作者：蒲若茜 肖淳端 董秋芳 编著
出版社：暨南大学出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
英国文学选读试读：
Preface and Acknowledgement
As an important branch of world literature, British literature has undergone over a millennium of history, yielding a great number of distinguished writers and internationally admired classics. With the aim of assisting Chinese college students to acquire an overview of such extraordinary diversity and vitality of this body of work within a semester's time, my collection is sorted by genre, including four most important genres in literature: poetry, drama, novel and essay.
In each chapter, key features of the genre together with its historical development are provided, representative writers for each genre and their masterpieces are discussed. In order to make this collection concise and convenient, selection was made from those British writers and works that are of historical or contemporary importance and influence. Moreover, academic comments on the selected authors are intended to give a conventional view of the importance and distinctive features of these authors and their analyzed works. My purpose is to gives tudents a quick guide as well as a good start for further reading and research.
It has taken me about 10 years to prepare this collection, and tremendous efforts have been made on there vision of it, during which many parts have been amended or rewritten. I owe acknowledgement and appreciation to the following individuals, all of them are my postgraduate students or Ph. D candidates:
First of all，I own thanks to my former postgraduate students，Ms. Chang Hailan（常海兰），Ms. Chen Kangni（陈康妮），Ms. Gao Jingting （高婧婷），Ms. Li Huifang（李卉芳），Ms. Lin Xi（林茜），Ms. Ma Xiaoyuan （马晓园），Ms. Qin Jiaxi（秦佳曦）and Ms. Shao Chunfa（邵春发）. They contributed in collecting and typing the selected readings and submitted parts of the preliminary draft based on an outline I designed. Without their efforts the subsequent work would have been impossible.
Secondly，I would like to give my sincere appreciation to my Ph. D students，Ms. Xiao Chunduan（肖淳端），associate professor from Jinan University，and Ms. Dong Qiufang （董秋芳），assistant professor from Guangdong AIB Polytechnic College. They are the co-editors and both of them have devoted much time and effort to the numerous revisions of this collection. Without their contributions，this book would not be in its present form.
Last, but not the least, I should give credit to Dr. Thomas Moran, the foreign expert who has been working in Jinan University for such a long time that he regards Jinan as his real home. Tom has proofread the whole book and helped in revising the final draft until the very last minute.
Though we have tried our best, defects and mistakes are unavoidable. For the blunders that may have escaped their scrutiny, I alone am responsible.Pu Ruoqian（蒲若茜）Jinan University
Chapter One: Poetry
1.1 England's National Epic: Beowulf
An epic or a heroic poem generally refers to a long verse narrative on a serious subject. It is usually told in a formal style, on a heroic or quasi-divine figure whose actions have decisive impacts on the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race. A national epic is a long narrative poem which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation.
As the greatest and the oldest known heroic poem written in Old English, Beowulf has been regarded as the national epic of England. It is the first major poem in a European vernacular language, telling about a hero's triumphs as a young warrior and his fated death as a defender of his people. The poem is remarkable for its sustained grandeur of tone and for the brilliance of its style.[1]First page of Beowulf
Beowulf is a heroic poem consisting of 3,182 alliterative long lines and was composed sometime between the mid-seventh and 10th centuries. It is often referred to as the first important work of English literature and the greatest of all epics by the Germanic people. But who wrote Beowulf is a question that has mystified experts for centuries. It is generally believed that much of the poem had been in circulation in an oral narrative for many years before its manuscript version.
While the poem itself is English in language and origin, Beowulf deals not with native Englishmen, but with their Germanic forebears, especially with two south Scandinavian tribes, the Danes and the Geats, who lived on the Danish island of Zealand and in the Southern Sweden respectively. As the early Anglo-Saxons were the descendants of Germanic tribes that invaded Britain in the 5th century, there were a lot of shared cultural background between the Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, and the Anglo-Saxons looked back to their relatives across the sea to tell stories about their own past. So Beowulf is not just a story told in one place (Britain) about another (Scandinavia)—it is also told in one time about an earlier time. In history, there is no evidence of a real hero as Beowulf, but some of the characters, sites and events in this poem can be historically verified.Selected Reading
Beowulf tells of two major events in the life of the Geatish hero Beowulf. In his youth, he fights and kills Grendel, a monster who has been attacking Heorot, the hall of the Danish king Hroegar, and then he kills Grendel's mother who comes the next night to avenge her son; fifty years later, Beowulf, who has for a long time been the king of the Geats, fights with a dragon who attacks his people. In the combat both Beowulf and the dragon are mortally wounded. Beowulf closes with the king's funeral and a lament for the dead hero.[2]Beowulf is challenged by a Danish coast guard.
