flanders”, 当然是Robinson Crusoe比较重要,剧情要清楚, Robinson Crusoe的形象和故事中蕴涵的早期黑奴的原形,以及殖民主义的萌芽。另外注意Defoe的style和feature,另外Defoe是forerunner of English realistic novel。
27. Samuel Richardson——“Pamela” (first epistolary novel), “Clarissa Harlowe”, “Sir Charles Grandison”
28. Henry Fielding: “Joseph Andrews”, “Jonathan Wild”, “Tom Jones”第一个和第三个比较重要,需要仔细看。他是一个比较重要的作家,另外Fielding也被称为father of the English novel.
29. Laurence Sterne——“Tristram Shandy”项狄传
30. Richard Sheridan——“The School for Scandal”
31. Oliver Goldsmith——“The Traveller”(poem), “The Deserted Village” (poem) (both two poems were written by heroic couplet), “The Vicar of Wakefield” (novel), “The Good-Natured Man” (comedy), “She stoops to Conquer” (comedy), “The Citizen of the World” (collection of essays)
32. Sentimentalism(名词解释)
33. Thomas Gray——“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”(英国诗歌里非常著名的一首,曾经被誉为“有史以来英国诗歌里最好的一首”)(a representative of sentimentalism and graveyard school of poets墓园派诗人)
* Graveyard School / Poets”: A term applied to eighteenth-century poets who wrote meditative poems, usually set in a graveyard, on the theme of human mortality, in moods which range from elegiac pensiveness to profound gloom. The vogue resulted in one of the most widely known English poems, Thomas Gray’s “Elegy written in a country churchyard”. The writing of graveyard poems spread from England to Continental literature in the second part of the century and also influenced some American poets.
34. In the latter half of the 18th century, Pre-Romanticism; representative: William Blake and Robert Burns.
35. Thomas Percy——“Reliques of Ancient English poetry”许多中古的民谣都是在这个时期重新收集和整理起来的,这个集子是那个时代比较有名的一个民谣集。
36. William Blake比较重要,需要对主要作品有所了解,特别是Songs of Innocence 和 Songs of Experience, 这两本集子的contrast一定要注意,另外Blake的写作特点也要注意,比如语言的简单明了,神秘主义氛围等。
37. Robert Burns伟大的苏格兰民族诗人, A Red Red Rose, Scots Wha Hae, Auld Lang Syne等名诗,写作特点: Scottish dialect; a poet of peasant and Scottish people; plain language; influence from Scottish folk songs and ballads; musical quality of his poems.
《英国文学史及选读》第二册练习题
I. 浪漫主义时期
I. Each of the statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the brackets.
1. English Romanticism is generally said to have begun with_____in 1798.
A. the publication of Lyrical Ballads
B. the death of Sir Scott
C. the birth of William Wordsworth
D. the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament
2. The Romantic Period is first of all an age of_____.
A. Novel B. poetry C. drama D. prose
3. Romanticism does not emphasize_____.
A. the special qualities of each individual’s mind
B. the inner world of the human spirit
C. individuality
D. the features that men have in common
4._____ is not a Romantic poet.
A. William Blake B. Sir Scott C. P. B. Shelley D. Lord Byron
5. _____ is a Romantic novelist but is impressed with neo-classic strains.
A. Walter Scott B. Mary Shelley
C. Jane Austen D. Ann Radcliff
6. _____ is not characteristic of William Blake’s writing.
A. plain and direct language B. compression of meaning
C. supernatural quality D. symbolism
7. Wordsworth published Lyrical Ballads in 1789 with _____.
A. Byron B. Coleridge C. Shelley D. Keats
8. Wordsworth thinks that _____ is the only subject of literary interest.
A. the life of rising bourgeoisie
B. aristocratic life
C. the life of the royal family
D. common life
9. Don Juan is the masterpiece of_____.
A. Lord Byron’s B. P. B. Shelley’s
C. John Keats’s D. Samuel Coleridge’s
10. _____ is not a novel written by Jane Austen.
A. Jane Eyre B. Sense and Sensibility
C. Pride and Prejudice D. Emma
II. Complete each of the following statements with a proper word or a phrase according to the textbook.
1. In essence, Romanticism designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the_____as the very center of all life and all experience.
2. For the Romantics, _____ is not only the major source of poetic imagery, but also provides the dominant subject matter.
