第一篇：精简英国文学教案Week9
Week9 目的：了解雪莱的生平和代表作
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792, into a wealthy Sussex family which eventually attained minor noble rank--the poet's grandfather, a wealthy businessman, received a baronetcy in 1806.Timothy Shelley, the poet's father, was a member of Parliament and a country gentleman.The young Shelley entered Eton, a prestigious school for boys, at the age of twelve.While he was there, he discovered the works of a philosopher named William Godwin, which he consumed passionately and in which he became a fervent believer;the young man wholeheartedly embraced the ideals of liberty and equality espoused by the French Revolution, and devoted his considerable passion and persuasive power to convincing others of the rightness of his beliefs.Entering Oxford in 1810, Shelley was expelled the following spring for his part in authoring a pamphlet entitled The Necessity of Atheism--atheism being an outrageous idea in religiously conservative nineteenth-century England.At the age of nineteen, Shelley eloped with Harriet Westbrook, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a tavern keeper, whom he married despite his inherent dislike for the tavern.Not long after, he made the personal acquaintance of William Godwin in London, and promptly fell in love with Godwin's daughter Mary Wollstonecraft, whom he was eventually able to marry, and who is now remembered primarily as the author of Frankenstein.In 1816, the Shelleys traveled to Switzerland to meet Lord Byron, the most famous, celebrated, and controversial poet of the era;the two men became close friends.After a time, they formed a circle of English expatriates in Pisa, traveling throughout Italy;during this time Shelley wrote most of his finest lyric poetry, including the immortal “Ode to the West Wind” and “To a Skylark.” In 1822, Shelley drowned while sailing in a storm off the Italian coast.He was not yet thirty years old.Shelley died when he was twenty-nine, Byron when he was thirty-six, and Keats when he was only twenty-six years old.To an extent, the intensity of feeling emphasized by Romanticism meant that the movement was always associated with youth, and because Byron, Keats, and Shelley died young(and never had the opportunity to sink into conservatism and complacency as Wordsworth did), they have attained iconic status as the representative tragic Romantic artists.Shelley's life and his poetry certainly support such an understanding, but it is important not to indulge in stereotypes to the extent that they obscure a poet's individual character.Shelley's joy, his magnanimity, his faith in humanity, and his optimism are unique among the Romantics;his expression of those feelings makes him one of the early nineteenth century's most significant writers in English.1．“Ozymandias” Summary
The speaker recalls having met a traveler “from an antique land,” who told him a story about the ruins of a statue in the desert of his native country.Two vast legs of stone stand without a body, and near them a massive, crumbling stone head lies “half sunk” in the sand.The traveler told the speaker that the frown and “sneer of cold command” on the statue's face indicate that the sculptor understood well the passions of the statue's subject, a man who sneered with contempt for those weaker than himself, yet fed his people because of something in his heart(“The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed”).On the pedestal of the statue appear the words: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” But around the decaying ruin of the statue, nothing remains, only the “lone and level sands,” which stretch out around it, far away.Form : It is a sonnet, a fourteen-line poem metered in iambic pentameter.The rhyme scheme is ABABACDCEDEFEF.Commentary This sonnet from 1817 is probably Shelley's most famous and most anthologized poem.Essentially it is devoted to a single metaphor: the shattered, ruined statue in the desert wasteland, with its arrogant, passionate face and monomaniacal inscription(“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”).The once-great king's proud boast has been ironically disproved;Ozymandias's works have crumbled and disappeared, his civilization is gone, all has been turned to dust by the impersonal, indiscriminate, destructive power of history.The ruined statue is now merely a monument to one man's hubris, and a powerful statement about the insignificance of human beings to the passage of time.Ozymandias is first and foremost a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of political power, and in that sense the poem is Shelley's most outstanding political sonnet.But Ozymandias symbolizes not only political power--the statue can be a metaphor for the pride and hubris of all of humanity, in any of its manifestations.It is significant that all that remains of Ozymandias is a work of art and a group of words;as Shakespeare does in the sonnets, Shelley demonstrates that art and language long outlast the other legacies of power.2．Ode to the west wind Summary
The speaker invokes the “wild West Wind” of autumn, which scatters the dead leaves and spreads seeds so that they may be nurtured by the spring, and asks that the wind, a “destroyer and preserver,” hear him.The speaker calls the wind the “dirge / Of the dying year,” and describes how it stirs up violent storms, and again implores it to hear him.The speaker says that the wind stirs the Mediterranean from “his summer dreams,” and cleaves the Atlantic into choppy chasms, making the “sapless foliage” of the ocean tremble, and asks for a third time that it hear him.The speaker says that if he were a dead leaf that the wind could bear, or a cloud it could carry, or a wave it could push, or even if he were, as a boy, “the comrade” of the wind's “wandering over heaven,” then he would never have needed to pray to the wind and invoke its powers.He pleads with the wind to lift him “as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!”--for though he is like the wind at heart, untamable and proud--he is now chained and bowed with the weight of his hours upon the earth.The speaker asks the wind to “make me thy lyre,” to be his own Spirit, and to drive his thoughts across the universe, “like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth.” He asks the wind, by the incantation of this verse, to scatter his words among mankind, to be the “trumpet of a prophecy.” Speaking both in regard to the season and in regard to the effect upon mankind that he hopes his words to have, the speaker asks: “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
Form Each of the 5 parts of “Ode to the West Wind” contains five stanzas--four three-line stanzas and a two-line couplet, all metered in iambic pentameter.The rhyme scheme in each part follows a pattern known as terza rima, the three-line rhyme scheme employed by Dante in his Divine Comedy.Thus each of the 5 parts of “Ode to the West Wind” follows this scheme: ABA BCB CDC DED EE.Commentary Shelley invokes the wind magically, describing its power and its role as both “destroyer and preserver,” and asks the wind to sweep him out of his torpor “as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!” In the fifth section, the poet then takes a remarkable turn, transforming the wind into a metaphor for his own art, the expressive capacity that drives “dead thoughts” like “withered leaves” over the universe, to “quicken a new birth”--that is, to quicken the coming of the spring.Here the spring season is a metaphor for a “spring” of human consciousness, imagination, liberty, or morality--all the things Shelley hoped his art could help to bring about in the human mind.Shelley asks the wind to be his spirit, and in the same movement he makes it his metaphorical spirit, his poetic faculty, which will play him like a musical instrument, the way the wind strums the leaves of the trees.The thematic implication is significant: whereas the older generation of Romantic poets viewed nature as a source of truth and authentic experience, the younger generation largely viewed nature as a source of beauty and aesthetic experience.In this poem, Shelley explicitly links nature with art by finding powerful natural metaphors with which to express his ideas about the power, import, quality, and ultimate effect of aesthetic expression.Assignments: How does Shelley's treatment of nature differ from that of the earlier Romantic poets? What connections does he make between nature and art, and how does he illustrate those connections?
