МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ АГЕНТСТВО ПО ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ

ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ

ВЫСШЕГО ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

«ВОРОНЕЖСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ»

ENGLISH

AND AMERICAN

LITERATURE

УЧЕБНОЕ ПОСОБИЕ

по английскому языку

для студентов 2 курса филологического факультета

Воронеж 2006

УДК Издано по решению учебно-методического совета ВГПУ

РЕЦЕНЗЕНТЫ:

доктор филологических наук профессор З.Д. Попова (ВГУ)

кандидат филологических наук доцент А.Э. Воротникова (ВГПУ)

English and American literature: Учебное пособие по английскому языку для студентов II курса филологического факультета. Составитель Т.А. Чубур. – Воронежский госпедуниверситет, 2006.

Учебное пособие “English and American literature” предназначено для студентов II курса филологического факультета. Пособие содержит биографические сведения, анализ творчества и отрывки из произведений наиболее значительных английских и американских писателей, знакомит с основными явлениями английской и американской литературы.

Учебное пособие состоит из двух частей. Первая часть (English literature) посвящена творчеству английских писателей, вторая часть (American literature) – американских. Тексты снабжены вопросами и заданиями на понимание прочитанного материала, развитие навыков устной речи, творческих и аналитических способностей.

Part I

ENGLISH LITERATURE

ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE

AND THЕ LITERATURE OF THE NORMAN PERIOD

In the 7th—11th centuries the culture of the early Britons changed greatly under the influence of Christianity. The mon­asteries where the art of reading and writing was practiced, became the centers of almost all the learning and education in the country. No wonder many poets and writers imitated those Latin books about the early Christians, and they also made up many stones of their own about saints.

Though the poets were English, they wrote in Latin.

A writer of this time was Bede. His famous book "The History of the English Church" was well known in France and in Italy because the people of the Middle Ages considered it a scien­tific book. The book is important and interesting for us because it shows what the country was like thirteen hundred years ago and how men acted and thought at that time.

One of the greatest kings of England was Alfred who is fa­mous not only for having built the first navy but for trying to enlighten his people. He drew up a code of laws. To him the English owe the famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which may be called the first history of the early Britons and includes mini­ature sagas.

Various writers of different times wrote for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

In the year 1066, the Norman Duke William crossed the Chan­nel and conquered the English in the great battle fought at Hast­ings. Within five years William the Conqueror was complete master of the whole of England.

Most of the British writers and poets about whom we are going to speak were educated at Universities. In 1168 some professors founded schools at the town of Oxford, which formed the first university. A second university was formed in 1209 at Cambridge.

In the first half of the 14th century king of England was Edward III. This powerful feudal lord wished to make himself king of France as well. Wishing to make his people believe that he defended English trade, the king made war with France in 1337. This war is now called the Hundred Years' War because if lasted over a hundred years.

The greatest writer of the 14th century was Geoffrey Chaucer. He was born in 1340 in London. At 17 he was page to a lady at the court of Edward III. At 20 he was in France and was then taken prisoner by the French. When he returned to England, his education was none the worse for that, though he had not been to a university.

Chaucer's earliest poems were written in imitation of the French romances. During 1373 and the next few years, Chaucer travelled much and lived a busy life. He went to France, and made three trips to Italy.

Chaucer was well read in the old Roman authors. Italian lit­erature taught him the meaning of national literature.

In 1384 Chaucer wrote his masterpiece, the "Canterbury Tales".

Questions and tasks

1. What changed the culture of the early Britons?

2. Why did the monasteries become the centres of the learning and education?

3. What book by Bede was well known in France and Italy? Why?

4. Why is this book so important?

5. What was king Alfred famous for?

6. Where were most writers educated?

7. What do you know about Oxford and Cambridge?

8. Who and why made war with France in 1337?

9. Who is the greatest writer of the 14th century?

10. What is Chaucer's masterpiece?

William shakespeare (1564-1616)

The greatest of all English authors, William Shakespeare belongs to those rare geniuses of mankind who have become landmarks in the history of world culture. Thus, it was Shakespeare who embodied in the immortal images of his plays all the greatest ideas of the Renaissance and in the first place the ideas of humanism which means love for man­kind blended with active struggle for its happiness and with passionate intolerance towards injustice, human falsehood and perversity.

William Shakespeare was born on the 23 of April, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. His father, John Shakespeare, was a well-to-do merchant.

Very few authentic facts of Shakespeare's life have been preserved; nevertheless there are many records left in the works of his contemporaries that help us to restore his image. Of great value are the traditions that were current among the old residents of Stratford and London who knew William Shakespeare personally.

Although there is no record of Shakespeare's education, Stratford is known to have possessed an excellent grammar school, taught by university graduates, and there is no rea­son to doubt that Shakespeare attended it.

For more than 25 years Shakespeare had been associated with the best theatres of England. In 1599, the famous "Globe" theatre was established in which Shakespeare was one of the principal shareholders. The theatre received the name from its sign, an effigy of Hercules who supported a globe bearing the motto of "All the world acts on a stage".

During the twenty-two years of his literary work Shakespeare produced 37 plays, two narrative poems and 154 sonnets. His earliest work was in the plays on English history. He wrote, possibly with collaboration, three plays on the reign of Henry VI. They were the beginning of his epical treatment of English history. In the earliest historical plays Shakespeare shows some dependence on contemporary models: they have much of the episodic method of the old­er chronicle plays, though with an added firmness in char­acterization. Later on he has liberated himself from any contemporary example, and evolved a drama, which, while presenting history, allows for comic scenes.

In Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night he brought to the romantic stories not only a subtle stage-craft, but excellent and well-advised characters. All that the romantic comedy could yield is gathered into the beauty of Twelfth Night.

The great period of Shakespeare's tragedy is to be found in the plays which begin with Hamlet, and include Othello, Mackbeth, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus. These were all composed in the first six years of the seventeenth century. It would, however, be false to consider Shakespeare's achievement in tragedy as confined to these great plays. Already in the English history plays he found a form of tragedy in Richard II and Richard III. Tragedy, then, belongs to all periods of his work but the last. At the same time, in the period of the great tragedies, his vision seems deeper, and his powers in verse, and in dramatic genius, at their supreme. The great tragedies share some characteris­tics. Each portrays some noble figure, caught in a difficult situation, when some weakness or bias of his nature is ex­posed. Upon his action depends not only his own fate, but that of an entire nation. While attention is concentrated on this central action, Shakespeare portrays the whole world in which his hero moves. Each of the plays is so made that it can appeal to different audiences at different levels of intelligence. Hamlet is a story of murder, suicide, madness, to those who call for melodrama, but for others it is a more subtle analysis of character, and a play in which verse is used with great subtlety. Like a character in life itself, Hamlet may not be capable of full interpretation, though it is clear that through him Shakespeare explored the whole problem of action and reflective mind. The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream are of miraculous quality, for they seem compact of originality: The characters are half-allegorical, the theme full of suggestions, the action a unity and all made beautiful.

In his works Shakespeare was always keenly alive to the events of contemporary life; this, together with his consummate craftsmanship, made his play extremely popular.

Shakespeare's activities as a dramatist, poet, actor lasted till the year 1612 when he retired from the stage and returned to Stratford.

Two of Shakespeare's fellow actors made him immortal by gathering his plays together and publishing them in 1623, seven years after his death.