英國文學(xué)簡史——18世紀(jì)文學(xué)

1、Background: vThe Glorious Revolution of 1688 ended in a compromise between the aristocracy and bourgeoisie. England became a constitutional monarchy and power passed from the King to the Parliament and the cabinet minister.v18th century witnessed unprecedented technical innovation.vBecause of the En

2、closure Movement and expropriation of peasants, landless peasants had to work in cities with low wages and for long hours. Conflicts between them and the upper classes were incessant.Classicism The classicists modelled themselves on Greek and Latin Authors, and tried to control literary creation by

3、some fixed laws and rules drawn from Greek works.Characteristics:Rimed couplet instead of blank verse. Three unities of time, place and action.Regularity in construction.Presentation of types rather than individuals Drama:Characteristics:Poetry:Following The ancient divisionsLyric, epic, datactic, s

4、atiric or dramaticGuided by some peculiar principles Prose: Precise, direct, and flexibleMasters and works: Steel and Addison: The Sepectator (1711-1712) -EssaysAlexander Pope: Essay on Criticism (1711)The Rape of the Lock (1714)The Dunciad (1728-1742) PoemsEssay of Man (1732-1734)Popes Homer(transl

5、ation): Iliad (1715-1720) Odyssey (1725-1726)Popes Shakespeare (1725, edition)Alexander PopePosition And Eaily Life:vThe most important English poet in the first half of the 18th century.vEaily Life : Weak and deformed as a childSelf-taught in Latin, French, Italian and Greek poemsAssociated with Ad

6、disonA member of the Scriblerus ClubLiterary Career:uWhen he was 21, Popes Pastorals was published.uAt the age of 20, he finished The Rape of The Lock, his most famous poem.uWhen he was 23, his An Essay on Criticism was published uIn the same year, he formed the satirical Scriblerus Club together wi

7、th Tory writers John Gay, Jonathan Swift, Thomas Parnell and John Arbuthnot.uBetween 27-32, he he worked his translation of the Iliad.uAt the age of 37, he had his new edition of Shakespeare published.uHe composed The Dunciad as a counterattack against Theobalds criticism of his Shakespeare edition.

8、uThe Essay on Man, a philosophical poem, was published between 1732 and 1734.uAfter 1738, Pope worte little. His major concern at that time was to revise and expand his masterpiece, The Dunciad.Masterpieces:The Rape of The Lock:l A mock-heroic narrative poem, first published anonymously in May 1712.

9、lThe poem satirises a minor incident by comparing it to the epic world of the gods. It was based on an actual incident recounted by his friend - a fop at the court forcibly cut off a lock of curls of a pretty maid of honour and which caused a quarrel between the families and became the talk of Londo

10、n. Pope satirized the triviality and silliness of the high class with a delicate wit.lPopes most famous Poem.The Dunciad:lThe Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope, the first version published in 1728.lThe poem celebrates the goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as

11、 they bring decay, imbecility, and tastelessness to the Kingdom of Great Britain.lThe poem as a whole is a brilliant piece of satire.Workmanship & Significance:vPope was an outstanding enlightener and the greatest English Poet of the Classical school in the first half of the 18th century, and a

12、master in the art of poetry.vPopes style also depends upon his great patience in elaborating his art.vHe is the most important representative of the English classical poetry.Prose of Eighteenth CenturyProse of Eighteenth CenturyThe 18th century is also an age of prose, especially the latter part the

13、 century. And the prose of this time are precise, direct, smooth and flexible. Leading Figures1234Joseph Addison(1672-1719)Richard Steele(1672-1729)Samuel Johnson(1709-1784)Edward Gibbon(1737-1794)Leading Figures1Richard Steele (1672-1729) poet, playwright, essayist, publisher of newspaper. Mainwork

14、s:Essay: The Christian Hero (1700)Comedy: The Funeral (1701) The Lying Lover (1703)Newspaper: The Tatler (17091711)Journal: The Spectator (17111712)2Joseph Addison(1672-1719)Studied at Oxford, secretary of state, created a literary periodical “Spectator” (with Steele, 1711) poet, moralist, essayist

