3) Later Years & Major Poetry
After the Restoration in 1660, Milton was imprisoned. His release was brought about mainly through the efforts of his friends, notably the poet Andrew Marwell, After that time he devoted himself to his 3 major poetical works: Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Regained (1671), & Samson Agonistes (1671). Among the three, the first is the greatest, indeed the only generally acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf; & the last one is the most perfect example of the verse drama after the Greek style in English.
3.领会His Major Works
1) Lycidas
It is a collection of elegies dedicated to Edward king, a fellow undergraduate of Milton's at Cambridge, who was drowned in the Irish Sea. The poem begins with grief & a feeling of immaturity; then the grief is deepened by the sense of irrecoverable loss in the silencing of a young poet. With this bitter sense of loss, Milton asks why the just & good should suffer. These emotions swell to a passionate call for the consolation of art. The poem moves from a sad apprehension of death, through regret, to passionate questioning, rage, sorrow & acceptance. The feelings begin in a low key but move on to the large questions of divine justice & human accountability. The climax of the poem is the blistering attack on the clergy, i.e. the "Shepherds," who are corrupted by self-interest.
2) Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost, an epic poem in 12 books, written in blank verse, represents the fullest expression of Milton's genius. The poem vividly portrays the story of Satan's rebellion against God & his tempting of Adam & Eve to eat the fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The theme is the "Fall of Man," i.e. man's disobedience & the loss of Paradise, with its prime cause-Satan. Although Adam is the central figure in Paradise Lost, it is the villain, Satan, who emerges for many readers as the most interesting character in the poem, In Paradise Lost, Milton used the conventions of ancient Greek & Latin epics & enriched his poem with reference to classical mythology & literature.
Working through the tradition of a Christian humanism, Milton wrote Paradise Lost, intending to expose the ways of Satan & to "justify the ways of God to men." At the center of the conflict between human love & spiritual duty lies Milton's primary concern with freedom & choice; the freedom to obey God's prohibition on eating the apple & the choice of disobedience made for love. In the fall of man Adam discovered his full humanity. But man's fall is the sequel to another & more stupendous tragedy, the fall of the angels. By lifting his argument to that degree, Milton raises the problem of evil in a more intractable form. Milton holds that God created all things out of Himself, including evil. There was evil in Heaven before Satan rebelled: Pride, Lust, Wrath, & Avarice were there. At the glorification of the son these forces erupted & were cast forth. But God suffered them to escape from Hell & infect the Earth. And then the tragedy was re-enacted, but with a difference-"Man shall find grace." But he must lay hold of it by an act of free will. The freedom of the will is the keystone of Milton's creed. His poem attempts to convince us that the unquestionable truth of Biblical revelation means that an all-knowing God just allows Adam & Eve to be tempted &, of their free will, to choose sin & its inevitable punishment. And, thereby, it paves the way for the voluntary sacrifice of Christ which showed the mercy of God in bringing good out of evil.
3) Paradise Regained
Milton followed Paradise Lost with a shorter & less brilliant religious religious epic, Paradise Regained, which describes the New Testament story of Christ's victory over Satan in the wilderness.
4) Samson Agonistes
Milton's last important work was the magnificent poetic drama Samson Agonistes, which presents the Biblical story of Samson in the form of a Greek tragedy. The blind & suffering Samson is strongly reminiscent of Milton himself.
The theme of Samson Agonistes is a more vital & personal one. The picture of Israel's mighty champion, blind, alone, afflicted by thoughtless enemies but preserving a noble ideal to the end, is a fitting close to the life work of the poet himself. The poet's aim was to present in English a pure tragedy, with all the passion & restraint which marked the old Greek dramas. The whole poem strongly suggests Milton's passionate longing that he too could bring destruction down upon the enemy at the cost of his own life. In this sense, Samson is Milton.
6. 应用Selected Reading
Analyze Satan, the hero in John Milton's Paradise Lost.
Milton's Paradise Lost is a long epic of which the theme is the "Fall of Man" with its prime cause-Satan. In Heaven, Satan led a rebellion against God. Defeated, he & his angels were cast into Hell, However, Satan refused to accept his failure, vowing that "all was not lost" & that he would seek revenge for his down fall. In order to achieve his ambition, Satan managed to tempt Adam & Eve, the first human beings created by God, to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge against God's instruction. Satan is the real hero of the poem. Like a conquered & banished giant, he remains obeyed & admired by those who follow him down to hell. He is firmer than the rest of the fallen angels. It is he, who, passing through the guarded gates of hell & boundless chaos, amid so many dangers, & overcoming so many obstacles, makes man revolt against God. Though defeated, he prevails, since he was won from God the third part of his angels, & almost all the sons of Adam. Though wounded, he triumphs, for the thunder which overwhelmed him left heart still unvanquished.
