1. Lecture Four
British Literature

2. Timeline British literature can be roughly divided into 7 periods.
1. Early and Medieval Literature
2. Literature of Renaissance Period
3. Literature of Revolution and Restoration Period
4. Literature of the 18th century
5. Literature of Romantic Period
6. Literature of Critical Realism
7. Literature of the 20th Century
We will go over the major works in the first six periods.

3. Types of Literature 1. Narrative Fiction 2. Drama 3. Poetry
4. Non-fiction Prose

4. Narrative Fiction Short stories Novels Myths Parables 寓言故事 Romances
Epics 叙事史诗

5. Drama
Tragedy
Comedy
Farce 滑稽剧

6. Poetry Sonnet Lyric 抒情诗 Pastoral 田园诗 Ballad 叙事诗 Song Ode 颂诗
Dramatic Monologue

7. I. Early and Medieval Literature
British literature began with the Anglo- Saxon settlement in England.
Focus:
The national epic (primitive literature)
The Romance Cycles (feudalist literature)
Folk literature
Chaucer’s literary works
Cycle: a series of songs, stories, plays, or poems composed around a particular theme, and intended to be performed or read in sequence

8. I. National Epic-Beowulf
A long poem of 3000 lines;
Telling a story about an ancient hero Beowulf’s fight against a lake monster, his mother and a fire dragon;
Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts.

9. I. Beowulf (2)
The outstanding features of the poem is its use of alliteration, understatement and metaphor.
-Alliteration 押头韵
“Thus made their mourning the men of Geatland,
For their hero’s passing, his hearth-companions
quoth that of all the kings of earth,
Of men he was the mildest and most beloved,
To his kin the kindest, keenest to praise.”
-Understatement
not troublesome (very welcome); need not praise (condemn)
-Metaphor
swan’s bath (sea); sea-wood (ship)

10. I. The Romance
Romance: a long composition in verse or prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero
Theme of romance: a knight riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournaments, or fighting for his lord in battle
Emphasizes the loyalty to king and lord

11. I. The Romance (2) Romance Cycles
The great majority of Romances mainly fall into 3 cycles.
1.The matters of Britain:
About King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table
2.The matters of France:
About Emperor Charlemagne and his peers
3.The matters of Rome:
About Alexander the Great
Of these three cycles, the matters of Britain is the most important one, and the culminations of its is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Romances are literature for the feudalist ruling class, and they had nothing to do with the common people.

12. King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table 　　　Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

13. I. Folk Literature
Literature of the lower class in the feudalist society includes written folk literature and oral folk literature.
As for the written folk literature, the most important writer is William Langland, whose masterpiece is Piers the Plowman.
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14. I. Folk Literature (2)
With an oral tradition, popular ballads usually deals with a single episode and their beginning is often abrupt, without any introduction to the characters and background information.
The themes of ballads are various in kind.
And among the ballads published, the Robin Hood ballads are of special significance.
Robin Hood, the famous outlaw welcomed by the poor was a half-historical and half-legendary hero. He and his men lived in the forest, fighting with the oppressors and protecting the poor and the oppressed.
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15. I. Geoffrey Chaucer ( )

16. I. Chaucer (2) Founder of English literature
The greatest English poet of the Middle Ages
Founder of English realism
A crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of vernacular, Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary language were French and Latin
Introduced “heroic couplet” 英雄双韵体 (rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic meter (aabbccddeeff…) to English poetry, which used the alliterative verse

17. I. Chaucer (3) The Canterbury Tales
A collection of stories written in Middle English
The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims on their trip to Canterbury.
It paints an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, particularly the church.

18. II. Literature of Renaissance Period
The word “Renaissance” means revival of interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture, specifically between the 14th and mid 17th century.
Renaissance, in essence, was a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of feudalist ideology in Europe and introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, to lift the restrictions in all areas placed by the Roman catholic church.

19. II. Renaissance (2)
Humanism is both the keynote of the Renaissance and the intellectual liberation movement. Humanists took interest in human life and human activities and gave expression to the new feeling of admiration for human beauty, human achievements and human reason and passion.
The English Renaissance was an exciting time for literature which experienced a burst of ideas and literary brilliance.