3. Wordsworth is regarded as a “worshipper of _____.”
4. According to the subjects, Wordsworth’s short poems can be classified into two groups: poems about nature and poems about _____.
5. Coleridge’s achievement as poet can be divided into two remarkably diverse groups: _____ and the conversational.
6. As a leading Romanticist, Byron’s chief contribution is his creation of the “_____.”
7. “_____” is Shelley’s representative work.
8. _____ are generally regarded as Keats’s most important and mature work.
9. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” is a famous line in Keats’s “_____.”
10. _____is the most delightful of Jane Austen’s work.
III. Decide whether the following statements are true or false and write your answers in the brackets.
( )1. The Romantic period is also a great age of prose.
( )2. Romantics also tend to be nationalistic, defending their own literary heritage against the advocates of classical rules.
( )3. Coleridge has been rewarded as Poet Laureate.
( )4. Keats is one of the “Lake Poets.”
( )5. Jane Austen is a typical Romantic writer.
IV. Name the author of each of the following literary work.
1. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
2. Songs of Innocence
3. “Ode to a Nightingale”
4. “A Song: Men of England”
5. The Prelude
V. Define the literary terms listed below
1. Romanticism
2. Ode
VI. For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly interpret it.
1….Be through my lips to unawakened Earth.
The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind,
If winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
2. For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Keys:
I. 1.A 2.B 3.D 4.B 5.C 6.C 7.B 8.D 9.A 10.A
II.1.individual 2. human life 3.nature 4.human life
5.the demonic 6.Byronic hero 7. Ode to the West Wind
8. The odes 9. Ode on a Grecian Urn 10. Pride and Prejudice
III. 1.T 2.T 3.F 4.F 5.F
IV. 1.Coleridge 2. Blake 3. Keats 4. Shelley 5. Wordsworth
V. 1. Romanticism is a movement that flourished in literature, philosophy, music and art in western culture during most of the nineteenth century, beginning as a revolt against classicism. There have been many varieties of Romanticism in many different times and places. The leading features of Romantic movements are Wordsworth, Shelley, etc.
2. Ode is a complex and often lengthy lyric poem, written in a dignified formal style on some lofty or serious subject. Odes are often written for a special occasion, to honour a person or a season or to commemorate an event.
VI. 1. It is taken from Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind. In this poem, Shelley eulogizes the powerful west wind and expresses his eagerness to enjoy the boundless freedom from the reality. In these last lines, the poet shows his optimistic spirit for the future.
2. It is taken from Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” The poet thinks that it is a bliss to recollect the beauty of nature in his mind while he is in solitude. He expresses his strong affecting for nature in the poem.
II.维多利亚时期
I. Each of the statement below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the brackets
1. The Victorian period roughly began at the enthronement of Queen Victoria in_____.
A. 1835 B. 1836 C. 1837 D. 1838
2. The critical realists like Charles Dickens in the Victorian period wrote novels_____.
A. representing the 18th century realist novel
B. criticizing the society
C. defending the mass
E. all the above
3. _____is not a Victoria novelist.
A. Charles Dickens
B. George Eliot
C. William Makepeace Thackeray
D. D. H. Lawrence
4. _____ is not a work by Charles Dickens.
A. Oliver Twist B. David Copperfield
C. Middlemarch D. A Tale of Two Cities
5. Wuthering Heights is a masterpiece written by_____.
A. Charlotte Bronte B. Emily Bronte
C. Anne Bronte D. Branwell Bronte
6. _____ is not Thomas Hardy’s work.
A. The Mill on the Floss
B. Tess of the D’Urbervilles
C. Jude the Obscure
D. The Mayor of Casterbridge
7. “My Last Duchess” is _____.
A. a dramatic monologue B. a short lyric
C. a novel D. an essay
8. Tennyson’s “Ulysses” gets its inspiration from the following works or writers except_____.
A. Homer’s Odessey B. Joyce’s Ulysses
C. Dante D. Greek Mythology
9. In the 19th century English literature, a new literary trend _____ appeared. And it flourished in the 1840s and in the early 1950s.
