英国文学资料

1) The only organic whole poem to come out of the Anglo-Saxon period. 2) epic(史诗).

3) The story takes place in Scandinavia, there is no mention of England.

2.The middle English period中世纪文学

1) Popular folk literature 2) Romance

代表作：《Sir Gawain and the Green Knight》

3.The English Renaissance文艺复兴时期文学

1) Poetry 2) Drama 3) Prose

代表作：Thomas More《Utopia》;

William Shakespeare是文艺复兴时期最杰出的作家《A Midsummer Night’s Dream》;《The Merchant of Venice》;《Romeo and Juliet》;《Hamlet》..... 4.The Age of Enlightenment1) The metaphysical poets 2) The Cavalier poets

代表作：John Milton《Paradise Lost》and《Paradise Regained》

十七世纪文学

5.Neoclassicism新古典主义文学

1) Poetry 2) Novel 3) Drama

代表作：Jonathan Swift《Gulliver’s Travels》

6.Pre-Romanticism前浪漫主义

1) Poetry

代表作：Robert Burns《A Red, Red Rose》;William Wordsworth《the Lyrical Ballads》

7.The romantic movement浪漫主义运动

From the latter part of the eighteenth century to the present day, art and literature and philosophy, and even politics, have been influenced, positively or negatively, by a way of feeling which was characteristic of what, in a large sense, may be called the romantic movement. 代表作：George Gordon Byron《Don Juan》[小说]

Percy Bysshe Shelley《Ode to the West Wind》[poet and critic]

8.Critical realism批判现实主义

1) Novels

代表作：Charles Dickens《A tale of Two cities》、《Oliver Twist》;

9.The Roman conquest

British recorded history began with Roman invasion. First landing in 55 B.C. Led by Julius Caesar Complete control over the land in 43 A.D. Leaving in around 410 A.D.

10.The English conquest 11.The Norman conquest

1) The year 1066: Norman Conquest.

2) The social situations soon after the conquest. A. Norman nobles and serfs; B. restoration of the church.

12.The church reformation 13.The bourgeois revolution 14.The Glorious revolution 15.The industrial revolution 16.The French revolution

回答问题

1.What makes the poet think that\"thou\"can be more beautiful than summer and immortal in \"Sonnte 18\"?

A：On the one hand,\"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too short a date;\"on the other hand,\"Sometime too hot the heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimmed.\"So from the above two aspects the poet thinks that \"thou\" can be more beautiful than summer.Compared with immortal, \"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.\" So in this case, \"thou\" in the poem can be regarded as female because love can beauty eternal. Or \"thou\" can be referred to male, for friendship can make beauty everlasting.

2.What are the most striking qualities of Robinson Crusoe’s character?

A：First of all, he is adventurous. Unlike common people, Robinson is eager to take adventures. So he is brave under most circumstances and curious about new things. Even when he was left in a deserted island, he was not afraid of what he was confronted with.

3.How the narrator in”A Red,Red Rose”express his love?

A：To use many figures of speeches: simile,hyperbole, repetition. 1) Simile: He comparing his love to a red rose and a piece of melody.

2) Hyperbole:In the last line of the stanza, he presents his love to his girl with

hyperbole.

3) Repetition: The poet addresses his girl as a red red rose for many times.

4.What do you think of the title of “She Walks in Beauty”? How do you understand the comparison between the woman and the night.

A：1)a.”She walks in beauty” is the theme of the poem, the poet used the

enumeration of certain qualities that he considered to give her beauty to describe his cousin—a young lady.

b.The word ”walk” gives a connotation of advancing, not only in space, but

also in time.

2)The poem used images of light and darkness interacting to describe the

lady’s personality and looks: She wore a black dress. She was quiet like night with a peaceful mind, and that was the inner beauty of her.

5.Comment on this sentence: ”Justice’ was done, and the President of the immortals( in Aeschylean phrase) had ended his sport with Tess”. In what sense is Tess’ story tragic?

A：1)Tess is a typical victim of the society. Poverty of the family, inhumanity, injustice and hypocrisy of the society decide her tragedy.

The two men— the one who takes away her virginity and purity, the other who takes away her love but deserts her on the very weding night—join their forces in bringing about her final destruction.

Hers is a personal tragedy; it can also be a social one.

2)The tragic fate of Tess and her family was not an individual one, but it was symbolic of the disintegration of the English peasantry--- a process which had reached its final and tragic stage at the end of 19th century.

6.The excerpted part of Pygmalion shows that Eliza, the flower girl, now is admired by people for her way of speaking. What do you think of this? Do you think that learning a language can change a person?

A：1) I don’t believe that the admiration from people at party for Eliza is true. It is not based on their own experiences and feelings, but based on the shallow views from others. It revealed the shallowness and hypocrisy of the upper class at that time.

2)自行补充

7.What is the significance of the title of “Araby”? Is anything gained by the boy through his frustration and humiliation?

A：1)Araby is a splendid bazaar where Mangan’s sister recommended the boy to

go. In his imagination before he went to there, Araby was “An Eastern enchantment” in which his “soul luxuriates”.

2) He at least realized that the true life is not as perfect as what he thought to be.