歐美文學：The Romantic Period

1、歐美文學：the romantic period一 本章的學習目的和要求通過本章的學習，了解浪漫主義文學的產(chǎn)生的歷史，文化背景，認識該時期文學創(chuàng)作的基本特征，基本主張，及其對時代及后世英國文學用至文化的影響； 了解該時期重要作家的文學生涯，創(chuàng)作思想，藝術(shù)特色及其代表作品的主題結(jié)構(gòu)，人物刻畫，語言風格，思想意義等； 同時結(jié)合注釋，讀懂所選作品，了解其思想內(nèi)容和寫作特色，培養(yǎng)理解和欣賞文學作品的能力。二 本章考核知識點及考核要求（一） 考核知識點1 浪漫主義時期概述1） 浪漫主義時期英國社會的政治，經(jīng)濟，文化背景2） 浪漫主義文學創(chuàng)作的基本主張 3） 英國浪漫主義文學的特色4） 浪漫主義文學對同時

2、代及后世英國文學的影響2 浪漫主義時期主要作家的文學創(chuàng)作思想及其代表作品的主題結(jié)構(gòu)，人物塑造，語言風格，藝術(shù)手法及社會意義等。威廉布萊克；威廉華茲華斯；塞特科勒律治；喬治戈登拜倫；珀比雪萊；約翰濟茲；簡奧斯?。ǘ?考核要求1 浪漫主義時期概述1）識記：a.浪漫主義時期的界定 b.歷史文化背景2) 領(lǐng)會：a.浪漫主義思潮的意義與影響。 b.浪漫主義文學創(chuàng)作的基本主張及對后世文學的影響。、3) 應(yīng)用：a.名詞解釋：浪漫主義 b.浪漫主義時期文學特點的分析 2 該時期的重要作家1） 識記：浪漫主義時期的重要作家，代表作品及其主要內(nèi)容。2） 領(lǐng)會：重要作家的創(chuàng)作思想，藝術(shù)特色及其代表作品的主題結(jié)構(gòu)，

3、人物塑造，語言風格，社會意義等。3） 應(yīng)用：a.浪漫派詩歌（所選作品）的主題，意象分析b.小說傲慢與偏見的主題和主要人物的性格分析。一 概述1. 一般識記 english romanticismenglish romanticism, as a historical phase of literature, is generally said to have began in 1798 with the publication of wordsworth & coleridges lyrical ballads & to have ended in 1832 with sir walter s

4、cotts death & the passage of the first reform bill in the parliament.2. 識記 historical & cultural backgroundduring this period, england had experienced profound economic & social change. the biggest social change in english history was the transfer of large masses of the population from the countrysi

5、de to the towns. as a result of the enclosures & the agricultural mechanization, the peasants were driven of their land; some emigrated to the colonies; some sank to the level of farm laborers & many others drifted to the industrial towns where there was a growing demand for labor. but the new indus

6、trial towns were no better than jungles, where the law was the survival of the fittest. the cruel economic exploitation caused large-scale workers disturbances in england.3 領(lǐng)會（1） influences of the romantic movement romanticism constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of so

7、cial civilization to the inner world of the human spirit. in essence it designates a literary & philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life & all experience. it also places the individual at the center of art, making literature most valuable as an expression

8、 of this or her unique feelings & particular attitudes & valuing its accuracy in portraying the individuals experiences.(2) the romantic views about literaturea. the romantic period is an age of poetry. blake, wordsworth, coleridge, byron, shelley & keats are the major romantic poets. they started a

9、 rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution.b. the romantic period is also a great age of prose. the two major novelists of the romantic period are jane austen & walter scott.c. besides poetry & prose, there are quite a number of writers who have

10、 fried their hand at poetic dramas in this period.4 應(yīng)用(1) literary termsa. the romantic movement it expressed a more or less negative attitude towards the existing social & political conditions that came with industrialization & the growing importance of the bourgeoisie. the romantics felt that the