Chapter II The Neoclassical Period
一.新古典主义时期概述
1. 识记：（1）新古典主义时期的界定（2）政治经济背景（3）启蒙运动的意义与影响
2. 领会：（1）启蒙运动的主张与文学的特点 （2）新古典主义时期文学的艺术特点
3. 应用：启蒙运动，新古典主义，英雄双行诗，英国现实主义小说等名词的解释
1. 识记Definitions of literary terms
1) The Enlightenment Movement
The 18th-century England is known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. The Enlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement which flourished in France & swept through the whole Western Europe at the time. The movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance of the 15th & 16th centuries. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modem philosophical & artistic ideas. The enlighteners celebrated reason or rationality, equality & science. They called for a reference to order, reason & rules & advocated universal education. Famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers like John Dryden, Alexander pope & so on.
2) Neoclassicism
In the field of literature, the Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works. This tendency is known as neoclassicism. According to the neoclassicists, all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek & Roman writers (Homer, Virgil, & so on)& those of the contemporary French ones. They believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion & accuracy, & that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity. This belief led them to seek proportion, unity, harmony & grace in literary expressions, in an effort to delight, instruct & correct human beings, primarily as social animals. Thus, a polite, urbane, witty, & intellectual art developed.
3) The heroic couplet
It means a pair of lines of a type once common in English poetry, which rhyme & are written with five beats each..
4) the Realistic Novel
The mid-century was, however, predominated by a newly rising literary form, the modern English novel, which, contrary to the traditional romance of aristocrats, gives a realistic presentation of life of the common English people. This-the most significant phenomenon in the history of the development of English literature in the eighteenth century - is a natural product of the Industrial Revolution & a symbol of the growing importance & strength of the English of the growing importance & strength of the English middle class, Among the pioneers were Daniel Defoe ,Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Tobias Creorge Smollott, & Oliver Goldsmith.
2. 领会Characteristics of Neoclassical Literature
According to the neoclassicists, all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek & Roman writers (Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, etc,)& those of the contemporary French ones. Neoclassicists had some fixed laws &rules for almost every genre of literature, prose should be precise, direct, smooth & flexible. Poetry should be lyrical, epical, didactic, satiric or dramatic, & each class should be guided by its own principles. Drama should be written in the Heroic Couplets (iambic pentameter rhymed in two lines); the three unities of time, space & action should be strictly observed; regularity in construction should be adhered to & type characters rather than individuals should be represented.
二.该时期的重要作家
1，一般识记：重要作家的创作生涯
2，识记：重要作品及主要内容
3，领会：重要作家的创作思想，艺术特色其代表作的主题结构，人物刻画，语言风格，艺术特色，社会意义等。
4，应用：（1）《天路历程》中"名利场"的寓义。
（2）蒲伯的文学（诗歌）批评观及其诗歌特色。
（3）〈〈格列佛游记〉〉的社会讽刺。 （4）菲尔丁的"散文体史诗"。 （5）格雷诗歌的主题与意象。
I． John Bunyan
1. 一般识记His life
English author & preacher, born in Elstow, England, probably Nov.28, 1628,and died in London, England, Aug, 31, 1688.
2. 识记His major works
John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) is the outstanding 17th-century English religious literature. For more than 200 years this book was second in popularity only to the Bible. Bunyan did not attempt to portray the political confusion & social upheaval of 17th-century England. His concern was rather the study of man's spiritual life.
Bunyan chiefly wrote four prose works - Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666), The Life & Death of Mr. Badman (1680), The Holy War (1682) & The Pilgrim's Progress, part II (1684).
3. 领会Characteristics of his works
Bunyan's style was modeled after that of the English Bible. With his concrete &living language & carefully observed & vividly presented details, he made it possible for the reader of the least education to share the pleasure of reading his novel & to relive the experience of his characters.
4. 应用Selected Reading
"The Vanity Fair", an excerpt from Part I of The Pilgrim's Progress.