A. romanticism B. naturalism
C. realism D. critical realism
10. The title of the novel Vanity Fair was taken from_____.
A. The Pilgrim’s Progress
B. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
C. Gulliver’s Travels
D. The Canterbury Tales
II. Complete each of the following statements with a proper word or a phrase according to the textbook
1. The aestheticists such as Oscar Wilde in the Victorian period advocated the theory of “_____.”
2. In the Victorian period, _____became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of progressive thought.
3. Charles Dickens is one of the greatest _____ writers of the Victorian Age.
4. Tennyson’s poem “_____” is in memory of his bosom friend Arthur Hallam.
5. Robert Browning is famous for his _____.
6. George Eliot’s _____ is one of the most mature works in English literature.
7. Tennyson’s famous dramatic monologue based on the story in Greek Mythology is “_____.”
8. _____ is Dickens’ first child hero.
9. Jane Eyre represents those_____-class working women who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being.
10. The most important poet of the Victorian Age was_____. Next to him were Robert Browning and his wife.
III. Decide whether the following statements are true of false and write your answers in the brackets.
( )1. The Victorian period has been generally regarded as one of the most glorious in the English history.
( )2. Tennyson is famous for his aesthetic viewpoint of “art for art’s sake.”
( )3. Wuthering Heights is the masterpiece of Charlotte Bronte’s.
( ) 4. Browning’s “Meeting at Night” and “Parting at Morning” were originally one poem in dramatic monologue.
( )5. Naturalism has played an important part in Thomas Hardy’s work.
IV. Name the author of each of the following literary works.
1. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
2. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
3. In Memoriam
4. The Mill on the Floss
5. The Return of the Native
V. Define the literary terms listed below.
1. Dramatic Monologue
2. Critical Realism
VI. For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly interpret it.
1. That same evening the gentleman in the white waistcoat most positively and decidedly affirmed, not only that Oliver would be hung, but that he would be drawn and quartered into the bargain. Mr. Bumble shoot his head with gloomy mystery, and said he wished he might come to good; where—unto Mr. Gamfield replied, that he wished he might come to him---which, although he agreed with the beadle in most matters, would seem to be a wish of a totally opposite description.
The next morning, the public were once more informed that Oliver Twist was again To Let, and that five pounds would be paid to anybody who would take possession of him.
2. Thus, neither having the clue to the other’s secret, they were respectively puzzled at what each revealed, and awaited new knowledge of each other’s character and moods without attempting to pry into each other’s history.
Every day, every hour, brought to him one more little stroke of her nature, and to her one more of his. Tess was trying to lead a repressed life, but she little divined the strength of her own vitality.
Keys:
I. 1.B 2.D 3.D 4.C 5.B 6.A 7.A 8.B 9.D 10.A
II. 1. art for art’s sake 2. the novel
3. critical realist 4. Break, Break, Break
5. dramatic monologue 6. Middlemarch
7. Ulysses 8. Oliver Twist
9. middle 10. Tennyson
III. 1. T 2. F 3. F 4. F 5. T
IV. 1. Charles Dickens 2. Anne Bronte
3. Alfred Tennyson 4. George Eliot
5. Thomas Hardy
V. 1. Dramatic Monologue is a kind of narrative poem in which one character speaks to one or more listeners whose replies are not given in the poem. The occasion is usually a crucial one In the speaker’s personality as well as the incident that is the subjects of the poem. An example of a dramatic monologue is “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning.
2. Critical Realism is a literary movement in the 19th century. It sticks to the principal of faithful representation of the 18th century realistic novel and carries its duty forward to the criticism of the society and the defense of the mass. The representative figures are Dickens, the Bronte’s, etc.
VI. 1. It is taken from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist. This part describes how Oliver is punished for asking for more to eat and how he is therefore sold at three pound ten to a notorious chimney-sweeper. It reveals that the pitiable state of the orphan boy and the cruelty and hypocrisy of the workhouse board.
2. It is taken from Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. This part describes how Tess forgets about her past misfortune in the beautiful, pastoral dairy farm and unconsciously gives herself up to the attraction of Angel Clare.
III. 现代时期
I. Each of the statement below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the brackets
1. Modernism takes_____as its theoretical base.
A. the irrational philosophy B. the theory of psycho-analysis
C. both A and B D. neither A nor B
2. Modernism rose out of_____.
A. skepticism B. disillusion of capitalism
C. irrational philosophy D. al the above
3. Modernism is, in many aspects, a reaction against_____.
A .romanticism B. realism
C. post-modernism D. all the above
4. _____is not a movement in the modern period.
