英国文学史 The Victorian Period (2).ppt

,单击此处编辑母版标题样式,单击此处编辑母版文本样式,第二级,第三级,第四级,第五级,*,The Victorian Period(2),Victorian Novels,In more than one sense,the Victorian period was,an age of the novel,.The novel became naturally the most popular form of all the literary art.,Its three major phases of growth,The early phase(from the 1830s to the middle of the century),1.English society began to feel the impact,of change but still managed to keep the,old values intact.,2.Industrialization and capitalism had,begun to bring wretched ness into the,country,but life had not become totally,impossible.,3.Writers were basically optimistic.They,were aware of modern ills,but still,wrote with the notion that the world was,basically good and could became better.,4.a representative author:,Charles Dickens(1812-1870),The mid or High Victorian phase(the 1870s),1.The country had changed from an,agricultural to an industrial nation.,2.Life improved,problems appeared with,the progress of civilization,minds became,confused as a result of Darwinism,and,crises of different dimensions were right,down the road.,3.This was a period of dichotomy and high,complexity.,4.Writers dealt with it with subtle dexterity.,5.a representative author:,George Eliot(1819-1880),The later phase(from the late 1880s onward):,1.Dramatic changes had occurred.,2.What had appeared in Dickens and,George Eliot as a silhouette of the,impending crisis became dazzlingly,sharp in the vision of later novelists.,3.Man became insignificant in a world cold,and indifferent and probably Godless.,4.Man was impotent in face of the,overwhelming odds of fate and struggled,in vain for survival.,5.What was in store for man was frustration,and despair.,6.The age of naturalism had arrived.,7.a representative author:,Thomas Hardy(1840-1928),Some salient features in common,1.The all try to teach as well as to entertain.,2.They are essentially urban,reflecting the,values of the middle class.,3.They have the pattern of spiritual,conversion built into their textual fabric,exhibit a strong sense of history,and see,home and marriage as sacred.,4.All great Victorian novels follow the,moral standard:Good triumphs over evil,good is praised,and bad castigated,(though,Wuthering Heights,is not exactly,in keeping with this pattern).,5.Despite departures such as Dickens,occasional romantic and half-surrealist,method,social realism remains the,Victorian novelists predominant mode,of representation of life.,6.The main point of view employed in,Victorian novels is the third-person,omniscient,the unlimited vision of,which helps to paint the broad canvas of,life.,Some Victorian Novelists,Charles Dickens(1812-1870),1.the first to achieve fame,2.a prolific writer:20-odd novels and the,host of his other writings,3.his effect on the readers:they feel,instantly that they are in the presence of,greatness,4.Dickens writing career:3 stages,A.the first stage:the period of youthful,optimism(1833-1841),a.,Pickwick,Papers,1836 ,匹克威克外传,b.,Oliver Twist,1837-1838 ,雾都孤儿,c.,Nicholas,Nickleby,1838-1839,尼古拉斯,尼克尔贝,d.,The Old Curiosity Shop,1840-1841,老古玩店,e.,Barnaby,Rudge,1841,巴纳比,拉奇,B.the second stage:the period of excitement,and irritation(1842-1850),a.,Dombey,and Son,1847-1848,董贝父子,b.,David Copperfield,1849-1850,大卫,科波菲尔,his semi-autobiography;,C.the third stage:the period of steadily,intensifying pessimism(1851-1870),a.,Bleak House,1852-1853,凄凉院,b.,Hard Times,1854,艰难时世,c.,Little,Dorrit,1855-1857,小杜丽,d.,A Tale of Two Cities,1859,双城记,e.,Great Expectation,1860-1861,远大前程,f.,Our Mutual Friend,1864-1865,我们共同的朋友,g.,Edwin,Drood,1870,艾德温德鲁特,5.Dickens features of writing,A.basically optimistic in the first two,stages,a.The system was to Dickens good and,capable of becoming better.,b.He seemed to have faith in the,charitable spirit of human beings,and portrayed benevolent characters,with warmth and enthusiasm.,B.more and more gloomy and pessimistic in,the third stage,a.Mans cruelty to his fellow creatures,made him feel very bad.,b.He thinks his generation as a wicked,one.,c.He was sorely frustrated and even,despaired to see the country heading,toward some ominous direction.,d.He painted a social picture,disconcertingly dismal and agonizing.,C.his province:the whole of English society,of his time,a.It is a world thronged with the diverse,specimens of humanity.,b.It is a world where the readers can get,a birds-eye view of the panorama of,English life then.,D.essentially an intuitive artist,Spontaneity was his trade mark.He never lost,this primal quality of his creative genius.,Generally,his early works were more,spontaneous than his later ones.,E.basically comic,His humor has to do with his happy nature and,his optimistic outlook on life and society.,a.the grotesque effect,The grotesque,is something odd and,fantastic that attracts and amazes by,virtue of its out-of-ordinariness.,Many of his characters appear like,caricatures;in such cases the evil is all,evil while the good is all good.,b.the melodramatic effect,The melodrama is a dramatic form of happy,and boisterous farce,normally employed to,produce laughter and relieve the heaviness of the,main plot.,His unique manipulation of plot,masking,and,disguised identities all conspire to give his works,an exceptionally charming melodramatic effect.,F.highly critical of his age,a.Social criticism is a hallmark of all his,works.,b.He is supremely human and keenly,sensitive to the problems of his age,and the plight of his people.,c.He spearheads his biting attacks,toward English law and the prison,system.,d.for the ills of the British