《the_18th_century英国18世纪文学》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《the_18th_century英国18世纪文学（42页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、18th Century British Literature (1688-1785),The 18th Century,Historical Background (events),Historical Background,A. A constitutional monarchy（君主立宪制）-After the Glorious Revolution the ruling power in England passed from the king to the parliament. B. The continuous, large-scale enclosures of land re
2、sulted in rural bankruptcy. The poverty and misery of the exploited and unemployed laboring masses in the cities increased. C. The exerted an immense impact on human thinking Industrial Revolution, which started in the 1760s, D. The 13 former British colonies in North America Announced their indepen
3、dence in 1776.,Historical Background (generalization) Politically, Abosulute monarchy constitutional monarchy Socially, rising of urban middle class or bourgeoisie Economically, a. industrial revolution b. expansion of its colonies abroad,Ideologically, Age of Enlightenment a. scientific discoveries
4、 (Newton) and flourishing of philosophies, French enlightenment started. b. expression of struggle of the progressive class of bourgeoisie against feudalism. c. constitution of Renaissance in belief in the possibility of human education d. rationality, natural right and equality,The Enlightenment Mo
5、vement,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
6、 & 16th centuries. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical & artistic ideas.,What is Enlightenment?,The enlighteners considered the chief means for the betterment of the society was “enlightenment” or “education” for the people. The Enlightener celebrated
7、reason or ration, equality, science and human beings ability to perfect themselves and their society. 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
8、.,Adaption of Englightenment in Literature -Neoclassicism,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
9、modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek & Roman writers . 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（均衡）, unity, harmony &
10、 grace in literary expressions, in an effort to delight, instruct（教导） & correct human beings, primarily as social animals. Thus, a polite, urbane, witty（富于机智的）, & intellectual art developed.,Adaption of Englightenment in Literature -Sentimentalism（感伤主义）,Sentimentalism is one of the important trends
11、in English literature of the middle and later decades of the 18th century. 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（怜悯，同情）, tenderness（敏感，亲切）, and benevolence（仁慈，善行）“
12、 over social duties. Literary work of the sentimentalism, marked by a sincere sympathy for the poverty-stricken, expropriated（征用） peasants, wrote the “simple annals（年报，年鉴） of the poor.”,Sentimentalism embraces（信奉） a pessimistic outlook and blames reason and the Industrial Revolution for the miseries
13、 and injustices in the aristocratic（贵族的）-bourgeois society and indulges in sentiment. Writers of sentimentalism justly criticized the cruelty of the capitalist relations and the gross social injustices brought about by the bourgeois revolutions. Writers of Sentimentalism try to concentrate on the di
14、stresses of the poor unfortunate but virtuous（善良的，有道德的） people, conveying the idea that virtuous people may finally be rewarded.,sentimentalism,Sentimentalism was a direct reaction against the cold, hard commercialism and rationalism which had dominated peoples life since the last decades of the 17t
15、h century. fiction Pamela, Samuel Richardson. poetry Thomas Grays Elegy（挽歌） written in a Country Churchyard（教堂墓地）, Goldsmiths The Deserted Village, etc.,Outline of the Development in Literature,Early 18th Century neo-classicism Alexander Pope (poetry) prose literature Addison and Steele (periodicals
16、期刊，杂志 ) the first realistic fiction Daniel Defoe Jonathan Swift,Middle 18th Century realistic novels Henry Fielding drama Richard Brinsley Sheridan the last decades of the 18th century sentimentalism Thomas Gray (poetry) Oliver Goldsmith (prose fiction小说选粹 ) pre-romanticism（前浪漫主义） William Blake Robert Burns (poetry),Daniel Defoe,a successful businessman, a typical hardworking Englishman at his age a journalist and political pamphleteer（小册子作者(尤指带政治性出版物的小册子作者)；活页文