A. “the Angry Young Men” B. “the Beat Generation”
C. “the Lost Generation” D. “the Theater of the Absurd”
5. _____ is not a representative figure in applying the technique of “the stream of consciousness” in his/her writing.
A. D. H. Lawrence B. James Joyce
C. Virginia Woolf D. Dorothy Richardson
6. Waiting for Godot is regarded as the most famous and influential play of the Theater of Absurd. It is written by_____.
A. George Bernard Shaw B. Samuel Beckett
C. John Galsworthy D. Eugene O’ Neill
7. The Waste Land is_____’s most important single poem.
A. Ezra Pound B. William Butler Yeats
C. Alfred Tennyson D. T. S. Eliot
8. _____ is not D. H. Lawrence’s work.
A. Finnegans Wake B. Sons and Lovers
C. Lady Chatterley’s Lover D. The Rain Bow
9. _____ is not James Joyce’s novel.
A. Ulysses B. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
C. Dubliners D. Finnegans Wake
10. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is written by_____.
A. W. H. Auden B. D. H. Lawrence
C. W. B. Yeats D. T. S. Eliot
II. Complete each of the following statements with a proper word or a phrase according to the textbook
1.The French_____, appearing in the late 19th century, heralded modernism.
2. Modernism rejects_____, which is the theoretical base of realism.
3.In stimulating the technical innovations of novel creation, the theory of the Freudian and Jungian_____played a particularly important role.
4.Most of Bernard Shaw’s plays are concerned with political, economic, moral, or religious problems, and, thus, can be termed as_____.
5._____is famous for his frank discussion of “sex” in his works.
6.John Galsworthy’s trilogy is named_____.
7._____, an American Poet, took English Citizenship in 1927, and became a devout member of Anglican Church.
8._____is Eliot’s most important poetry, revealing the spiritual decadency and meaninglessness of life of the 20th century.
9.Most of Joyce’s works are concerning the life of his hometown_____.
10.Joyce’s “Araby” is a short story in his collection_____.
III. Decide whether the following statements are true of false and write your answers in the brackets.
( )1. The rise of modern poetry was, in some sense, a revolution against the conventional ideas and forms of the Romantic poetry.
( )2.Writers like E. M. Forster and D. H. Lawrence are still conventional writers, as in their works, old traditions are still there.
( )3.John Galsworthy has been awarded Nobel Prize for literature.
( )4.John Galsworthy is a conventional writer, inheriting the fine traditions of the great Victorian novelists of the critical realism such as Dickens.
( )5.James Joyce is a prolific writer, creating a great number of famous works.
IV. Name the author of each of the following literary works.
1. Modernism
2. Angry Young Men
V. Define the literary terms listed below.
1. Pygmalion
2. “Sailing to Byzantium”
3. Woman in Love
4. Ulysses
5. The Man of Property
VI. For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly interpret it.
1. I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
2. Now she began to combat in his restless fretting. He still kept up his connexion with Miriam, could neither break free nor go the whole length of engagement. And this indecision seemed to bleed him of his energy. Moreover. His mother suspected him of an unrecognized leaning towards Clara, and, since the latter was a married woman, she wished he would fall in love with one of the girls in a better station of life. But he was stupid, and would refuse to love or even to admire a girl much, just because she was his social superior.
Keys:
I. 1.C 2.D 3.B 4.C 5.A 6.B 7.D 8.A 9.C 10.D
II. 1. Symbolism 2. rationalism 3. psycho-analysis
4. problem plays 5. D. H. Lawrence 6. The Forsyte Saga
7. T. S. Eliot 8. The Waste Land 9. Dublin
10. Dubliners
III. 1.F 2.F 3.F 4.T 5.F
IV. 1.Modernism is a movement in the 20th century. It takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base and in many aspects is a reaction against realism.
2. Angry Young Men is a phrase applied to a number of British playwrights and novelists from the mid-1950s, who described various forms of social alienation and whose political views were radical and anarchic.
V. 1. Bernard Shaw 2. W. B. Yeats 3. D. H. Lawrence
4. James Joyce 5. John Galsworthy
VI. 1. It is taken from Yeats’s “The lake Isle of Innisfree.” In this poem, Yeats expresses his longing to escape from the city life and to live a secluded life by describing the peaceful, tranquil scene of the lake Isle of Innisfree, a legendary place for hermitage.