Though it is composed in the English vernacular, the language has changed so much that modern readers will find it difficult to understand.
The excerpt below comes with a contemporary verse translation. The original is a stanza that comes near the end of the poem. Beowulf, now an old king who has ruled the Geats for fifty years, must fight with a fierce flying dragon that guards a treasure hoard and terrorizes the region. These lines tell the history of the treasure: it is the accumulated wealth of a tribe of warriors which has perished. The last survivor of the tribe carries the treasure to the barrow where his people are buried and speaks these words on the transience of earthly things. This excerpt is believed to be the famous part of this national epic.Beowulf[3]［The Last Survivor's Speech］Questions for Discussion1. Why is the code of ethics between warrior and king so important to the Anglo-Saxon society? How does it reflect in Beowulf?2. Beowulf is set in a male-dominated world full of violence and danger. What role does patriarchal history play in the world? What is the role of women in the heroic culture of Beowulf?
1.2 Introduction to the Ballad
The popular ballad is a form of anony-mous narrative song, [4]"transmitted orally, which tells a story". Typically, the popular ballad is condensed and impersonal: the narrator begins with a dramatic or exciting episode, and tells the story tersely in actions and dialogues (sometimes by means of dialogues alone) without self-reference or personal feelings.[5]Traditional Ballad
Though the ballad is a form which is still written, "popular ballad" in most literatures belongs to the early periods before written literature was highly developed. "The origins of the popular (or folk) ballad are much disputed. The theory that they were first composed by communal effort, taking shape as the songs with which primitive people [6]accompanied ritual dances, no longer seems plausible".
The English ballads probably came into being during the five-hundred-year period since 1200. "'Judas', which exists in a thirteenth-[7]century manuscript, is the oldest English ballad preserved in writing". However, having been passed down mainly by oral tradition since the Middle Ages, the ballads do not have any known author or a correct version. They remained an oral tradition until the increased interest in folk songs in the 18th century led collectors to publish volumes of popular ballads. Thomas Percy, Irish Anglican Bishop (1729-1811) created a new interest in ballads and their connection to folk poetry. They had long been ignored within literary circles. With his collection of ballads, Percy has been acknowledged to have inspired countless other English Romantic poets even as ballads themselves were losing popularity.
Ballads were originally songs which told a story. Traditional ballads are rhymed verse usually dedicated to sharing something about life with common folk who were otherwise illiterate. With subjects that were tragic, comedy, or heroic, simple people were informed about their culture. Also, they must not only tell a story in verse but also lend themselves to being sung, so the narrative and style must be simple enough to be followed at a hearing."The simplicity of the tunes to which they were sung not only influenced the distinctive verse form—normally a quatrain with four stresses per line—but also encouraged a corresponding simplicity in the narrative itself, and made [8]individualizing flourishes impossible". Another common feature of ballads is the choral practice of using refrains and other kinds of repetition, sometimes of the fourth lines in succeeding stanzas, as a refrain, sometimes of the third and fourth lines of a stanza and sometimes of the entire stanzas.Selected Reading
The great collection of English ballads is that of F. J. Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "a collection of over 300 [9]traditional songs from England and Scotland". It was published between 1882 and 1898 by Houghton Mifflin in ten volumes and later was reissued in a five-volume edition."Robin Hood and the Three Squires" is one of the most famous stories in the collection. The excerpt below is in the second version in the Child Ballad 140 collections. It is a narrative poem about one of Robin Hood's most famous exploits that he uses a disguise to trick his enemies.[10]Robin Hood statue in Nottingham
Robin Hood, while on his way to Nottingham, meets an old woman who is weeping for three squires condemned to die that day, not for serious crimes, but for killing the king's deer. He then meets an old palmer, who confirms the bad news. He changes clothes with the palmer who at first takes the proposal as a mock. After he disguises himself as the palmer, Robin Hood enters Nottingham to offer his service as the hangman and asks the sheriff what he will give to his old fellow. The sheriff offers suits and pence; Robin says, hangmen be cursed, he will never take to that business. He has a horn in his pocket which will blow the sheriff little good; the sheriff bids him blow his horn. The first blast brings a hundred and fifty of Robin's men; the second brings three score more. They free their own men and hang the sheriff.[11]Robin Hood and the Three SquiresQuestions for Discussion1. Why do you think Robin Hood treats the old woman, the palmer and the sheriff differently?2. What functions does a dialogue play in ballads? Use this text to illustrate your views.
