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1、英美文学精粹英美文学精粹赏析析Selected Readings In English and American Literature人民邮电出版社人民邮电出版社English Renaissance 1.Renaissance means rebirth or revival.2.It is the combination of Christian and Greek traditions.3.It is a movement that marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world4.To get rid of thos
2、e old feudalist ideas and introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie Humanism 1.To exalt human elements or stress the importance of human interests,as opposed to the supernatural,divine elementsor as opposed to the grosser,animal elements 2.To see human beings as glor
3、ious creatures capable of individual development 3.To emphasize the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life4.To believe that man does not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of this life,but the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders5.To express the rebellious s
4、pirit against the tyranny of feudal rule and religious domination Religious Reformation Martin Luther believed that every true Christian was his own priest and was entitled to interpret the Bible for himself.To recover the purity of the early church from the corruption and superstition of the Middle
5、 AgesThe colorful and dramatic ritual of the Catholic Church was simplifiedThe Bible in English was placed in every church and services were held in English.It is a reflection of the class struggle waged by the new rising bourgeoisie against the feudal class and its ideology.The translations of the
6、Bible into English,setting new standards for prose writing.William Shakespeare 1564-1616 I.LifeBirth Born April 1564 in Stratford-upon-AvonBirth date credited as April 23,but the actual date is not knownBaptized April 26,1564 at Holy Trinity Church in StratfordII.Education Attended the Stratford Gra
7、mmar School for children of prominent citizensMandatory attendance at church provided exposure to the BibleIII.Dramatic Career1.First Period:ApprenticeshipMainly wrote histories and comediesHistory plays are dramatic works which use history as a beginning point.They reflect real periods of history b
8、ut Shakespeare did not write them chronologically.Second Period:Mastering his art!Mainly wrote“Romantic Comedies”As You Like ItMid-summer Nights DreamTwelfth NightThe Merchant of VeniceThird Period:Problem of Evil in the WorldGreat tragediesHamletOthelloKing LearMacbethForth Period:Creates a new dra
9、ma formthe dramatic romance PericlesCymbelineThe Winters TaleThe TempestIV.Non-dramatic Poems1.Venus and Adonis2.The Rape of Lucrece 3.Sonnets(154)Concerned with love,broken trust of friend,loss of love,forgiveness4.Features of Shakespeares SonnetsThree quatrains and a coupletConstituting a vast lan
10、dscape of metaphorV.Selected readings Sonnet 18Shakespeare sonnet 18 begins the thematic group in which the speaker/poet muses on his writing talent,often addressing his Muse,his ability,and even his poems.First Quatrain “Shall I compare thee to a summers day”In the first quatrain,the speaker muses
11、about comparing the poem to a day in summer;then he begins to do just that.In comparison to a summers day,the poem is deemed“more lovely and more temperate.”The qualification of more“lovely,”at this point,seems to be just the speakers opinion,but to prove the poem more temperate,he explains,“Rough w
12、inds do shake the darling buds of May”:the“rough winds”that blow the young buds of flowers about is certainly not mild or temperate.And also summer just does not last very long;it has“all too short a date.”The poem,when compared to a summers day,is better;its beauty and mildness do not end as summer
13、 along with its“summers day”does.The reader wonder why the speaker,just after claiming his intention of comparing the poem to a“summers day,”then first compares it to a spring day“the darling buds of May.”Even before summer begins,the May flowers are being tossed about by intemperate breezes;therefo
14、re,it stands to reason that if the prelude to summer has its difficulties,one can expect summer have its own unique problems that the poem,of course,will lack.Second Quatrain “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines”In the second quatrain,the speaker continues elucidating his complaints that dimin
15、ish summers value in this comparison:sometimes the sunshine makes the temperature too hot:“Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.”The sun often hides behind clouds,“often is his gold complexion dimmd.”The reader can realize the implications here:that these inconvenient qualities do no plague the
16、 poem.Then the speaker makes a generalization that everything in nature including the seasonsand he has chosen the best season,after all;he did not advantage his argument by comparing the poem to a winter dayand even people degenerates with time,either by happenstance or by processes the human mind
17、does not comprehend or simply by the unstoppable course of nature:And every fair from fair sometime declines,/By chance,or natures changing course untrimmd.”So far,the speaker has mused that he shall compare the poem to a summer day,and the summer day is losing:even before summer begins,the winds of
18、 May are often brutal to the young flowers;summer never lasts long;sometimes the sun is too hot and sometimes it hides behind clouds,and besides everythingeven the good thingsin nature diminishes in time.Third Quatrain “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”In the third quatrain,the speaker declares
19、 the advantages that the poem has over the summer day:that unlike the summer day,the poem shall remain eternally;its summer will not end as the natural summer day must.Nor will the poem lose its beauty,and even death cannot claim the poem,because it will exist“in eternal lines”that the poet will con
20、tinue to write,“When in eternal lines to time thou growst.”The Couplet “This gives life to thee”The couplet“So long as men can breathe,or eyes can see,/So long lives this,and this gives life to thee”claims that as long as someone is alive to read it,the poem will have life.Hamlet To be,or not to be.
21、is the opening phrase of asoliloquyin the Nunnery SceneofWilliam ShakespearesplayHamlet.In the speech,a despondent or feigningPrince Hamletcontemplates death andsuicide.He bemoans the pains and unfairness of life but acknowledges the alternative might be still worse.The speech functions within the p
22、lay to explain Hamlets hesitation to directly and immediately avengehis fathers murder(discovered in Act I)on his uncle,stepfather,and newking Claudius.Claudius and his ministerPoloniusare preparing to eavesdrop on Hamlets interaction with Ophelia Francis Bacon 1561-1626 I.Life an English philosophe
23、r,statesman,scientist,jurist,orator,essayist,and author.He served both asAttorney GeneralandLord Chancellorof England.After his death,he remained extremely influential through his works,especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific methodduring thescientific revolution.Baco
24、n wasknightedin 1603(being the first scientist to receive a knighthood),and createdBaron Verulamin 1618 and Viscount St.Alban in 1621;as he died without heirs,bothpeeragesbecame extinct upon his death.He famously died by contractingpneumonia while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation
25、 of meat.II.Academic AchievementsBacon has been called the father ofempiricism.His works established and popularisedinductivemethodologies for scientific inquiry,often called theBaconian method,or simply thescientific method.His demand for a planned procedure of investigating all things natural mark
26、ed a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science,much of which still surrounds conceptions of propermethodologytoday.III.Literary Achievement Bacons chief contributions to literature are his essays,published between 1597 and 1625.It is the first example of that genre in English
27、Lit and has been recognized as an important landmark in the development of English prose.They are famous for their brevity,compactness and powerfulness.They are well arranged and enriched by Biblical allusions,metaphors and cadence.IV.Selected Readings Of studies It is the most popular of Bacons 58 essays.It analyses what studies chiefly serve for,the different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies,and how studies exert influence over character.