2. It is taken from D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. Paul has love affairs with two girls, Miriam and Clara. But he is so dependent on his mother’s love and help that he fails to achieve a fulfilling relationship with either girl.
English Literature ( Book II)
Romanticis
1.Romanticism(名词解释)要对浪漫主义兴起的时间,根源,主要特点,主要代表作家都有所了解。
2.William Wordsworth要知道他的 “Lyrical Ballads”前言是英国浪漫主义时期开始的标志,也是宣言。Lake Poets(名词解释)。他诗歌的主要两类题材:nature and common people’s lives。
写过的著名作品:I wandered lonely as a cloud; To the cuckoo; Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey; The solitary reaper; We are seven 等等。
3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge两首名诗:The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Kubla Khan主要写作supernatural题材。
4. George Gordon Byron,Byronic Heroes (名词解释); 著名作品:Child Harold’s Pilgrimage要知道大致内容,另外此诗用Spenserian Stanza写成;Don Juan要知道大致内容。
5. Percy Bysshe Shelley著名作品:Queen Mab; The Revolt of Islam; Prometheus Unbound(lyrical drama,要知道大致内容及此剧与古希腊的“被束缚的普罗米修斯”不同之处及其意义。)其它名作: Ode to the West Wind; To a skylark等等。
6. John Keats著名作品:Ode to Autumn; Ode to a Nightingale; Ode on a Grecian Urn”。注意Keats与Byron和Shelley的不同,Keats的诗歌没有两人那么强的革命性,他的诗歌主要是为了缔造一个唯美的世界,为了追求美而写作的。
7. Charles Lamb:The Essays of Elia (humorous, archaisms, quotations from other writers)
8. Walter Scott: founder and great master of the historical novel; his death marks the ending of Romantic Period in English literature; famous novels: Rob Roy, Ivanhoe; features of his novels.
English Critical Realism
9. Critical Realism批判现实主义,要知道它兴起的时间,历史背景,主要代表人物及主要特点。
10. Charles Dickens主要作品: The Pickwick Papers (first novel); Oliver Twist; Dombey and Son; David Copperfield; A Tales of Two Cities等等,对这些主要作品除了第一部以外剩下的要对情节,主要人物形象,主题及其意义有所了解,另外要知道狄更斯的小说的特色。
11. William Makepeace Thackeray主要作品即Vanity Fair要知道这个题目出自John Bunyan的The Pilgrim’s Progress,另外小说的副标题 “A novel without a hero”的意思,小说的情节,主题,人物形象都要了解。
12. Jane Austen主要作品:Pride and Prejudice其它5部小说知道名字即可,对于《傲慢与偏见》简单看一下它的情节和主要人物。Austen的写作特点:thin plot, mostly everyday life of simple country society; good at writing young girls; modest satire; witty dialogues。
13. Charlotte Bronte主要作品Jane Eyre,要知道其情节和意义,另外简爱的人物形象也比较重要。
14. Emily Bronte主要作品Wuthering Heights,情节,人物形象及意义。勃朗特姐妹的小说虽然写作在批判现实主义时期,但其作品有明显的浪漫主义特色,比如包含的一些supernatural elements,特别体现在呼啸山庄中。
15. George Eliot主要作品: Adam Bede, The Mill on Floss.
Prose-writers and poets of the mid and later 19th century
16. Alfred Tennyson主要作品: In Memoriam, The Idylls of the Kings;有名的短诗Break, Break, Break; Crossing the bar等,此人政治态度保守,作品追求形式上的完美,富于音乐性和色彩。
17. Robert Browning introduced dramatic monologue to poetry. His famous poems: “Home-thoughts from abroad” etc. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “Sonnets from the Portuguese”.
18. Aestheticism唯美主义(名词解释)Oscar Wilde主要作品,写作特点及其意义简要了解。
Twentieth Century English Literature
19. John Galsworthy: 主要作品 “The Forsyte Saga”注意这是两个trilogy构成的,可不是一本小说,其中比较重要的是 “The Man of Property”就是书上介绍的那一部,要知道此部小说主人公的名字,以及这个主人公的性格,和小说主题。
20. George Bernard Shaw主要作品Mrs Warren’s Profession和Major Babara,对他作品的主要人物,情节,主题和意义要了解,他是比较重要的一个作家。
21. T. S. Eliot比较重要,特别是他的The Waste Land要知道包括哪几个部分,大概是什么情节,有什么象征意义,主题是什么,有什么写作特点。另外他著名的文章Tradition and the Individual Talent被认为是manifesto of modernist poetry.