11、existing society denied people their essential human needs, so they demonstrated a strong reaction against the dominant modes of thinking of the 18th-century writers & philosophers. where their predecessors saw man as a social animal, the romantics saw him essentially as an individual in the solitar

12、y state & emphasized the special qualities of each individuals mind. romanticism actually constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer.b. the gothic novelit is a type of romantic fiction that predominated in the late 18th century & was one phase of the romantic movement, its princip

13、al elements are violence, horror & the supernatural, which strongly appeal to the readers emotion. with its descriptions of the dark, irrational side of human nature, the gothic form has exerted a great influence over the writer of the romantic period. works like the mysteries of udolpho (1794) by a

14、nn radcliffe & frankenstein (1818) by mary shelley are typical gothic romance. (2) characteristics of romantic literature in english history.the romantic period is an age of poetry blake, wordsworth, coleridge, byron, shelley & keats are the major romantic poets. they started a rebellion against the

15、 neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution. wordsworth & coleridge were the major representatives of this movement. they explored new theories & innovated new techniques in poetry writing. they saw poetry as a healing energy: they believed that poetry could purify bo

16、th individual souls & the society. the romantics not only extol the faculty of imagination, but also stress the concept of spontaneity & inspiration, regarding them as something crucial for true poetry. the natural world comes to the forefront of the poetic imagination. nature is not only the major

17、source of poetic imagery, but also provides the dominant subject matter. wordsworth is the closest to nature.to escape from a world that had became excessively rational, as well as excessively materialistic & ugly, the romantics would turn to other times & places, where the qualities they valued cou

18、ld be convincingly depicted. romantics also tend to be nationalistic, defending the great poets & dramatists of their own national heritage against the advocates of classical rules who tended to glorify rome & rational italian & french neoclassical art as superior to the native traditions. to the ro

19、mantics, poetry should be free from all rules. they would turn to the humble people & their everyday life for subjects, romantic writers are always seeking for the absolute, the ideal through the transcendence of the actual. they have also made bold experiments in poetic language, versification & de

20、sign, & constructed a variety of forms on original principles of structure & style.二 該時期的重要作家i. william blake1.一般識記： his life english poet, artist, & philosopher, born in london england, nov 28, 1757, and died in london, aug 12,1827. blake made distinguished contributions to both literature & art. h

21、e ranks with great poets in the english language & may be considered the earliest of the major english romantic poets. his poems range from lyrics of childlike simplicity to mystical or prophetic works of great complexity. as an artist he is best known for his engravings, which are among the masterp

22、ieces of graphic art.2. 識記 his political, religious & literary viewsblake never tried to fit into the world; he was a rebel innocently & completely all his life. he was politically of the permanent left & mixed a good deal with the radicals like thomas paine& william godwin. like shelley, blake stro

23、ngly criticized the capitalists cruel exploitation, saying that the dark satanic mills left men unemployed, killed children & forced prostitution. meanwhile he cherished great expectations & enthusiasm for the french revolution, & regarded it as a necessary stage leading to the millennium predicted

24、by the biblical prophets. literarily blake was the first important romantic poet, showing contempt for the rule of reason, opposing the classical tradition of the 18th century & treasuring the individuals imagination.3. 領(lǐng)會 his poems (1) early worksthe songs of innocence (1809) is a lovely volume of

25、poems, presenting a happy & innocent world, though not without its evils & sufferings. for instance, holy thursday with its vision of charity children lit with a radiance all their own reminds us terribly of a world of loss & institutional cruelty. the wretched child described in the chimney sweeper

26、, orphaned, exploited, yet touched by visionary rapture, evokes unbearable poignancy when he finally puts his trust in the order of the universe as he knows it. his songs of experience (1794) paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war & repression with a melancholy tone. the

27、benighted england becomes the world of the dark wood & of the weeping prophet. the orphans of holy thursday are now fed with cold & usurious hand. the little chimneysweeper sings notes of woe while his parents go to church & praise god & his priest & king-the very instruments of their repression. in