Whereas older Romantic poets looked at nature as a realm of communion with pure existence and with a truth preceding human experience, the later Romantics looked at nature primarily as a realm of overwhelming beauty and aesthetic pleasure.While Wordsworth and Coleridge often write about nature in itself, Shelley tends to invoke nature as a sort of supreme metaphor for beauty, creativity, and expression.This means that most of Shelley's poems about art rely on metaphors of nature as their means of expression: the West Wind in “Ode to the West Wind” becomes a symbol of the poetic faculty spreading Shelley's words like leaves among mankind, and the skylark in “To a Skylark” becomes a symbol of the purest, most joyful, and most inspired creative impulse.The skylark is not a bird, it is a “poet hidden.”
第二篇：精简英国文学教案Week12
Week12 目的：了解勃朗特三姐妹及《呼啸山庄》的叙述手法和主题情节等
Procedures
1.After students have read Wuthering Heights, review its plot and major characters with the class.You may choose to ask students to summarize each chapter.Write the names of characters on the board as they are introduced.When each chapter has been summarized, ask the class to brainstorm words and phrases that describe the characters.2.Divide the class into two groups and assign each one a theme(see step #3).Explain that each group must answer questions about their theme.Then each group will have one class period to prepare a unit on their theme and another class period to teach it to the class.3.Give each group the questions below:
Theme: The Role of Social Class
o Describe the social class of the Earnshaws, the Lintons, and Heathcliff.Which are of a higher social class? Why is this significant?
o How does social class motivate Catherine's actions? How does she try to change her class?
o How does Heathcliff's social class influence the way he is treated and his own actions? How does Heathcliff's class change?
o What is the role of class in the novel? How do tensions in the book result from class struggles?
o What role do the servants Nelly, Joseph, and Zillah play in the novel? Theme: The Significance of Setting
o Describe the setting of the Yorkshire moors.o Describe the houses Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.Include descriptions of architecture and the surrounding landscape.o How do the houses reflect their inhabitants?
o Do the houses symbolize their inhabitants? Give examples.o How do the settings influence the novel's characters?
4.Have student groups develop a unit based on their theme.Each should begin with an overview of the theme;answers to the questions above should suffice.Each unit will also include a creative or visual presentation, such as posters or drawings, a reenactment of a scene, or a presentation of modern parallels.The groups should prepare questions that will encourage the class to participate in a discussion.5.Have each group teach their theme-based unit.1.quiz.1.Who is the author of the novel? a.错误！未找到引用源。Margaret Mitchell b.错误！未找到引用源。Emily Bronte c.错误！未找到引用源。Charlotte Bronte d.错误！未找到引用源。Agatha Christie
2.When was the first edition published? a.错误！未找到引用源。1847 b.错误！未找到引用源。1947 c.错误！未找到引用源。1897 d.错误！未找到引用源。1997
3.The novel is a:
a.错误！未找到引用源。Murder Mystery
b.错误！未找到引用源。Romantic Historical Fiction c.错误！未找到引用源。Gothic Realistic Fiction d.错误！未找到引用源。Detective Fiction
4.What are the basic themes found in the novel? a.错误！未找到引用源。Kindness towards orphans
b.错误！未找到引用源。Destructiveness of love that never alters c.错误！未找到引用源。Romantic entanglements d.错误！未找到引用源。Uncertainty of social classes 5.Who are the protagonists of the story? a.错误！未找到引用源。Heathcliff b.错误！未找到引用源。Edgar Linton c.错误！未找到引用源。Catherine d.错误！未找到引用源。Nelly Dean
6.The novel begins with the words:
a.错误！未找到引用源。“Mr.Lockwood, your new tenant, sir.” b.错误！未找到引用源。“Mr.Heathcliff!I said.”
c.错误！未找到引用源。“I have just returned from a visit to my landlord...” d.错误！未找到引用源。“This is certainly a beautiful country!”