15、and politicianMain works:Poem: The Campaign（1704）Newspaper: The Tatler (17091711) Journal: The Spectator (17111712)Play: Guardian (1713) The Haunted House (1716)1&2Richard Steele (1672-1729) & Joseph Addison(1672-1719)Their life stories:Their careers run parallel coursesBoth attend the same

16、school and universityBoth enjoy the patronage of the Great WhigsBoth serve government and get official positionsBoth are political writers and newspaper editorsRichard Steele (1672-1729) & Joseph Addison(1672-1719)2) Their representative works: The Tatler閑談?wù)唛e談?wù)撸?709-1711）The Spectator旁觀者旁觀者（1711

17、-1712）1&2The Tatler閑談?wù)唛e談?wù)撸?709-1711）1.Full of contempt for feudal prejudices and the arrogance of the rich;2.Exposed the vagaries（異常行為） of some prominent social characters, expressed public hatred to gambling and dueling（競爭）;3.Warned his readers against swindlers(騙子) and sharpers(詐騙者), and spoke

18、 for children and women;4.His appeal was made to the middle class.ContentThe Spectator旁觀者旁觀者（1711-1712）The Spectator, a daily paper, was a collaborative project by Addison and Steele together. It was much more important than The Tatler not only because it dealt with a wide range of subjects and was

19、written in a mature style but because it contained a gallery of vivid portraits of the members of the so-called Spectator Club. The Spectator旁觀者旁觀者（1711-1712）1.The essays in the paper deal mainly with the manners, morals and literature of the time;2.The paper continued to struggle against the idea o

20、f aristocracy3.It gathered up the new ideas of the time and awaken peoples thoughts and emotions by what they see and readContentRichard Steele (1672-1729) & Joseph Addison(1672-1719)3) Features of their periodical essays:a. Their method was admirably adapted to their purpose.b. Their periodical

21、 essays dealt with light topics-fashions, head- dresses, practical jokes, polite conversations, discussed art, philosophy, drama, and poetry, and sought in so doing not only to interest the general reader in such subjects, but also to guide and develop their tastes. c. Their essays were full of wit,

22、 humor, and satire.1&2Richard Steele (1672-1729) & Joseph Addison(1672-1719)4) Purpose of their writing:to bridge the gap between the small circle of London elegance and wit, and the large, serious, rather Puritan middle class.to overcome a certain corrupt tendency in literatureto strip off

23、the mask of vice, to show its ugliness and deformityto reveal virtue in its own native loveliness.1&25) Their literary contribution:Richard Steele (1672-1729) & Joseph Addison(1672-1719)1.Their writings afford a new code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie.2.They give a true pictur

24、e of the social life of England in the 18th century.3.In their hands, English essay has completely established itself as a literature genre.1&23Samuel Johnson(1709-1784)The author of the 1st English dictionary by an Englishman - A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)Energetic and versatile

25、writer:trying his hand in all the different branches of literary activities. poet, dramatist, prose romancer, biographer, essayist, critic, lexicographer and publicist. 3Samuel Johnson(1709-1784)Born to a book-seller in 1709 in Richfield. Studied in Richfield Grammar School for 8 years - Here he gai

26、ned a solid foundation in Latin.Oxford university on an off 1728-1731 without a degree.During 1737-1755, he had difficulty for himself to “write for a living”.In 1755, he published his dictionary.In 1762, a special governmental pension freed him from the burden of writing. He died in 1784Life3Samuel

27、 Johnson(1709-1784)1)poems: London (a poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal) The Vanity of Human Wishes2) A Dictionary of the English Language3)Articles: Letter to Lord Chesterfield4)Novel: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia5)Criticism: The Preface to the Plays of Shakespeare Li