20. II. The Renaissance (3)
In order to appreciate literature in the Renaissance period, it is necessary to grasp some key words for this period:
The most important ones are humanism and revival of the interest in the ancient Greek and Roman literature.
Besides these two words, which can be applied to all the works by all the renaissance writers, there are also some key words that can be used in analyzing some individual writers.
Emphasis on the importance of national unity.
The importance of ideal kingship.
The importance of legal succession to the throne.
The issue of witchcraft and racial prejudice.
The close study of human nature, esp. human weakness.
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21. II. The Renaissance (4)
Thomas More (1477～1535), scholar, thinker and statesman, was the leading humanist of his day. Among his writings the best known is Utopia (1516)
The work tells of a journey to an imagined island name Utopia, where an ideal form of society exists.
Its title comes from the Greek word meaning “nowhere” and was adopted by More as the name of his ideal commonwealth.
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22. II. The Renaissance (5)
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552～1559) was the most influential poet and the dominating literary intellect in the late 16th century in England. The Shepherd's Calendar (1597), a poem in the traditional pastoral form and his first important work, established his poetic reputation.
The union of line and meter in the poem is more harmonious, more supple, and richer than that in the works of Chaucer.
His sonnet Amoretti is one of the most famous sonnet sequences of the Elizabethan Age.
In his masterpiece The Faerie Queene, Spenser devised a verse form called the Spenserian Stanza, which consists of eight ten-syllable lines, plus a ninth line of 12 syllables, an iambic rhythm and a rhyme scheme as follows: abab bcbc c.
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23. II. The Renaissance (6)
Politician, philosopher and essayist, Francis Bacon (1561～1626) showed his great intellectual energy in his day.
His major works are The Advancement of Learning and New Instrument.
While being the founder of English materialist philosophy and the founder of modern science in England, he is also the first great English essayist.
In 1597 Francis Bacon published his first collection of essays, which made popular in English a literary form widely practiced afterward. It is the most informal and casual of his works, the Essays, that is read most often.
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24. II. The Renaissance (7)
Based on the miracle play, the morality play, the interlude and the classical drama, drama flourished in this age more than any other form of literature.
Christopher Marlowe (1564～1595) was the greatest of the pioneers of English drama.
His importance is due to the energy with which he endowed the blank verse line (unrhymed iambic pentameter), which in his hands developed an unprecedented suppleness and power.
His plays have great intensity, but sometimes they show a genius which is epic rather than dramatic—at least in Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus which are his acknowledged masterpieces.
The final scene of Doctor Faustus is one of the most intensely dramatic in English literature. It shows his musical handling and control of the ten-syllable line.
Marlowe's works paved the route for the greatest dramatist— William Shakespeare—whose accomplishments were the monument of the English Renaissance and whose works gave the fullest expression to humanist ideals.
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25. II. The Renaissance (8) William Shakespeare (1)
William Shakespeare (1564～1616), a great poet and dramatist of the English Renaissance period, is surely one of the greatest writers the western world has ever produced.
The facts concerning Shakespeare's life are scarce; nevertheless there are many records left in the works of his contemporaries and later biographers that help us to restore his image.
William Shakespeare was born probably on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. As a child William was sent to the local grammar school that he had attended for six years. He studied Latin and Greek and read widely the books current in his day. When Shakespeare was fourteen, his father fell into debt, and the boy probably left school and became a country schoolmaster to help support his family.
In 1582, William Shakespeare, then eighteen, was married to Anne Hathaway, eight years of his elder. Six months later, Susanna was born; in 1585, their twins, Hamnet and Judith, were baptized.
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26. II. The Renaissance (9) William Shakespeare (2)
Shakespeare arrived in London in the year 1586 or At that time drama was rapidly gaining popularity among the people.
Shakespeare worked both as actor and playwright. He established himself so well as a playwright that Robert Greene, one of the “University Wits” resentfully declared him to be “an upstart crow. ” However, during the period in London, he became an acclaimed actor and established playwright.
Shakespeare retired from the stage and returned to Stratford in He died on April 23,1616, the 52nd anniversary of his birthday.
William Shakespeare produced 37 plays, 2 narrative poems and 154 sonnets.
His plays can be divided into four types: historical plays, comedies, tragedies and romantic tragi-comedies. His major dramas may fall into three periods.
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27. II. The Renaissance (10) William Shakespeare (3)
The first period (1590～1600)
Henry VI (1590～91)
Richard III (1592～93)
The Comedy of Errors (1592)
Titus Andronicus (1593)
The Taming of the Shrew (1593～94)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594)
Love's Labor's Lost (1594)
Romeo and Juliet (1595)
Richard II (1595～96)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595～96)
King John (1596～97)
The Merchant of Venice (1596～97)
Henry IV, Part I (1597)
Henry IV, Part II (1597)
Much Ado about Nothing (1598～99)
Henry V (1598～99)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1598～1601)
Julius Caesar (1599)
As You Like It (1599～1600)
Twelfth Night (1599～1600)
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28. II. The Renaissance (11) William Shakespeare (4)
The second period (1601～1608)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1600～01)
Troilus and Cressida (1602)
All's Well That Ends Well (1604)
Measure for Measure (1604～05)
Othello, the Moore of Venice (1604～05)
King Lear (1605～06)
Macbeth (1606)
Antony and Cleopatra (1607)
Coriolanus (1607)
Timon of Athens (1605～08)
Pericles (1608)
The third period (1609～1612)
Cymbeline (1609～10)
The Winter's Tale (1610～11)
The Tempest (1611～12)
Henry VIII (1613)
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29. II. The Renaissance (12) William Shakespeare (5)
The Merchant of Venice:
It deals with the conflict between the rising bourgeois and the feudalist money lender.
It praises true love and friendship and attacks greed and selfishness.
It also reveals the prevailing prejudice against the jew.
It shows the rising bourgeoisie’s confidence in winning the future.
Hamlet:
It praises humanists as represented by Hamlet. He is the scholar, a soldier and a statesman.
It shows the inevitable problems faced by the humanists.
Hamlet’s delay of action is due to his awareness of the possible national disaster which will be brought about by his personal revenge and his sense of responsibility to put the interests of his nation and his people before his own.
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30. II. The Renaissance (12) William Shakespeare (5)
Othello:
A tragedy of human weakness, esp. envy.
A tragedy caused by hypocrisy and selfishness.
The issue of racial prejudice against the black.
Macbeth:
A tragedy of human weakness, esp. ambition.
Importance of legal succession to the throne, which has great significance in keeping national unity.
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31. III. Literature of the Revolution and Restoration Period
John Milton
Paradise Lost-Great epic since Beowulf
A long epic in 12 books written in blank verse (无韵叙事诗）
The story were taken from the Old Testament and was about the Fallen of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden

32. Paradise Lost Theme: Characterization
A revolt against God’s authority
Characterization
Satan is the real hero of this epic
Firm, courageous, persistent
Prefers independence to happy servility

33. IV. Literature of the 18th century
Background:
The Enlightenment in Europe (an expression of struggle of bourgeoisie against feudalism)
Focus
Jonathan Swift
Daniel Defoe

34. Jonathan Swift ( )

35. Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels

36. Gulliver’s Travels
Story: Gulliver’s self description of his fantastic visits to some unbelievable places
The story consists of four parts
Voyage to Lilliput
Voyage to Brobdingnag
Voyage to Liputa
Voyage to Houyhnhnms
Theme
A satirical view of the state of European government
An inquiry into whether men are inherently corrupt or whether they become corrupted

37. Daniel Defoe ( )

38. Daniel Defoe Earliest proponent of novels
One of the founders of English novels
Author of Robinson Crusoe

39. Robinson Crusoe
The famous story of Robinson Crusoe can be divided into three parts:
Robinson’s youth and the time up to his shipwreck;
his twenty-eight years on an uninhabited island;
his lie and adventures after being rescued from the island.
Published in 1719, Defoe places his story in the 17th century in England, north Africa, Brazil, an island off the coast of Venezuela and back to Europe.

40. Robinson Crusoe (2) Part 1:
Robinson wishes to pursue his livelihood by going to sea against the advice of his father. He does so and after a false start has some success but a third voyage ends in slavery. He eventually escapes and is helped to Brazil where he becomes a successful plantation owner. He embarks on a slave-gathering expedition to West Africa but is shipwrecked off the coast of Venezuela in a terrible storm.

41. Robinson Crusoe (3) Part 2:
The bulk of the novel attends to Robinson’s life on the island —how he accomplishes his survival and even establishes his "kingdom"; how he moves from a frantic state of discontent to one of resignation and contentment; how he meets Friday and, finally, how he leaves the island.

42. Robinson Crusoe (4) Part 3:
Though anticlimactic, the third part of the novel traces Robinson’s securing of wealth through the honesty and loyalty of friends, his return to England, travels through the continent and a last trip to his island to see how those he left there fared.

43. Robinson Crusoe (5)
The character of Robinson Crusoe is representative of the English bourgeoisie at the earliest stages of its development. He is most practical and exact, always religious and at the same time mindful of his own profits.