7.Who was Lockwood's housekeeper? a.错误！未找到引用源。Cathy Simmons b.错误！未找到引用源。Catherine c.错误！未找到引用源。Nelly Furtado d.错误！未找到引用源。Nelly Dean
8.What was the name of Heathcliff's manor? a.错误！未找到引用源。Bothering Heights b.错误！未找到引用源。Thrushcross Grange c.错误！未找到引用源。Wuthering Lows d.错误！未找到引用源。Wuthering Heights
9.Who raises Hareton during his early years? a.错误！未找到引用源。Heathcliff b.错误！未找到引用源。Edgar c.错误！未找到引用源。Catherine d.错误！未找到引用源。Nelly
10.Who forces Heathcliff to work as a servant in his home? a.错误！未找到引用源。Joseph b.错误！未找到引用源。Hindley c.错误！未找到引用源。Hareton d.错误！未找到引用源。Catherine
11.Why does Heathcliff marry Isabella?
a.错误！未找到引用源。To inherit Thrushcross Grange b.错误！未找到引用源。To spite Catherine c.错误！未找到引用源。Because he loves her d.错误！未找到引用源。To spite Edgar
12.How does Catherine die?
a.错误！未找到引用源。Commited suicide
b.错误！未找到引用源。She was killed in a car accident c.错误！未找到引用源。During childbirth
d.错误！未找到引用源。Contracted a terminal illness
13.The novel concludes with:
a.错误！未找到引用源。Death of Heathcliff
b.错误！未找到引用源。Lockwood visiting Heathcliff's grave c.错误！未找到引用源。Catherine and Hareton's marriage d.错误！未找到引用源。None of the above
14.Wuthering Heights is the only novel written by its author.a.错误！未找到引用源。True b.错误！未找到引用源。False
15.What was inscribed over the entrance of Wuthering Heights? a.错误！未找到引用源。Welcome
b.错误！未找到引用源。Hareton Earnshaw 1500 c.错误！未找到引用源。Heathcliff 1600
d.错误！未找到引用源。Heathcliff and Catherine 1.Bronte sisters:
Emily in 1818 and Anne in 1820.The lives of the Bronte sisters has been the subject of public interest.Charlotte was born in 1816, Charlotte who lived the longest was seen as the most talented of the sisters.Her mother died in 1821 leaving her six children in the care of their aunt.Charlotte's two elder sisters died only four years later.At the rectory, Charlotte would have little to do but read and write and occasionally walk on the moors(旷野).The loneliness experienced by Charlotte was clearly sharp.So it is less shocking that in her early teens she wrote at least 23 complete “novels”(they were of little or no real value).She attended Roe Head school between 1831 and 1832, and then taught at the same school later in the decade.From 1839 to 1842 she worked as a governess(家庭教师).Meanwhile, Emily attended Roe Head in 1835 but returned to the rectory due to homesickness.Like her elder sister she became a governess.She seems to have been the most introspective(内省的)of the sisters, having very few friends.Nevertheless, she was a tough woman, controlling a fierce dog with her bare hands.Anne, the youngest sister also attended Roe Head school in 1837.She also became a governess, actually for some time longer than her elder sisters.Anne found material for Agnes Grey(《艾格尼丝格雷》)(1847)in the spoilt children of her employers.By 1847, the three sisters had each written a novel.Emily produced Wuthering Heights(《呼啸山庄》), Anne Agnes Grey.Both were criticized by the press, Emily's novel especially for its supposedly morbid(病态的)outlook and inappropriate subjects.Nevertheless, history and particularly the great success of the novels have vindicated(澄清)them.Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre at this time and it was immediately successful.In 1848, Emily died in December with Anne following less than a year later.Charlotte continued to write and produced Shirley(《雪莉》)(1849).Her final novel Villette(《维莱特》)appeared in 1853.Her marriage in 1854 to A.B.Nicholls was followed only months later by her death from tuberculosis.True(T)or False(F)?
1． Charlotte Bronte is remembered as the author of Wuthering Heights.()2． The three Bronte sisters went to the same school and two of them worked as governesses.()3． The three Bronte sisters weren't accepted at first in their times.()Keys: 1—3 F F T 2.Character Analyses Heathcliff