22. Modernist fiction put emphasis on the description of the characters’ psychological activities under the influence of Austrian doctor Sigmund Freud’s theories.
23. D. H. Lawrence重点作品Sons and Lovers这个作品明显受到弗洛伊德影响,特别是其中体现的Oedipus complex,对其人物,主题要有了解;The Rainbow及其续篇Women in Love要有简单了解,特别是对其主题。Lady Chatterley’s Lover简单了解即可。劳伦斯的思想特点以及局限性要了解。
24. Stream-of-consciousness(名词解释)
25. James Joyce其它作品简单了解,但Ulysses非常重要,需要知道题目来源,题目的含义,小说的主人公和情节,以及主题。
26. Virginia Woolf重要的意识流作家,主要作品要指导。书上主要介绍的是Mrs. Dalloway,其实她的其它几部作品特别是To the Lighthouse也比较出名,需要了解一下。
范文五:英国文学史及选读模拟1
济南大学继续教育学院 2016年学位主干课程考试 《 英国文学史 》模拟题(一)
(本试题满分 100分,时间 90分钟)
I. Multiple choices: Choose the ONE answer that is the most suitable to the sentence. (20%) () 1.________is Byron's masterpiece, a great comic epic of the early 19th century.
A. “ She walk s in Beauty” B. “ Childe Harold’ s Pilgrimage”
C. “ Don Juan” D. “ The Corsair”
( ) 2.
A. Thomas HardyB. James JoyceC. Joseph ConradD. T.S.Eliot
( ) 3. _________ achieved fame after the publication of poem----.“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”. A. Wordsworth B. Joyce C. George Eliot D. John Galsworthy ( ) 4. John Milton's
A. EnglishB. ItalianC. RussianD. Chinese
( ) 5. In
A. TomB. BlifilC. Mr. AllworthyD. Sophia
( ) 6. John Keats' famous poem______expresses the contrast between the happy world of natural loveliness and human world of agony.
A.
( ) 7.
______since Shakespeare.
A. tragedyB. proseC. comedyD. fable
( ) 8.The story of
A. in a series of lettersB. in the third-person narrationC. by Tom JonesD. in the form of diary
( ) 9. The title _______was borrowed by Thackeray from “ The Pilgrim’ s Progress” by Bunyan.
A. “ Sons and Lovers” B. “ Jane Eyre” C. “ Adam Bede” D. “ Vanity Fair”
( ) 10. Shelley’ s greatest achievement is his four-act poetic drama,_______________.
A. “ Prometheus Unbound” B. “The Necessity of Atheism”
C. “Ode to the West Wind” D. “Queen Mab”
( ) 11.“ The Solitary Reaper” . This poet written by _________of eighteenth century
A. Wordsworth B. Byron C. Shelley D. Keats
( ) 12. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” ---that is all . This poet is from _________written by Keats. A. “ Ode to a Nightingale” B. “ Ode to psyche”
C. “ Ode to Autumn” D. “ Ode on a Grecian Urn”
( )13. In
A. Vanity FairB. Doubting CastleC. Celestial CityD. hell
( ) 14. Which of the following novels by Dickens shows his pessimism?
A. “ The Old Curiosity Shop” B. “David Copperfield”
C. “ Oliver Twist” D. “ Great Expectations”
( ) 15.Hardy ’ s first masterpiece is ______________.
A. “Idylls of the King” B. “ Far Form the Madding Crowd”
C. “ Tess of the D''Urbervilles” D. “ In Memoriam”
( ) 16.The outstanding realistic novelists of early 20th century were _______, H. G. Wells, and Arnold Bennett.
A. Lawrence B. Joyce C. George Eliot D. John Galsworthy
( ) 17. _________
A. Shelley’ s B. Keats’ C. Wordsworth’ s D. Vi rginia Woolf’s
( )18. “Ode to a Nightingale” symbolized for _______ a lasting beauty which lured him temporarily away from his great misery into an exquisite desire to the forest with the bird.
A. Byron B. Keats C. Wordsworth D. Shelley
( ) 19. The term “metaphysical poetry” is commonly used to name the work of the ______ century writers who wrote under the influence of ______.