1.3 Geoffrey Chaucer
(1343-1400)Life and WorksGeoffrey Chaucer, known as the father of English poetry, is widely considered as the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. The life of Chaucer is better documented than that of many a later writer. This is due to the fact that he entered service in one of the royal households at an early age and remained in public service for the rest of his life. His various duties and travels, together with the payments and gifts made to him, are therefore well documented in public records. Chaucer is not only considered as an author, scholar, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, but he also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat.[12]Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer was born in the early 1340s, most probably in London. His father and grandfather were both vintners and several previous generations had been merchants in Ipswich. His family name derives from the "Old French chaucier…signified rather 'a hosier' than [13]'a shoemaker'". Chaucer's father, originally a wine merchant, became tremendously wealthy who later increased his fortune through the inheritance of several properties. He was therefore able to send the young Chaucer off as a page to the Countess of Ulster, which meant that Chaucer was not required to follow his ancestors' footsteps and become a merchant. Eventually, Chaucer began to serve Prince Lionel, son of King Edward Ⅲ. In 1359, in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War, Edward Ⅲ invaded France and Chaucer accompanied with Prince Lionel, as part of the English army. Chaucer took part in the war with France before he was twenty, and in 1367 he worked for the king both as a soldier and a diplomat since his knowledge of languages (he knew Italian as well as French and Latin) was among the skills which singled him out for diplomatic missions to Spain in 1366 and to Italy in 1372-1373 and 1378."Chaucer's career has traditionally been divided into three distinct periods—the French (1355-1370), the Italian (1370-1385), and the English (1385-1400)—on the basis of the styles he was imitating and the writers he was [14]reading". Throughout his career, Chaucer continually demonstrated that he was a very well-read man; his writing indicateds that he is familiar with Vergil, Ovid, Boethius, Petrach, Dante, and Boccaccio. He steadily developed his artistic skills and intellectual stature.
Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is his most popular work. His original plan for The Canterbury Tales was to write about one hundred and twenty stories, two for each pilgrim to tell on the way to Canterbury and two more on the way back. However, Chaucer actually completed only twenty-two, though two more exist in fragments. The extraordinary variety of The Canterbury Tales as well as its large number might well have demanded Chaucer's full energy and attention during the last fourteen years of his life.A woodcut from William Caxton's second edition of The Canterbury Tales printed in [15]1483
Before Chaucer, there was no collection of tales within the framework of pilgrims on a pilgrimage. But it is obvious that Chaucer borrowed a large portion of his stories from earlier ones. In his time storytelling was a popular entertainment and storytelling contests had been in existence for a thousand years.
You will discover that the tales have many themes such as love at the King's Court, betrayal, greed and corruption of the church. The tales are interconnected and some reply to others. It is a rich source of material for historians as it is an introduction to the everyday lives of the English during the late Middle Ages.
The stories are told by 30 pilgrims,travelers,as they get to know each other on the road to Canterbury, England. Chaucer never finished the project so scholars are uncertain about the proper order of the stories. Nevertheless,a few of the tales are grouped together as the pilgrims telling them are engaged in a quarrel. The Friar (holy man) tells a tale of summoner treachery (a summoner is someone the medieval church hired to call people before the court). The Summoner replies with a scandalous tale about a friar. Several tales deal with the problem of happiness in married life (the Marriage Group). The tales also include lessons on morality, human struggles, and comedy. Most are vulgar and surprisingly sexually explicit.