To everyone but Catherine and Hareton, Heathcliff seems to be an inhuman monster—or even incarnate evil.From a literary perspective, he is more the embodiment of the Byronic hero(attributed to the writer George Gordon, Lord Byron), a man of stormy emotions who shuns humanity because he himself has been ostracized;a rebellious hero who functions as a law unto himself.Heathcliff is both despicable and pitiable.His one sole passion is Catherine, yet his commitment to his notion of a higher love does not seem to include forgiveness.Readers need to determine if his revenge is focused on his lost position at Wuthering Heights, his loss of Catherine to Edgar, or if it his assertion of dignity as a human being.The difficulty most readers have relating to and understanding Heathcliff is the fact that he hates as deeply as he loves;therefore, he is despised as much as he is pitied.Except for Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost, the tempestuous and revengeful Heathcliff has no equal in English literature.His intense love for Catherine, his relentless revenge on his enemy, and his frantic restlessness after Catherine’s death mark him a unique figure.In Heathcliff’s conflict with Hindley and the Lintons.Emily Bronte portrays the conflict between the privileged and the underdog, between the master and the hired hand.Plot
About the Novel Character Map
About the Novel Genealogy
4.Critical Essays Class Structure
In the Victorian Era, social class was not solely dependent upon the amount of money a person had;rather, the source of income, birth, and family connections played a major role in determining one’s position in society.And, significantly, most people accepted their place in the hierarchy.In addition to money, manners, speech, clothing, education, and values revealed a person’s class.The three main classes were the elite class, the middle class, and the working class.Further divisions existed within these three class distinctions.The characters in Wuthering Heights demonstrate the nature of this class-structured society.The Lintons were the most elite family in the novel, and Thrushcross Grange was a superior property to Wuthering Heights, yet they were not members of the uppercrust of society;rather, they were the professional middle class.Although Wuthering Heights was a farmhouse, the Earnshaws were not members of the working class because they were landowners who had servants.Their station in society was below the Lintons but not significantly below.Nelly, a servant of the Earnshaws, represents the lower middle class—those who worked non-manual labor.Servants were superior to manual laborers, which explains the problems created by Heathcliff.Heathcliff is an orphan;therefore, his station is below everyone else in Wuthering Heights.It was unheard of to raise someone from the working class as a member of the middle-to-upper middle class.Even Nelly, who was raised with the Earnshaw children, understood her place below her childhood friends.When Mr.Earnshaw elevates the status of Heathcliff, eventually favoring him to his own son, this goes against societal norms.This combination of elevation and usurpation is why Hindley returns Heathcliff to his previous low station after the death of Mr.Earnshaw, and that is why Heathcliff relishes in the fact that Hindley’s son Hareton is reduced to the level of a common, uneducated laborer.And social class must be the reason Catherine marries Edgar;she is attracted to the social comforts he can supply her.No other plausible explanation exists.Catherine naively thinks she can marry Edgar and then use her position and his money to assist Heathcliff, but that would never happen.When Heathcliff returns, having money is not enough for Edgar to consider him a part of acceptable society.Heathcliff uses his role as the outcast to encourage Isabella’s infatuation.The feelings that both Catherine and Isabella have for Heathcliff, the common laborer, cause them to lose favor with their brothers.Hindley and Edgar cannot accept the choices their sisters make and therefore, withdraw their love.When a woman betrays her class, she is betraying her family and her class—both unacceptable actions.5.The Narrative Structure
Although Lockwood and Nelly serve as the obvious narrators, others are interspersed throughout the novel—Heathcliff, Isabella, Cathy, even Zillah—who narrate a chapter or two, providing insight into both character and plot development.Catherine does not speak directly to the readers(except in quoted dialogue), but through her diary, she narrates important aspects of the childhood she and Heathcliff shared on the moors and the treatment they received at the hands of Joseph and Hindley.All of the voices weave together to provide a choral narrative.Initially, they speak to Lockwood, answering his inquiries, but they speak to readers, also, providing multiple