28、 london, the city is no longer a paradise, but becomes the seat of poverty & despair, of man alienated from his true self. blakes marriageof heaven & hell (1790) marks his entry into maturity. the poem was composed during the climax of the french revolution & it plays the double role both as a satir

29、e & a revolutionary prophecy. in this poem, blake explores the relationship of the contraries. attraction & repulsion, reason & energy, love & hate, are necessary to human existence. life is a continual conflict of give & take, a pairing of opposites, of good & evil, of innocence & experience, of bo

30、dy & soul. without contraries, blake states, there is no progression. the marriage, to blake, means the reconciliation of the contraries, not the subordination of the one to the other. (2) later worksin his later period, blake wrote quite a few prophetic books, which reveal him as the prophet of uni

31、versal political & spiritual freedom and show the poet himself as the spokesman of revolt. the major ones are: the book of urizen(1794),the book of los(1795).the four zoas (1796-1807) & milton (1804-1920).4.領(lǐng)會 characteristics of blakes poemsblake who lived in the blaze of revelation, felt bound to d

32、eclare that i know that this world is a world of imagination & vision, & that the nature of my work is visionary or imaginative. from childhood, blake had a strongly visual mind; whatever he imagined, he also saw. as an imaginative poet, he presents his view in visual images instead of abstract term

33、s.blake writes his poems in plain & direct language. his poems often carry the lyric beauty with immense compression of meaning. he distrusts the abstractness & tends to embody his views with visual images. symbolism in wide range is also a distinctive feature of his poetry.5. 應(yīng)用 select readings: 1)

34、 the chimney sweeper (from songs of innocence)songs of innocence is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy & innocent world, though not without its evils & sufferings. in this volume, blake, with his eager quest for new poetics forms & techniques, broke completely with the traditions of the 18

35、th century. he experimented in meter & rhymes & introduced bold metrical innovations which could not be found in the poetry of his contemporaries.in the 18th century, small boys sometimes no more than 4 or 5 years old, were employed to climb up the narrow chimney flues & clean them, collecting the s

36、oot in bags. such boys, sometimes sold to the master sweepers by their parents were miserably treated by their master & often suffered disease & physical deformity. this poem, in fact, is a protest against the harm that society does to its children by exploiting them for labor of this kind, the poem

37、 was written in the childs-eye point of view, & the dramatic irony (what the speaker says in the poem is different from what the poet means) arises from the poets knowing more or seeing more than the child does. 2) the chimney sweeper (from songs of experience) songs of experience paints a different

38、 world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war & repression with a melancholy tone, the benighted england becomes the world of dark wood & of the weeping prophet. the poem selected here reveals the true nature of religion which helps bring misery to the poor children. the poem also reveals the rel

39、ation between are economic circumstance, i.e. the exploitation of child labor & an ideological circumstance, i.e. the role played by religion in making people compliant to exploitation. 3) the tygerthe tyger, included in songs of experience, is one of blakes best-known poems. it seemingly praises th

40、e great power of tiger, but what the tiger symbolizes remains disputable: the power of man? or the revolutionary force? or the evil? or as it is usually interpreted, the almighty maker who created both the meek & gentle lamb & the terrible & awesome tiger? the poem is highly symbolic with a touch of

41、 mysticism & it is open to various interpretations. the poem contains six quatrains in rhyming couplets & its language is terse & forceful with an anvil rhythm.ii. william wordsworth1.一般識記：his life & careerwilliam wordsworth (1770-1850) was born at cockermouth, cambarland, in the family of an attorn

42、ey. he received education at st. johns college, cambridge. he developed a keen love of nature as a youth. another important influence on his life was the french revolution. in 1798 wordsworth & coleridge collaborated on a book of poems entitled lyrical ballads robert southey, samuel taylor colerdge

43、& william wordsworth are known as the lake poets. in 1842, wordsworth received a government pension & in the following year he succeeded southey as poet laureate. wordsworth died at rydal mount, april 23, 1850. as a great romantic poet, wordsworth had a long poetic career. his lyrical ballads, writt