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A. 16th…Edmund Spenser B. 17th…John Donne
C. 18th…Thomas Gray D. 20th…John Ransom
( ) 20.Which of the following novels by D. H. Lawrence shows the influence of Freud's theory of psychoanalysis, especially that of the
A.
II. True & False statements. (20%)
( ) 1. Chancer's contribution to English poetry lies chiefly in the fact he introduced from France the rhymed stanza in Iambic meter to English poetry.
( ) 2. Hamlet, the great tragedy of Shakespeare, with perfect artistry, studies the profound question of
( ) 3. Bacon was the founder of modern science & also famous for his
( ) 4. Spenser's
( ) 5. Defoe is the author of Robinson Crusoe, which is a scientific and fantastic work.
( ) 6.To the Lighthouseis divided into three sections: “The Window,” “Time Passes,” and “The Lighthouse.”
( ) 7. Joyce is regarded as the most prominent stream-of-consciousness novelist, A Portrait of Artist as a Young Man is Joyce's first novel.
( )8. George Eliot , pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans, was born on Nov. 22, 1819 into an estate agent’s family in Warwickshire, England.
( ) 9. Wordsworth uses his poetry to look at the relationship between nature and love. ( ) 10. “Ode to the West Wind” praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature.
( ) 11. Shelley is among the world's greatest lyric poets. He is the most wonderful lyric poet England has ever produced.
( )12. In Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and many other languages, the words for wind, breath, soul, and inspiration are all identical or related. ( )13. The realistic novels in the early 19th century were the continuation of the Victorian tradition, yet its exposing and criticizing power against capitalist evils had been somewhat weakened both in width and depth.
( ) 14. Charlotte ’ s first novel Jane Eyre was rejected by the publisher. But her second one, The
Professor , won immediate success when it appeared in 1847.
( )15. “ The Isles of Greece, ” is taken from Canto II, which is sung by a Greek singer at the wedding of Don Juan & Haidee, the pure & beautiful daughter of a pirate.
( ) 16.Tom Jones is the masterpiece of Henry Fielding & it offers a panoramic picture of 18th century England with the life of people in London, in the countryside & on the open road.
( ) 17.Robert Burns is a peasant poet & is famous for his songs written in the Scottish dialect on a variety of subjects.
( ) 18. W. B. Yeats was a poet and dramatist, who was born in Ireland.
( ) 19. Thomas Hardy was only a novelist, who didn't write any poem at all.
( ) 20. John Galsworthy was one of the most prominent of the 20th century English realistic writers.
III. Name the Writers who wrote the following passages. (10%)
( ) 1. Imitation here will not to do the business.
The picture must be after Nature herself.
11. ( )2. Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? --- a machine without feelings? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you – and as much heart!
( ( ) 3. Farewell my friend ! farewell my foes !
My peace with these, my love with those:
The bursting tears my heart declare-----
Farewell the bonnie banks of Ayr!
.( ( )4. In poverty, hunger and dirt;
And still with a vcice of dolorous pitch
She sang the “ Song of the Shirt!”
( ( )5. Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed
( ) 6. “ studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.”
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( ) 7. I love all that thou lovest
Spirit of Delight !
The fresh earth in new leaves dressed
And the stary night
( ) 8. Can honor set to a leg? no, or an arm? No:...what is honor? A word, what is that word,
honor?
( ) 9. ...What though the field be lost?
All is not lost; the unconquerable will
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield...
( ) 10. What man art thou, quoth he,
That lookest as thou wouldst find a hare;
For ever on the ground I see thee stare.
IV. For items 1 to 14 , write down the name of the book from which the character(s) is taken;
while for 15 to 20, give the name of the writer. (20%)
1. Mr. Gamfield , 2. Elizabeth Bennet, 3. Dalloway 4.Mr. Rochester 5. Heathcliff & Catherine 6. Angel Clare7. Paul 8. Amelia Sedley 9. Stephen Dedalus 10. Juan
11. Bassanio, Antonio 12. Friday13. Lilliputians14. Sophia 15. The Return of the
Native 16. Ullysses 17. The Portrait of a Lady 18. Prometheus Unbound 19. Waste
Land 20. Women in Love
V . Explain the following terms briefly and mention some representative authors or literary
works for each of them.(30%)
1. Critical Realism
2. Romanticism
3. Realism in the 20th century English literature
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