28、ves of the English Poets詩人傳6)Travel narrative: A Journey to the Western Islands of ScotlandMain works:3Samuel Johnson(1709-1784)1.Johnsons style is typically neoclassical. His language is characteristically general. His sentences are long and well structured, interwoven with parallel words and phras

29、es. His thought is always clearly expressed. 2.Reading his works gives the reader the impression that he is talking with a very learned man because of Johnsons use of “l(fā)earned words”( 文言詞 ).Literary StyleA Dictionary of the English Language (1755) Johnson undertook the gigantic task single-handedly

30、and finished in over 7 years.His dictionary met the neoclassical need for standards and helped to standardize vocabulary and usage. A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)Its a dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their diffe

31、rent significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar. -By Samuel Johnson, in Two Volumes VOL. ISamuels introduction of this dictionary A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)An important innovation of Johnsons was to illu

32、strate the meanings of his words by literary quotation, of which there are around 114,000. The authors most frequently cited by Johnson include Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden. 3Samuel Johnson(1709-1784)In spite of whatever shortcomings it might have had, the dictionary was far and away the best of i

33、ts day, a milestone in English-language lexicography to which all modern dictionaries owe some gratitude. Johnsons dictionary was still considered authoritative until the appearance of the Oxford English Dictionary at the end of the nineteenth century. Literary contribution4Edward Gibbon(1737-1794)P

34、osition:The most eminent historian in the 18th-century EnglandLife:In 1737, Gibbon was born in LondonHe entered Oxford in 1752At 16 he was sent to Switzerland, where he learned FrenchIn 1757, he fell in love with a woman, but was compelled by his father. After that, Gibbon never married, devoting hi

35、mself to writtingIn 1762,Gibbon gave his first publication,in French,Essay on the study of Literture (a justification and praise of the study of ancient time) In 1776 appeared his first volume of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireIn 1794, Gibbon died in London4Edward Gibbon(1737-1794)Represent

36、ative work:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Content:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire relates about 13 centuries of the history of the Roman Empire.Influence:Gibbons Decline and Fall is a gigantic work, covering thousands of pages.And its a monumental work of the 18th century , the gr

37、eatest historical work in English literature.Literary style:Gibbon is also famous for his style.Its a classical and elevated style,characterized by precision, lucidity, economy, and elegance,which became a model for succeeding historians and prose-writers.sentimentalismsentimentalism is a literary a

38、nd artistic movement that emerged in Western Europe in the second half of the 18th century, in response to the crisis of Enlightenment rationalism.sentimentalism can mean sentimentalism both in philosophy and in literature. They are inseparable as we began to understand them .And sentimentalism in p

39、hilosophy and sentimentalism in literature are sometimes hard to distinguish. We can just see sentimentalism in literature as a representation of sentimentalism in philosophy, and the latter is the practice of the former through narration and characters.sentimentalismsentimentalism1.social backgroun

40、d2.origin and developement3.nature of sentimentalism4.sentimentalism in English literature (poetry,novel)The bourgeoisie gaining their ascendancy in national politics in England after the two revolutions of 1640 and 1688. Along with the transformation from handicraft labor to machine industry in the

41、 course of Industrial Revolution,the new capitalist relations were established.The large-scale enclosures of land kept do on,resulted in rural bankruptcy.all these only brought disaster to the masses in the rural area. Thus sharp social contradictions which began in the early 18th century was escala

42、ted and threaten the short-lived social stability .There apeared increasing poverty and misery of the exploited and unemployed labouring massessocial backgroundSentimentalism came with the end of French rationalism with the death of Louis XIV and turned against the strictly reason-orientated way of

43、life which had been used to discipline and civilise society under absolutism.origin and developmentSentimentalism received its fullest expression in Great Britain,where the ideology of the third estate, as well as its internal contradictions first appeared. In sentimentalism the hero is more individ

44、ualized, and his inner world is enriched by his ability to empathize and to respond sensitively to what is going on around him. And based on the development of sentimentalism in philosophy, and the excellent soil, more and more people get it into the practice be means of art and literature,especiall

