学习目标

介绍盎格鲁 - 萨克森时期的历史背景；

介绍这一时期的文学特点、流派及 主要作品《贝尔武夫》。

 学习指南

课程主要内容为介绍盎格鲁 - 萨克逊时期的历史背景、文学特点、流派以及这一时期的主要作品《贝尔武夫》。

主要授课形式为以教师讲授为主的教学模式，辅以课件、视频等多媒体手段。课后配有相应习题，加深学生对英国早期文学思潮的理解，培养学生赏析该时期主要作品的能力。

知识内容

知识点 1   I. Historical background

知识点 2   II. Anglo-Saxon literature:

            (1)Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon literature

            (2)Poetry

            (3)Prose

实践

What are the main incidents of the poem “Beowulf”?

作业

What are the main characteristics of Anglo-Saxon literature?

案例

Module one

Ballad ( 民谣 ): In more exact literary terminology, a ballad is a narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimester. Common traits of the ballad are that (a) the beginning is often abrupt, (b) the story is told through dialogue and action (c) the language is simple or “folksy,” (d) the theme is often tragic---though comic ballads do exist, (e) the ballad contains a refrain repeated several times. The ballad became popular in England in the late 14the century and was adopted by many writers. One of the most important anthologies of ballads is F. J. Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads .

民谣指的是抑扬格四音步与抑扬格三音步诗行交替出现的四行叙事诗。民谣的共同特色包括：（a）诗歌的起首通常十分出其不意。（b）故事通过对话和行为讲述。（c）语言简单，民风十足。（d）尽管存在喜剧民谣，但大多数民谣的主题具有悲剧意味。（e）民谣通常包含重复多遍的叠句。民谣这种诗歌形式在14世纪晚期的英格兰十分盛行，从此以后许多作家对其进行模仿创作。历史上最为知名的民谣集之一为恰尔徳收集出版的《英格兰和苏格兰流行歌谣》。

 

Features of Anglo-Saxon Literature

Anglo-Saxon literature is almost exclusively a verse literature in oral form. It could be passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. Its creators for the most part are unknown. It was only given a written form long after its composition.

There were two groups of English poetry in Anglo-Saxon period. The first group was the pagan poetry represented by Beowulf and the second was the religious poetry represented by the works of Caedmon and Cynewulf.

In the 8 th century, Anglo-Saxon prose appeared. The famous prose writers of that period were Venerable Bede and Alfred the Great.

 

Writing Features of the Poem Beowulf

It is not a Christian but a pagan ( 异教徒的 ) poem, despite the Christian flavor given to it by the monastery ( 修道院 ) scribe   It is the product of all advanced pagan civilization. The whole poem presents us an all-round picture of the tribal society. The social conditions and customs can be seen in it. The writing techniques of the poem can be shown as follows.

The use of the strong stress and the predominance of consonants are very notable in this poem. Each line is divided into two halves, and each half has two heavy stresses.

The use of the alliteration is another notable feature. Three stresses of the whole line are made even more emphatic by the use of alliteration.

A lot of metaphors are used in the poem. For example, the sea is called “the whale-road” or “the swan road”; the soldiers are called “shield-men”; the chieftains are called the “treasure-keepers”; human-body is referred to as “the bone-house”; God is called “wonder-wielder”; monster is referred to as “soul-destroyer”.

常见问题

What is the significance of the work Beowulf ?

Key:

Beowulf towers above all other literary works written in Anglo-Saxon, chiefly because it is a powerful poem about a people's hero written in true epic style, and not so much because the other extant writings of the period are mediocre or fragmentary. Beowulf is not simply a man of great military prowess but he is forever eager to help others in distress and in his last adventure with the dragon he shows himself a worthy leader ready to sacrifice his own life for the welfare of his people. Setting aside the supernatural elements pervading the poem as an inevitable limitation of the tribal-feudal age, Beowulf deserves to be ranked among the great heroic poems of northern Europe though it has not been as well known as the “Nibulungenlied”. In artistic form the epic tells the tale in a leisurely way, full of elaborations in legendary details, and the verse rises at places to heights of poetic grandeur, particularly in the descriptions of the hero's nobility of character and in the narrations of his courageous battlings with malevolent foes.  

知识结构