views of the tangled lives of the inhabitants of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights.Brontë appears to present objective observers, in an attempt to allow the story to speak for itself.Objective observations by outsiders would presumably not be tainted by having a direct involvement;unfortunately, a closer examination of these two seemingly objective narrators reveals their bias.For example, Lockwood’s narrative enables readers to begin the story when most of the action is already completed.Although the main story is being told in flashback, having Lockwood interact with Heathcliff and the others at Wuthering Heights immediately displaces his objectivity.What he records in his diary is not just what he is being told by Nelly but his memories and interpretation of Nelly’s tale.Likewise, Nelly’s narrative directly involves the reader and engages them in the action.While reporting the past, she is able to foreshadow future events, which builds suspense, thereby engaging readers even more.But her involvement is problematic because she is hypocritical in her actions: sometimes choosing Edgar over Heathcliff(and vice versa), and at times working with Cathy while at other times betraying Cathy’s confidence.Nonetheless, she is quite an engaging storyteller, so readers readily forgive her shortcomings.Ultimately, both Lockwood and Nelly are merely facilitators, enabling readers to enter the world of Wuthering Heights.All readers know more than any one narrator, and therefore are empowered as they read.
第三篇：精简英国文学教案Week11
Week11 目的：理解批评现实主义以及迪更斯(mirror)1． Realism, a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully an actual way of life.It is not a direct or simple reproduction of reality(a slice of life)but a system of conventions producing a lifelike illusion of some real world outside the text.The earliest Realist work began to appear in the 18th century, in a reaction to the excesses of Romanticism and Neoclassicism.2． WHAT IS THE STRENGTH AND WEEKNESS OF ENGLISH CRITICAL REALISM？ 3．
Three periods of Charles Dickens’ literary career.(英国文学简史)4.Features of Dickens’ novels
A.Dickens’novels offer a most complete and realistic picture of the English bourgeois of his age.B.Dickens is a petty bourgeois intellectual.He could not overstep the limits of his class.He believed in the moral self-perfection of the wicked propertied classes.He failed to see the necessity of a bitter struggle of the oppressed against their oppressors.C.Almost all his novels have a happy ending.D.His novels tell much of the experiences of his childhood.F.Dickens is a great humorist.His novels are full of humor and laughter.5．Key Facts of Oliver Twist full title · Oliver Twist: The Parish Boy’s Progress
genre · Children’s story;detective story;novel of social protest narrator · Anonymous narrator point of view · The narrator is third person omniscient, and assumes the points of view of various characters in turn.The narrator’s tone is not objective;it is sympathetic to the protagonists and far less so to the novel’s other characters.When dealing with hypocritical or morally objectionable characters, the narrative voice is often ironic or sarcastic.tone · Sentimental, sometimes ironic, hyperbolic, crusading setting(time)· 1830s setting(place)· London and environs;an unnamed smaller English city;the English countryside protagonist · Oliver Twist major conflict · Although Oliver is fundamentally righteous, the social environment in which he is raised encourages thievery and prostitution.Oliver struggles to find his identity and rise above the abject conditions of the lower class.rising action · Oliver is taken care of by a gang of London thieves, but refuses to participate in their thievery.An upper-class family takes him in, but the thieves and a mysterious character, Monks, continue to pursue him.climax · Nancy is murdered for disclosing Monks’s plans to Oliver’s guardians.Mr.Brownlow gets the full story of Oliver’s origins from Monks.falling action · Fagin is executed and Sikes dies;Oliver and his new family live out their days in happiness.themes · The failures of charity;the folly of individualism;purity in a corrupt city;the countryside idealized motifs · Disguised or mistaken identities;hidden family relationships;surrogate families;Oliver’s face foreshadowing · The truth about Oliver’s parentage is foreshadowed by the portrait in Mr.Brownlow’s house, by the locket that Old Sally has stolen, and by Monks’s pursuit of Oliver.Why did you kill Nancy off? I thought she was a very strong character who was a great asset to the book's moral.