《英国文学与文化》由上篇文化篇和下篇文学篇组成。上篇着重从圣经、希腊神话和英国社会的角度,来解读英国文学作品和文学史发展特征;下篇按文学的三大主要文类编排,旨在指导学生欣赏英国诗歌、英国小说和英国戏剧。
每章由导读、文本和思考题组成,既有总体引导,又有文本例释,配以练习题,以深化理解。教材内容丰富、选材广泛,可作为高校非英语专业选修课程的教材或外语学院英语专业英国文学课程的参考书,也是广大英语自学者和英国文学爱好者的可选读物。

II, Origins, Sources and Development of Greek Mythology
2.1 The Origin of Greek Mythology
Linguists have concluded that some names of Greek deities, including Zeus, can be traced back to gods worshiped by speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, the common ancestor of the Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit languages. However, it would be misleading to regard the people who may have spoken this language as the only contributors to Greek mythology, for many other elements were added later.
Archaeologists have shown that many of the places where mythical events presumably took place correspond to sites that had historical importance during the Mycenaean period of Greek history (second half of the 2nd millennium BC).
Scholars thus consider it likely that the Mycenaeans made a major contribution to the development of the stories, even if this contribution is hard to demonstrate in detail. Some scholars have argued that the Minoan civilization of Crete also had a formative influence on Greek myths. The myth of the Minotaur confined in a labyrinth in the palace of King Minos, for example, might be a memory of historical bull-worship in the labyrinthine palace at Knossos on Crete. However, there is little evidence that Cretan religion survived in Greece. Moreover, ancient inscriptions have not confirmed thatMinos ever existed outside of myth.
Scholars have shown that Middle Eastern influences were more influential to ancient Greek mythology than Cretan myths. Greek mythology owed much to cultures in Mesopotamia and Anatolia, especially in the realm of cosmogony (origin of the universe) and theogony (origin of the gods). To take one example, a clear parallel exists in an early Middle Eastern myth for Greek poet Hesiod's story about the castration of Uranus by his son Cronus and the subsequent overthrow of Cronus by his son Zeus.
The Middle Eastern myth tells of the sky god Anu who was castrated by Kumarbi, father of the gods. The weather and storm god Tesh
…… 历时一年半,本书的编写终于完结。回首编就本书的契机,机缘有二。一是电-子科技大学为通过英语四级考试的非英语专业本科生开设了丰富的英语选修课,“英国文学与文化”为其中之一,且报选者众;二是目前国内市场上,缺乏适合非英语专业学生使用的理想教材,以提升大学生对外国文学作品的欣赏能力,帮助其较系统地了解西方I垂I家的文化特征。
全书分为上、下两篇。上篇分别从《圣经》、希腊神话和英国社会三个方面进行讲解,以增进学生对英国文学作品和英国社会进程的理解。《圣经》和希腊神话,作为西方重要的精神产品和文学文本,不仅对西方社会和文化形成影响至深,同时也影响着后世众多文学作品的创作。英国许多经典文学作品,如弥尔顿的《失乐园》、雪莱的《解放了的普罗米修斯》和乔伊斯的《尤里西斯》等,都烙刻着《圣经》故事或希腊神话故事的痕迹。这些后世经典文学作品对《圣经》故事和希腊神话故事或借用、或颠覆、或戏拟,尽管产生不尽相同的美学效果,但新旧(前后)文本间的互文指涉,使新(后)文本得以搭建起跨越时空的偌大空间,文学文本的审美意义也得以放大。上篇的第三章 英国社会与英国文学包含八个小节,形成了英国从16世纪到20世纪八个主要文学史阶段的线性串结。但该章的目的并非在此,而旨在引导学生透过文学现象,洞悉产生现象的社会文化动因。思维的训练乃重之要义。下篇则按照文学的三大主要文类,细分诗歌、小说和戏剧的基本要素,**学生欣赏具体的文学作品。
全书各章由导读、文本和思考题组成。导读部分主要介绍该章的内容、基本概念;文本部分提供精选的文学片段和注释;每章*后还配有思考题或练习题,以帮助学生更好地理解和消化教材的内容。

Part One
Chapter One The Bible and British Literature
Introduction to the Bible
Section One: Important Biblical Characters
Selected Reading: Paradise Lost by John Milton
Section Two: Important Biblical Themes——Christian Virtues
Selected Reading: The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Section Three: Biblical Imagery
Selected Reading: Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Chapter Two Greek Mythology and British Literature
Introduction to Greek Mythology
Greek Mythology in British Literature
Selected Readings
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Sonnet XXXIII: Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint by John Milton
The Garden by Andrew Marvell

Chapter Three British Society and British Literature
Section One: English Renaissance and Humanism
Selected Reading: Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
Section Two: Metaphysical Poetry and English Society in the Early 17 Century
Selected Reading: A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning by John Donne
Section Three: Literature in English Revolution and Restoration Period
Selected Reading: Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Section Four: Neo-Classicism
Selected Reading: Epigrams by Alexander Pope
Section Five: English Romanticism
Selected Reading: The Isles of Greece by Lord Byron
Section Six: Critical Realism
Selected Reading: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Section Seven: Aestheticism
Selected Reading: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Section Eight: British Modernism
Selected Reading: Araby by James Joyce
Part Two

Chapter Four British Poetry
Key Questions to the Art of Poetry
Sample Analysis .. The Lake Isle oflnnisfree by William Butler Yeats
Selected Readings
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe
Sonnet 43 by William Shakespeare
Death, Be Not Proud by John Donne
A Red Red Rose by Robert Bums
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
When We Two Parted by George Gordon Byron
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Eagle: A Fragment by Alfred Tennyson
Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas

Chapter Five British Fiction
Key Questions to the Art of Fiction
Selected Readings
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence

Chapter Six British Drama
Key Questions to the Art of Drama
Selected Readings
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
参考文献
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