44. Daniel Defoe Defoe is an anti-romantic, anti-feudal realistic writer.
His stories are all real concerns of his time: people in their struggle to overcome the natural or social environment.
Defoe adopted the autobiographical form and made use of his long trained journalistic skill by describing things in great detail and by using specific time and space
His style is characterized by a plain, smooth, direct, and almost colloquial but never coarse language

45. V. Literature of Romantic Period
Romanticism refers to a literary movement characterized by
The idealization of nature
Freedom of thought and expression
Heavy reliance on the imagination and subjectivity
Romantic period: the first third of the 19th century
Focus:
William Wordsworth
George Gordon Byron
Percy Shelley

46. V. William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
One of the most accomplished and influential of England’s romantic poets
One of the Lake Poets (together with Robert Southey and Coleridge)
Poet laureate
He set forth his principles of poetry in the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads 抒情歌谣集 that “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling”, which contrasted with the classicists who made reason, order and the old, classical traditions the criteria in their poetical creations.
He endeavored to bring his language near to the real language of men.

47. William Wordsworth (2)
A radical democrat in the early days, attracted to slogans of liberty, equality and fraternity.
A conservative in politics and religion in his later years
Being strong against the industrialization, thinking it caused miseries and destroyed country life
He changed the course of English poetry by using ordinary speech of the language and by advocating return to nature

48. George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
His poetry conveys the essence of the romantic movement in literature.

49. Byron Don Juan A satiric poem
Purpose: to present a panoramic view of different types of society
Subjects
Love, war, religion, ethics, politics, etc.
Theme
Appearance vs. reality
Natural man vs. hypocritical society

50. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
One of the most influential leaders of Romantic Movement
Living by a radically nonconformist code

51. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Shelley, with a triumphant praise of the imagination, highly excelled the role of poetry, thinking that poetry alone could free man and offer the mind a wider view of its powers. Poetry “is a more direct representation of the actions and passions of our internal being”. It is through language that the imagination most readily apprehends the ideal order of truth.

52. Prometheus Unbound by Shelley
A four-act play
Story: torments of the Greek mythological figure Prometheus and his suffering at the hands of Zeus;
It differed from the Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound in that there was no reconciliation between Prometheus and Zeus. Instead, Zeus was overthrown and Prometheus was released.

53. VI. English Critical Realism
It flourished in the forties and the early fifties of 19th century
The critical realists described with much vividness of the English society and criticized the capitalistic system from a democratic viewpoint
Great use of humor and satire
Chief tendency is not of revolution but rather of reformism with happy endings or important compromises in the end

54. English Critical Realism
Contribution to the literary form is the perfection of the novel.
The works of this period not only pictured the conflicts between separate individuals who stood for definite social strata, but also showed the broad social conflicts over and above the mere individuals.

55. Jane Austen (1775-1817) Major works Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
Northanger Abbey
Mansfield Park
Emma

56. Jane Austin Stories of middle-class women in search of husbands
Known for fine writing, subtle characterization and controlled studies of manners

57. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) A master of story-teller
A master of character-portrayal
He is best at child character portrayal
He is good at description of horrible and grotesque figures
A master of humor and pathos

58. Charles Dickens Major works:
Pickwick Papers- “the supreme epic of English life” in early 19th-century England
Oliver Twist- calling forth the reader’s sympathy for the down-trodden people of the lower classes
David Copperfield-an autobiographical book
Hard Times-a fierce attack on the bourgeois system of education and ethnics and utilitarianism

59. William Thackeray ( )
A representative of critical realism in 19th century England

60. Vanity Fair by Thackeray
Subtitle “A novel without a hero”, emphasizing the writer’s intention not to portray individuals, but the bourgeois and aristocratic society as a whole
It describes the life of the ruling classes in the early decades of the 19th century, and attacks the social relationship of the bourgeois world by satirizing the individuals in the different strata of the upper society

61. The Bronte Sisters Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)
Emily (Jane) Bronte ( )
Anne Bronte ( )
Major works
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
Wuthering Height by Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

62. Thomas Hardy ( )
One of the representatives of English critical realism at the turn of the 19th century

63. Thomas Hardy (2)
Best known for his Wessex Novels, i.e., the novels describing the characters and environment of his native countryside.
Major novels:
Under the Greeenwood Tree
Far from the Madding Crowd
The Return of the Native
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Jude the Obscure

64. Thomas Hardy (3) Tess from the D’urberville Theme: “Ache of modernism”
Sexual double standard

65. VII. 20th Century Literature

66. Thank you!