(Virginia, aged 11-16 from St Mary's Academy)Nancy is the most complex case, because although she is a prostitute, a member of Fagin抯 gang, and Sikes抯 mistress, she also has virtuous sentiments, which prompt her to defend Oliver and to betray Fagin.But her good qualities also underpin her loyalty to Sikes, and that loyalty is the direct cause of her tragic fate at his hands.According to the novel抯 logic, it is miraculous that Oliver抯 goodness survives in such an environment, whereas it is virtually inevitable that goodness such as Nancy抯 is destroyed.6.Analysis of Major Characters Oliver Twist As the child hero of a melodramatic novel of social protest, Oliver Twist is meant to appeal more to our sentiments than to our literary sensibilities.On many levels, Oliver is not a believable character, because although he is raised in corrupt surroundings, his purity and virtue are absolute.Throughout the novel, Dickens uses Oliver’s character to challenge the Victorian idea that paupers and criminals are already evil at birth, arguing instead that a corrupt environment is the source of vice.At the same time, Oliver’s incorruptibility undermines some of Dickens’s assertions.Oliver is shocked and horrified when he sees the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates pick a stranger’s pocket and again when he is forced to participate in a burglary.Oliver’s moral scruples about the sanctity of property seem inborn in him, just as Dickens’s opponents thought that corruption is inborn in poor people.Furthermore, other pauper children use rough Cockney slang, but Oliver, oddly enough, speaks in proper King’s English.His grammatical fastidiousness is also inexplicable, as Oliver presumably is not well-educated.Even when he is abused and manipulated, Oliver does not become angry or indignant.When Sikes and Crackit force him to assist in a robbery, Oliver merely begs to be allowed to “run away and die in the fields.” Oliver does not present a complex picture of a person torn between good and evil—instead, he is goodness incarnate.Even if we might feel that Dickens’s social criticism would have been more effective if he had focused on a more complex poor character, like the Artful Dodger or Nancy, the audience for whom Dickens was writing might not have been receptive to such a portrayal.Dickens’s Victorian middle-class readers were likely to hold opinions on the poor that were only a little less extreme than those expressed by Mr.Bumble, the beadle who treats paupers with great cruelty.In fact, Oliver Twist was criticized for portraying thieves and prostitutes at all.Given the strict morals of Dickens’s audience, it may have seemed necessary for him to make Oliver a saintlike figure.Because Oliver appealed to Victorian readers’ sentiments, his story may have stood a better chance of effectively challenging their prejudices.
第四篇：英国文学选读（推荐）
文学体裁：诗歌poem 小说novel 戏剧drama Origin起源： Christianity 基督教 bible 圣经
Myth 神话 The Romance of king Arthur and his knights 亚瑟王和他的骑士
一、The Anglo-Saxon period(449-1066)
1、这个时期的文学作品分类： pagan(异教徒)Christian(基督徒)
2、代表作：
3、Alliteration 押头韵（写作手法）
例子： of man was the mildest and most beloved, To his kin the kindest, keenest for praise.二、The Anglo-Norman period(1066-1350)Canto 诗章
1、romance 传奇文学
2、代表作：
三、Geoffrey Chaucer(1340-1400)杰弗里.乔叟时期
1、“the founder of English poetry”（英国诗歌之父）
2、heroic couplet 英雄双韵体：a verse unit consisting of two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter(五步抑扬格).3、代表作：
大致内容：The pilgrims are people from various parts of England, representatives of various walks of life and social groups.朝圣者都是来自英国的各地的人,代表着社会的各个不同阶层和社会团体
小说特点：Each of the narrators tells his tale in a peculiar manner, thus revealing his own views and character.这些叙述者以自己特色的方式讲述自己的故事，无形中表明了各自的观点，展示了各自的性格。小说观点：He believes in the right of man to earthly happiness.He is anxious to see man freed from superstitions and a blind belief in fate.他希望人们能从迷信和对命运的盲从中解脱出来。