(1) Theme: The Pilgrim's Progress is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. Its purpose is to urge people to comply with Christian doctrines & seek salvation through constant struggles with their own weakness & all kinds of social evils. It is not only about something spiritual but also beats much relevance to the time. Its predominant metaphor-life as a journey-is simple & familiar.
(2) "Vanity Fair" is the most famous part of The Pilgrim's Progress. It tells how Christian & his friend Faithful come to Vanity Fair on their way to heaven," a fair where in should be sold all sorts of vanity & that it should last all the year long: therefore at this fair all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures & delights of all sorts as harlots, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones & what not." As they refuse to buy anything but truth, they are beaten & put in a cage & then taken out & led in chains up & down the fair. They are sentenced to death-to be put to the most cruel death that can be invented." Vanity Fair" is a satirical picture of English society, law & religion in Bunyan's day.
II. Alexander pope
1. 一般识记His life & career
English poet & satirist, born in London, England, May 21, 1688, died in Twickenham, England May 30, 1744.
Pope is one of the fore-most satirists in world literature as well as a great poet. He wrote witty & polished verses ridiculing the behavior of his day. Pope's mock-heroic poem The Rape of the Lock is one of the finest examples of English comic verse. He made his name as a great poet with the publication of An Essay on Criticism in 1711. His Dunciad is a scathing attack on dullness & pedantry in literature. He also composed verse essays on philosophy, literature, & criticism. In An Essay on Man, he brilliantly expressed the philosophical trends & concepts of his age.
2. 识记Pope's literally outlook
As a representative of the Enlightenment, Pope was one of the first to introduce rationalism to England. He was the greatest poet of his time. He strongly advocated neoclassicism, emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rules of order, reason, logic, restrained emotion, good taste & decorum. According to Pope, almost every genre of literature should have some fixed laws & rules. Prose should be precise, direct, smooth & flexible, Poetry should be lyrical, epical, didactic, satiric or dramatic, & drama should be written in the Heroic Couplets (iambic pentameter rhymed in two lines); the three unities of time, space & action should be strictly observed; regularity in construction should be adhered to, & type characters rather than individuals should be represented.
3. 识记His major works
1). The Rape of the Lock
A delightful burlesque of epic poetry, it ridicules the manners of the English nobility. The poem is based on an actual incident in which a young nobleman stole a lock of a lady's hair.
2) An Essay on Criticism
His first important work, An Essay on Criticism was a long didactic poem in heroic couplets. In this work, he reflected the neo-classical spirit of the times by advocating good taste, common sense & the adherence to classical rules in writing & criticism. The whole poem is written in a plain style, hardly containing any imagery or eloquence &therefore makes easy reading.
3） The Dunciad
Generally considered Pope's best satiric work, The Dunciad goes deep in meaning & works at many levels. Its satire is directed at Dullness in general, & in the course of it all the literary men of the age. Poets mainly who had made Pope's enemies, are held up to ridicule. But the poem is not confined to personal attack.
Dullness as reflected in the corruptness of government, social morals, education & even religion, is expertly exposed & satirized.
4. 领会His language style
Pope's works are still enjoyed for their sparkling wit, good sense & charm of expression. After Shakespeare, he is the most widely quoted poet in English literature. He worked painstakingly on his poems, developed a satiric, concise, smooth, graceful &well-balanced style.
5. 应用Selected Readings
An Excerpt from Part 2 of An Essay on Criticism.
An Essay on Criticism is a didactic poem written in heroic couplets. It consists of 744 lines &is divided into three parts. It sums up the art of poetry as up held & practiced by the ancients like Aristotle, Horace, Boileau, etc. & the eighteenth century European classicists.
In Part 2, Pope advises the critics not to stress too much the artificial use of conceit or the external beauty of language but to pay special attention to True wit which is best set in a plain style.
III. Daniel Defoe
1. 一般识记His life
English novelist & journalist, born in London, England, 1660, and died in London, Apr. 26,1731.
Like Pope, he never went to university, but he received a good education in one of the best Dissenting academies. He started as a small merchant & all his life his business underwent many ups & downs & yet he was never beaten. Defoe also had a zest for politics. He wrote quite a number of pamphlets on the current political issues.
2. 识记His social outlook
As a member of the middle class, Defoe spoke for & to the members of his class & his novels enjoyed great popularity among the less cultivated readers. In most of his works, he gave his praise to the hard-working, sturdy middle class & showed his sympathy for the downtrodden, unfortunate poor.
3. 识记His major works