45、y in literature.the distinct social disparity and the misery of poor laborer which happened everywhere provide excellent soil for the developemnt sentimentalism and enable it to reach a climax origin and developmentnature of sentimentalism1 Sentimentalism is one of the important trends in English li

46、terature of the middle and later decades of the 18th century.2 Along with a new vision of love, sentimentalism presented a new view of human nature which prized feeling over thinking, passion over reason, and personal instincts of pity, tenderness, and benevolence over social duties.3 Literary work

47、of the sentimentalism, marked by a sincere sympathy for the poverty-stricken, expropriated peasants, wrote the simple annals of the poor”.nature of sentimentalism4 Writers of sentimentalism justly criticized the cruelty of the capitalist relations and the gross social injustices brought about by the

48、 bourgeois revolutions.5 But they attacked the progressive aspect of this great social change in order to eliminate it and sighed for the return of the patriarchal times which they idealized.6 Sentimentalism embraces a pessimistic outlook and blames reason and the Industrial Revolution for the miser

49、ies and injustices in the aristocratic-bourgeois society and indulges in sentiment, hence the definite signs of decadence in the literary works of the sentimental tradition.The literary genres of sentimentalism included the elegy, the letter, the epistolary novel, travel notes, diaries, and other pr

50、ose forms .and it found its expression mainly in the domains of poetry and novel.sentimentalism in English litertatureSentimentalism poetry was represented by Edward. Young s Night Thoughts and Thomas. Grays Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard .William Cowpers The Tasksentimentalism novel was repr

51、esented by Richardsons Pamela and Clarissa,Goldsmiths The Vicar of Wakefield,and Laurence Sternes The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy.Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University. He is widely known for h

52、is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, published in 1751.It is believed that Gray began writing his masterpiece, the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, in the graveyard of St Giles parish church in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in 1742. After several years of leaving it unfinished, he complet

53、ed it in 1750 Elegy Written in a Country ChurchyardThe poem was a literary sensation when published by Robert Dodsley in February 1751.Even now It is still one of the most popular and most frequently quoted poems in the English language.The poem contemplates not only themes as death and afterlife bu

54、t also the changing society . These themes seems to foreshadowed the upcoming Gothic movement. It is written with a classical precision and polish,it shows a keen interests in the English countryside and a sincere for the life of common people . William Cowper ( 26 November 1731 25 April 1800) was a

55、n English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside.Major worksOlney Hymns, 1779, in collaboration with John NewtonJohn Gilpin, 1782 The Task, 1785Homers

56、Iliad and Odyssey, 1791 (translations from the Greek).The TaskThe Task, in six books,is a poem in blank verse by William Cowper published in 1785, usually seen as his supreme achievement. Beginning with a mock-Miltonic passage on the origins of the sofa (the first book), it develops into a discursiv

57、e meditation on the blessings of nature, the retired life and religious faith, with attacks on slavery, blood sports, fashionable frivolity, lukewarm clergy and French despotism among other things.The poet voiced a strong cry against opression An elegiac tone and patriarchal idealization are insepar

58、able in sentimentalist poetry.sentimental novel The sentimental novel was a major literary genre of these days ,there apeared many excellent noveists such as Samuel Richardson, Oliver Goldsmith, Henry Brooke, Laurence Sterne and so on.sentimental novels feature scenes of distress and tenderness, and

59、 the plot is arranged to advance emotions rather than action. The result is a valorization of fine feeling, displaying the characters as a model for refined, sensitive emotional effect. The ability to display feelings was thought to show character and experience, and to shape social life and relatio

60、nsPre-RomanticismTime span:1780s 1790s (last two decades)Origination: It originated among the conservative groups of men and letters as a reaction against Enlightenment and found its most manifest expression in the “Gothic novel”. The term arising from the fact that the greater part of such romances were devoted to the medieval times. Pre-Romant