4、Popular Ballads 大众民谣 ：A story holds in 4-line stanzas with second and fourth line rhymed.Ballads are anonymous narrative songs that have been preserved by oral transmission.歌谣是匿名叙事歌曲,一直保存着口头传播的方式
代表人物：Bishop Thomas Percy 托马斯.帕希主教
代表作：Robin Hood and Allin-a-Dale 罗宾汉和阿林代尔
四、The Renaissance(16世纪)文艺复兴时期
（Greek and Roman）戏剧drama 诗章canto
The term Renaissance originally indicated a revival of classical(Greek and Roman)arts and sciences.文艺复兴最初是指经典艺术和科学在英国的复兴。
The epoch of Renaissance witnessed a particular development of English drama.在文艺复兴时期的英国，戏剧也得到了迅速的发展。
1、key word: humanism: admires human beauty and human achievement
2、代表人物：
1)、Thomas More 托马斯.莫尔
2)、Francis Bacon 弗朗西斯.培根 第一个散文家 3)、Thomas Wyatt 托马斯.怀亚特 引入十四行诗的第一人
Sonnet(十四行诗)：form of poetry intricately rhymed(间隔押韵)in 14 lines iambic pentameter 4)、Edmund Spenser 埃德蒙.斯宾塞 poet’s poet(诗人中的诗人)< The Fairy Queene>《仙后》(epic poem 史诗)5)、Christopher Marlowe 克里斯托弗.马洛
blank verse(无韵体：不押韵的五步抑扬格)是十六世纪英国戏剧的主要表现形式。
6)、William Shakespeare 威廉姆.莎士比亚 戏剧 drama 四大悲剧：
五、The period of Revolution and Restoration(17世纪)资产阶级革命与王权复辟
prose 散文
1、文学特点：The Puritans believed in simplicity of life, disapproved of the sonnets and the love poetry, breaking up of old ideals.清教徒崇尚俭朴的生活、拒绝十四行诗和爱情诗、与旧思想脱离。
2、代表人物：
1)、John Donne 约翰.多恩 “metaphysical poets”(玄学派诗人)的代表人物
sonnet 十四行诗 《Death be not proud》
作品特点：① strike the reader in Donne’s extraordinary frankness and penetrating realism.(坦诚的态度和现实描绘)
② novelty of subject matter and point(新颖的题材和视角)③ novelty of its form.(新颖的形式)
2)、John Milton 约翰.弥尔顿 a great poet 诗人（blank verse）
《失乐园》 “Satan is not a villain”撒旦不是坏人
《复乐园》
六、The Age of Enlightenment(18世纪)启蒙运动
prose 散文
1、Emphasized formality or correctness of style, to write prose like Addison, or verse like Pope.强调正确的格式和写作规范，像艾迪生一样创作散文，和蒲柏一样创作诗歌。
The Enlightenment was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeoisie against feudalism.启蒙运动实际上是当时先进的资产阶级同落后的封建主义斗争的一种形式。
The enlighteners repudiate the false religious doctrines about the viciousness of human nature, and prove that man is born kind and honest, and if he becomes depraved, it is only due to the influence of corrupted social environment.启蒙主义者颠覆了宗教所宣扬的人类本恶的观点；论证了人生诚实而友善，而腐化堕落则是后天腐败的社会环境所致。
Contrary to all reasoning, social injustice still held strong, found the power of reason to be insufficient, and therefore appealed to sentiment as a means of achieving happiness and social justice.无论怎样讲究理性，社会不平等现象仍然普遍存在，理性的力量明显不足。因此呼吁把情感的诉求作为一种谋求幸福和社会公平的手段。
2、18th century 文学的三个方面：Classicism(古典主义)、revival of romantic poetry(新兴的浪漫主义诗歌)、beginnings of the modern novel(刚启萌的现代派小说)
3、代表人物：
1)、Daniel Defoe 丹尼尔.笛福 realistic novel 现实主义小说
Novel：
2)、Jonathan Swift 乔纳森.斯威夫特
作品特点：no visible sign of anger, nor raising the voice;the tone is cold, restrained, ironic, varied only by some flashes of fooling when Swift’s sense of the ridiculous gets the better of him.努不动颜，骂不扬声，语调冷酷，锋芒暗藏，讽刺辛辣，仅在讽喻之情难以抑制时才偶露揶揄之态。
七、the Romantic Period(1798-1832)浪漫主义
散文 prose
1、前浪漫主义代表人物：William Blake 威廉.布莱克 诗人
Robert Burns 罗伯特.彭斯 苏格兰诗人
Pre-Romanticism was greatly influenced by the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution 前浪漫主义极大地影响了工业革命和法国大革命。
2、教育意义Educational：liberty, equality and fraternity 自由，平等，博爱
3、开始的标志：beginning with the publication of William Wordsworth’s
4、lake poets(湖畔派诗人)：Coleridge Southey Wordsworth
5、代表人物：
1)、William Wordsworth 威廉.华兹华斯 poet-laureate(桂冠诗人)
With S.T.coleridge, they jointly published the “Lyrical Ballads”.与s.t.coleridge一起,联合发表了“抒情民谣” 作品特点：simplicity and purity of the language, fighting against the conventional forms of the 18th century poetry 简单而纯洁的语言,反传统形式的18世纪诗歌
2)、Lord Byron 拜伦
3)、Percy Bysshe Shelley 雪莱
《解放了的普罗米修斯》 drama 戏剧
4)、John Keats 济慈 poet 诗人
第五篇：英国文学 女性主义
近代英国文学中女性主义思想的嬗变
摘要：本文通过分析简·奥斯汀、勃朗特姐妹、盖斯凯尔夫人、乔治·艾略特和弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫等女性作家在她们作品中反映出的女性主义思想，试图研究近代英国文学中女性主义思想的嬗变以及所经历的过程和社会意义。
关键词：英国女性文学 女性主义思想嬗变
简·奥斯汀作品中对女性智力的肯定
19世纪的英国妇女地位非常卑微，在经济、政治，甚至在受教育方面的权利都被限制。与男性相比，妇女被认为天生智力低劣，而且当时绝大多数妇女似乎也承认这种观念，她们对自己的卑微地位毫无自觉意识。简·奥斯汀却以自己的创作实践为女性争取到她们应有的空间。她的作品充分肯定了女性的智力，认为妇女和男人一样智力发达，女性甚至比男性更具有敏锐的观察力和判断力。她一反传统文学中正面主人公都为男性的模式，将不少女性提升为作品中的主人公。她笔下的这些女主角们不再是以“花瓶”的面貌出现，而是理性、美德和智慧的化身，她们代表了既敏感又富有思想的年轻一代女性独立的个体，都经历了从不完美到完美这样一个过程。奥斯汀在作品中着意于表现女性作为与男性完全平等的“人”的性格魅力，并且她把长期处于边缘的失势地位的女性作为全知视角下的限制性叙述角度，唤醒了女性沉睡已久的主体意识，由此，奥斯汀使英国女性文学的主体意识提前半个世纪被表现出来。