One of the reasons Chaucer is so important is that he decided to write in English."In or around 1378, Chaucer began to develop his vision of an English poetry that would be linguistically accessible to all—obedient neither to the court, whose official language was French, [16]nor to the Church, whose official language was Latin." Chaucer wrote in the language that people in England actually spoke, which is called vernacular. It actually was a bold decision.
While Chaucer was upper-class, a well-educated person, he chose to write The Canterbury Tales in the common language of his country so that that more people would understand. Chaucer showed the beauty of English as a literary language, together with his humor. The Canterbury Tales was Chaucer's most popular work. Although written before the printing press, and none of his own writing has survived, many 15th-century copied manuscripts can be read. The civility of his poetry and his related wisdom about life resulted in many critics referring to him as the "father of English poetry".
This legendary English poet Geoffrey Chaucer died on October 25,1400 of unknown causes in London, England. He was 60 years old. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey. His tombstone became the center of what was to be called Poet's Corner.Selected Reading
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories mostly written in verse although some are in prose. In addition to describing the characters, the General Prologue makes clear the plan of the framework. The opening scene of the General Prologue is set in the Tabard Inn "beside the Bell" at Southwark on the south side of the River Thames opposite London; the date, to judge from subsequent astronomical allusions, is mid-April, 1387, and the innkeeper's name, we later learn, is Harry Bailly. The narrator joins up with a group of people numbering "a good nine-and-twenty" at the Tabard Inn, who are to ride as pilgrims the sixty miles of much-traveled road to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The narrator gives a descriptive account of twenty-seven of these pilgrims, including the ideal Knight, who has fought against the pagans in all the great battles of the last half-century; his son the Squire, a lover of any love poems; the Prioress without a vocation but with the dogs and jewelry; the hunting Monk and flattering Friar, chief targets of medieval satirists; the too-busy and too-rich lawyer; the prosperous Franklin; the fraudulent Doctor; the Wife—or Archwife—of Bath; the austere Parson; the flamboyant hypocrite, the Pardoner etc. The Host (the Innkeeper) suggests that the group ride together and entertain one another with stories. He decides that each pilgrim will tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. Whomever he judges to be the best storyteller will receive a free meal at the tavern on their return. The pilgrims draw lots and determine that the Knight will tell the first tale.The Canterbury Tales[17]The General PrologueQuestions for Discussion1. What is the function of time and seasons in the tales?2. Chaucer chose to write in English at a time when educated people wrote in Latin or French. Think about why Chaucer made such a decision.
1.4 Introduction to the Sonnet
The Sonnet is a lyric form consisting of a single stanza of fourteen iambic pentameter lines with an intricate rhyme scheme. It originated and developed in thirteenth-century Italy. The fourteenth-century Italian poet, Francis Petrarch (1304-1374), had a great influence on English sonneteers and his sonnets were largely imitated by English poets, both in the stanza form and the subject. Two hundred years after his death, "the rhyme scheme of the Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet is organized into an octave (the first eight lines) and a sestet (the last six): usually it rhymes abbaabba cedced, but the sestet often has [18]variations".
One of the best-known sonnet writers in English is William Shakespeare and his sequence of 154 sonnets (not including those in his plays) is much richer than those of his contemporaries. The form of the Shakespearean (or English) sonnets is that of the Elizabethan variation of the Italian which consists of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter, in which a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is repeated five times. The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is three quatrains with alternate rhymes abab cdcd efef and a rhyming couplet gg. Another sonnet form is called the Spenserian sonnet. It was first used by Edmund Spencer and has a rhyme abab bebe cdcd ee.
The standard subject of the sonnet used to be love. In John Donne's time, he shifted the subject to a variety of religious themes in his Holy Sonnets, written early in the seventeenth century; and Milton later expanded the range of the sonnet to other matters of serious
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