44、en together with coleridge, is generally regarded as the symbol of the beginning of the romantic period in england. the prelude is ranked by many critics as his greatest work. in 1807 poems in two volumes was published. the excursion was published in 1814.2. 識記：his poetic outlook wordsworth is regar

45、ded as a worshipper of nature. he can penetrate to the heart of things & give the reader the very life of nature. i wandered lonely as a cloud is perhaps the most anthologized poem in english literature, & one that takes us to the core of wordsworths poetic beliefs. to wordsworth, nature embodies, h

46、uman beings in their diverse circumstances. it is nature that gives him strength & knowledge full of peace.common life is wordsworths only subject of literary interest. the joys & sorrows of the common people are his themes. his sympathy always goes to the suffering poor.wordsworth is a poet in memo

47、ry of the past. to him, life is a cyclical journey. its beginning finally turns out to be its end. wordsworths deliberate simplicity & refusal to decorate the truth of experience produced a kind of pure & profound poetry which no other poets has ever equaled. poetry, he believes originates from emot

48、ion recollected in tranquility. rejecting the contemporary emphasis on form & intellectual approach that drained poetic writing of strong emotion, he maintains that the scenes & events of everyday life & the speech of ordinary people are the raw material of which poetry can & should be made. 3. 領(lǐng)會hi

49、s poetical works 1) lyricslyrical ballads differs in marked ways from his early poetry, notably the uncompromising simplicity of much of the language, the strong sympathy not merely with the poor in general but with particular, dramatized examples of them, & the fusion of natural description with ex

50、pressions of inward states of mind. the poems wordsworth added to the 1800 edition of the lyrical ballads are among the best of his achievements. tintern abbey remains a profoundly original & imaginative achievement; the valley of the wye itself, the quiet center of the returning wanderers thoughts

51、is described with a detail that conveys a sense of natural order at once vivid & eternal. beyond the pleasures of the picturesque with their emphasis on the eye & the external aspects of nature, however, lies a deeper moral awareness, a sense of completeness in multiplicity. but the poem progresses

52、beyond such moral reflections. as he is aware of his own sublime communion with all things, nature becomes an inspiring force of rapture, a power that reveals the workings of the soul. to wordsworth, nature acts as a substitute for imaginative & intellectual engagement with the development of embodi

53、ed human beings in their diverse circumstances. its nature that gives him strength & knowledge full of peace. 2) the preludewordsworth is a poet in memory of the past. to him, life is a cyclical journey. its beginning finally turns out to be its end. his philosophy of life is presented in his master

54、piece the prelude. it opens with a literal journey whose goal is to return to the vale of grasmere. the journey goes through the poets personal history, carrying the metaphorical meaning of his interior journey & questing for his lost early self & the proper spiritual home. the poem charts this grow

55、th from infancy to manhood. we are shown the development of human consciousness under the sway of an imagination united to the grandeur go nature. later books of the prelude describe wordsworths experiences in france, his republicanism, his affair with annette vallon, his substantial dread during th

56、e terror & his continuing support of the ideals underlying the revolution. the concluding description of the ascent of snowdon becomes a symbol of the poets climb to the height of his inspired powers & to that state of vision in which, dedicating himself to humanity, he becomes one of the prophets o

57、f nature.4.領(lǐng)會 characteristics of wordsworth poems & his achievements. william wordsworth is the leading figure of the english romantic poetry, the focal poetic voice of the period. his is a voice of searchingly comprehensive humanity & one that inspires his audience to see the world freshly, sympath

58、etically & naturally. the most important contribution he has made is that he has not only started the modern poetry, the poetry of the growing inner self, but also changed the course of english poetry by using ordinary speech of the language & by advocating a return to nature.5. 應(yīng)用：selected readings 1) i wandered lonely as a cloud (1)wordsworth is regarded as a worshipper of nature. he can penetrate to the heart of things & give the reader the very life of nature. i wandered lonely as a cloud is perhaps the most anthologized poem in engli