在某种意义上说，简·奥斯汀是一位女权主义者。在她那个时代，妇女是不允许按部就班地接受教育的，小说《曼斯菲尔德庄园》中，埃德蒙·伯特伦去的伊顿公学以及牛津和剑桥这样的学校都是不会朝妇女敞开大门的。像小说《曼斯菲尔德庄园》中男爵的妻子伯特伦太太，《理智与情感》中的米德尔顿女士，《爱玛》中的埃尔顿太太这样的上层社会的个别女性才有机会接受一些非家政性的教育，如绘画、唱歌、乐器演奏以及语言学等，但她们掌握这些技能的最终目的是为了能取悦自己的丈夫。结婚以后，她们的这些技能将会逐渐被荒废。但在小说《傲慢与偏见》中的伊丽莎白·班尼特则表现出相反的态度，她认为弹琴完全是无所谓的事情。小说《苏珊女士》的女主人公更是有着愤世嫉俗的观点，认为自己尚未成年的女儿弗雷德丽卡所接受的教育不过是在今后找丈夫过程中为自己增加些魅力，甚至认为女子所掌握的这些技能纯粹多余。简·奥斯汀通过笔下的这些妇女形象说明以男性为中心的社会造成了女人这样的境遇，因此她创作的女性形象不仅对女性文学，而且对整个英国文学史都具有重要意义。
当然，简·奥斯汀的作品始终是在爱情的领域——当时女性唯一能表现出女性意识觉醒的空间。她笔下的女性都是平等爱情的呼唤者，这在妇女处于被轻视和贬抑的社会无疑代表了女性自觉意识的最强音。不过她们在爱情领域里还是处于被动的地位，她们只是安静地等待男性的求婚，缺少主动出击的勇气和魄力，而且全无谋职以求经济独立的想法与愿望，仅仅停留在空谈感情的水平上。
勃朗特姐妹作品中对女性独立人格的确立
如果说是简·奥斯汀的作品把女性推向文坛的中心，那么继之而起的勃朗特姐妹的作品则成为英国文学史上的里程碑，也成为世界女性文学的转折点，因为她们的作品宣告了女性意识的真正觉醒。勃朗特姐妹率先提出了女性独立人格的问题，并指出独立的人格是建立在经济独立的基础之上的。她们的作品深入到女性的内心世界，凸现了女性自尊自爱的美好人格。
具有强烈的自我意识和独立人格的代表当首推夏洛蒂·勃朗特所创作的小说《简·爱》里的女主人公。这部小说叙述了一个在恶劣的生存环境中不断奋斗的孤女的故事。在小说中，简·爱是一个新型女性，她改变了英国传统女性中温柔可爱、逆来顺受的形象。她出生贫穷，貌不惊
人，但坚决反对压迫屈辱的行为，始终捍卫自己的独立人格，并最终以和罗切斯特先生的美满爱情结局表达出作者对爱情、理想和人与人之间关系的思考。通过这个人物，夏洛蒂更多地否定了当时社会男性与女性角色的差别，正如作品中简·爱对罗切斯特所说，“在人格上我们是平等的。”这种平等意识显然是英国文学中女性意识的一大进步，它使得女性意识从对女性特点的强调转到了对女性作为人的价值的强调；从对女性修养、尊严等的强调，转到了对女性真挚、坦诚和独立人格的强调；从对女性的社会认知度等外在价值的强调，转到了对女性内在情感价值的强调。夏洛蒂试图透露这样一个信息：我虽不是一个你们所喜爱的女性，但我并不因此而自卑。我身材矮小，相貌不扬，但我独立，自尊。勃朗特姐妹认为女性最可悲之处正在于没有一个独立的生活目标。因此，从对女性智力的肯定和对女性性别角色的强调到对女性独立人格的强调，是简·奥斯汀到勃朗特姐妹的作品的变化和发展。
然而，无论是简·奥斯汀还是勃朗特姐妹都只是在家庭或是在经济领域内关照女性的觉醒，而没有拓展到深入而更广泛的社会领域即政治层面。要真正为女性找到有力的支点，必须在社会意识下反映女性意识的自觉性，盖斯凯尔夫人首先做到了这一点。
盖斯凯尔夫人作品中逐渐走向社会的女性
在男权社会中除了家庭生活以外，女性几乎全部的社会领域都被男性控制和垄断。女性无论在道德和人格上多么自立，都始终无法彻底改变她们的从属地位。其主要原因就是她们与社会政治处于隔绝状态，只有主动参与广泛的社交与政治生活，女性才有可能取得根本的自主地位。盖斯凯尔夫人的作品描写了一群逐渐走向社会领域的女性，她在简·奥斯汀和勃朗特姐妹探索的基础上，把女性意识纳入了社会的轨道，与现实社会紧密联系在一起，实现了女性意识社会化的突破。
在《玛丽巴顿》和《南方与北方》中，盖斯凯尔夫人把女性意识的自觉性向前推进了一大步，使女性意识摆脱了以往狭小而闭塞的情感体验，为女性意识的发展开辟了更广阔的社会领域。作品中的玛丽从幼稚走向成熟的过程与爱玛有几分相似，不过爱玛的成熟是为自己造了一面镜子，通过自我反省、自我批判和自我剖析来实现，而玛丽的迷途知返则是把社会作为自己判断的参照对象，她把自己的爱恋者放在社会政治生活中予以考察，这种爱情本身带有更多的理性思考和对社会现象的权衡，这是妇女参与社会思考的开始。
盖斯凯尔夫人的作品不仅把女性带入了社会，而且还表现了女性在社会政治领域中的能力和素质。她笔下女性的成长和觉醒主要依靠的是自身的力量，她们的思想成熟代表着传统社会观念向新的价值观念体系的转变。通过作品中女主人公的成长和自我意识的觉醒，盖斯凯尔夫人意欲说明女性意识和社会意识应同步发展，这是她对女性参与社会生活能力的充分肯定。
乔治·艾略特作品中独特的女性意识
乔治·艾略特的作品融入了同时代女性写作的主流，述说着女性琐碎的婚姻故事与心灵体验。她的作品蕴涵着独特的女性意识：作者除了把女性细微的心灵空间和边缘地位归咎于男权社会的无情压制外，还把矛头直接指向女性群体本身，即对女性自身弱点与不足进行剖析和展示。乔治·艾略特的小说就像一面镜子反映了人们的真实生活，展示了女性的价值，揭示了生活的真谛。尽管作品主题很一般，但它所蕴涵的深刻道德感和现实意义却对当时的作家和读者产生了深远的影响。
她的前期小说主题多涉及情感、宗教与人性的冲突，不断突出“心中的神灵”善之美德对人的影响，但在她后期作品中，女性的命运成了她创作的主题。她以严肃的创作态度全面而深刻地探讨了女性的处境、体验和对生活的看法，揭示了女性与男性各自的弱点以及由于环境的限制，不能实现各自的远大抱负。如在小说《米德尔马契》中，艾略特对女主人公的内在精神与心灵进行了探索与挖掘，控诉了男权社会对女性精神的残酷统治和对女性理想的扼杀，祭奠
了幻灭后灵魂的升腾与凝重。艾略特以一个知识女性的身份和体验在小说里指出，女人可以用知识来拓宽心灵，指导自己的行为和想法，但“为了保障社会和家庭生活的安全，这些主张自然不宜当真实行”。小说中女性的这种边缘状态既是男权社会压制的结果，又是女性自身历史积淀的集体无意识所导致的。
在艾略特的作品中女性人物总是极为优秀，她们虽是男性主宰的社会制度的受害者，不得不屈从于世俗习惯并放弃自己的远大理想，但她们能“在自己有限的活动领域里获得心灵上的成功”。她们虽不能在公众的、社会的领域发挥出她们的作用，但她们能以间接的方式对周围的男性施加影响，并借助男性在社会各个领域发挥作用，间接地实现自身的价值并推动社会的民主进程。因此，女性对男性人生的影响是艾略特作品中的一个常见主题。
在作品中，艾略特用自己的成就证实了女性能摆脱诸多限制并获得史诗般的成就，但要在男性主宰的世界里获得成功需要非凡的勇气和坚强的毅力。大多数女性没有足够的选择余地，不得不屈从于传统的世俗力量。在此，作者表明了她鲜为人知的女权主义观点，即女性要取得真正的平等并实现自身的价值，不仅要打破社会强加在她们身上的枷锁，摧毁一切世俗障碍，还要摆脱自己给自己套上的链条，以真实的自我展现自己，并改变对自身价值的认识。
弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫作品中的女权意识
与前面几位女性作家相比，弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫是一个激进的女权主义者。她一生都在通过写作和演讲、语言和行动来建立和完成自己的伟大事业。她不仅要反对男性文化的压迫，解除男权思想的束缚，求得与男性和解式的“平权”，而且还不时想通过与男性对抗来解决现实存在的男女不平等的问题。在作品中，她首次提出了女性写作是有别于男性的“性别写作”，公开向以男性写作为主流意识形态的创作领域挑战。由此，弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫掀起了一场女权主义思想的革命。
作为系统地把女权主义思想引入文学批判的第一人，她的《一间自己的房子》和《三个基尼金币》成为后世女权论者的典范著作。《一间自己的房子》是她妇女意识与女权思想的重要论著，在其中她提出了“双性同体”的创作思想，唱响了女权主义的号角，成为女性主义作品的经典。从此，“自己的屋子”为女性写作打开了新天地，这是妇女写作史上一座里程碑式的“建筑”。《三个基尼金币》是伍尔夫向男性政治宣战的宣言书。她以缜密的逻辑思维、睿智的思想维度和辛辣讽刺夸张的笔法，通过捐赠三枚旧金币给名誉司库这样一个事实，以书信体的形式对男性热衷战争的法西斯本质进行了深刻批判，对妇女与政治、文化、职业和教育等问题进行了探讨，以提供文件的方式批驳了男性特权、男性偏见、男性虚荣与男性主宰，指出战争的别名就是政治，将战争与政治紧密地联系在一起。伍尔夫对于战争的控诉也就势表现出对于男权政治的控诉。她的女性主义思想是如此深刻和犀利，树立了女性反抗男性社会的一面旗帜。
在控诉女性的自我被社会排挤得几乎消失，在痛心于女性的自我被女性几乎全部抛弃的同时，伍尔夫一直试图探索一条重塑女性自我、恢复女性社会地位和树立女性坚强自信的道路。怎样才能“成为自己”是摆在伍尔夫面前的一个重要问题。女性要真正成为“自己”最重要的前提是要获取必要的物质条件，只有这样，女性才能最终摆脱历史和现实强加给她的不利地位。
首先，要拒绝臣服，要克服自我贬抑和妄自菲薄的心理。如果说获取必要的物质条件是恢复女性社会地位的必要前提，那么克服女性对自己的自我贬抑、妄自菲薄的态度就是真正树立女性自信的前提，而这两者都是重塑女性自我意识的先决条件。其次，要建立女性自己的价值观念，这些价值观念表现为一种复杂的力量，一种独特的创造力，“这种创造力是数千年来最严厉的规矩换来的，没有别的东西可以代替。”最后，要走出封闭的、狭小的个人世界。假如女性能勇敢地走出私人的领地，走向广阔的公共社会生活，那么女性的“独立”就指日可待，女性真正“成为自己”就有了坚实的基础。
伍尔夫表述了一个相对完整的关于女性的观点体系。她所主张的女性“成为自己”，实质上是要建立一种自足而又开放的女性自我，这样一种自我既独立，又与男性、与整个世界有着相互依赖和相互促进的关系，正是这一质朴的思想对后世的女权主义思想产生了重要影响
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