parliamentary system,and the elections and representative government,he has nothing but contempt.,e.He has no faith and trust in philanthropy and,evangelical religion or in any organized social,reform.,f.He stands forever on the side of the poor and feels,adamant about the just and righteous nature of,their struggles for survival.,6.,No matter how extensive,penetrating and,scathing his criticism might be,he does,not mean to change the system.,7.He is not a radical,neither is he a,revolutionary.,8.He is a novelist with abundant faith in the,goodness of human nature.When things,fail to turn out the way he has expected,they will,he feels helpless and melancholy.,William Makepeace Thackeray(1811-1863),1.one of the two outstanding early,Victorian novelists,second only to,Dickens,2.mainly about the upper and upper middle,society,3.a great social realist,A.He firmly keeps to social realism and,takes it upon himself to paint the,immense panorama of real life.,B.The concern of his novel is solely with,real life and real people.,4.a great moralist,A.He made morality the topmost of his,concerns.,B.He endeavored to conform to social,convention and avoid offending the,prevailing tastes.,C.He regarded himself as a preacher,crying out sermons for the world.,5.a great satirist,A.His satire is subtle and delicate but effective.,B.He wishes to offer chances for his readers to,tell the true from the sham.,C.He keeps his characters under scrutiny so,that any deviation from accepted moral,values or any antics of theirs will not escape,his ironic,critical censure.,6.Thackerays major works:,A.,The Book of Snobs,1847,势利人脸谱,B.,Pendennis,1848,彭登尼斯,C.,Vanity Fair,1847-1848,名利场,his masterpiece,D.,Henry,Esmond,1852,亨利,埃斯蒙德,E.,The,Newcomes,1853-1855,纽克姆一家,7.,Vanity Fair,Novel Without a Hero,A.the theme of,Vanity Fair,Through the narration of the,adventures of Becky Sharp,the novel,attacks the materialistic society in,which worldly goods weigh more than,spiritual life,so there is no solution to,their oppressiveness.,B.analysis on Becky Sharp,good:pretty,pleasing,vigorous,clever,evil:unprincipled,ambitious,greedy,C.the universal significance of Becky Sharp,She is an embodiment of the spirit of,Vanity Fair,typical of those ambitious people whose goal of,life is to gain material wealth and position,through any means,such as telling lies,taking,advantage of others,speculating with every,secret idea.,A contrast between Dickens and Thackeray,1.education,Dickens:little formal education,Thackeray:well-educated,2.social position,Dickens:in low class,Thackeray:higher than Dickens,3.subject matter,Dickens:life of poor people,Thackeray:upper and upper middle society,4.chief concern,Dickens:to provide a solution,Thackeray:to offer an image of the society,5.approaches to portray characters,Dickens:creating the grotesque and the,melodramatic to produce dramatic,effect,Thackeray:reduction of any stage-like scenes,and effects,6.attitude toward life and society,Dickens:from optimistic to pessimistic,Thackeray:cynical,Charlotte Bronte(1816-1855),1.Charlotte Bronte was an impressive,presence on the literary scene of her time.,2.Her impressive novels,A.,The Professor,1857,教授,her first novel,but published after her,death,B.,Jane Eyre,1847,简爱,C.Shirley,1849,雪莉,D.Villette,1853,维莱特,3.The relationship between her life and her,writing,A.Most of her novels are,autobiographical.,B.She turns to literature because she,finds the work as a governess and,teacher unbearable.,C.She tries to relieve her loneliness and,sadness of her life through writing,with imagination.,D.however,the pain still remains.All of,her novels reveal her pain she feels in,life.In short,there is an aching heart,behind the world of imagination.,4.Her writing features,A.She is close to her age in values and,technique.,B.She quotes her own experience,faithfully as her novels all more or less,walk directly out her life.,C.Her depiction of life and portrait of,character are realistic and true-to-life.,D.There is an element of passionate,romanticism in her novels.,E.Her expressions of feelings is powerful.,5.Her masterpiece,Jane Eyre,A.Subject matter:,womens struggle for self-realization,and their strong desire for love,independence and equality,B.Characters of the poor,plain-looking,heroine:,courageous,decisive,independent(in her,mind),kind-hearted,passionate,noble-,minded,C.Jane Eyre is the first governess heroine,and a completely new woman image in,English novels.,a traditional woman image:,an angel or a devil,D.Merits of the novel:,a.powerful and fascinating study of love,and hatred,b.interesting reflection of the authors,life and experience,c.a powerful statement of womens claim,for independence,d.a forceful narration and vivid way of,rendering Janes feelings.,George Eliot(1819-1880),1.She is considered to be the most pre-,eminent novelist in the mid-Victorian,period.,In her time,individual growth became,crucial to social regeneration,but no,serious dislocation had appeared.,2.Her major thematic concern relates to,individual choices.,A.In her world,people felt the,manipulation of the forces out of their,control,but they still had room for,free choice.,B.Good choice do good to society and get,rewarded,while bad ones do evil and,get their due in the end.,3.She had a faith in human nature and the,goodness of a moral world.,She was sensitive enough to portray a moral,world in which good and evil co-existed and,each received with time what was its due.,4.Although there were evil deeds and evil people,she seldom drew the portrait of a total villain.,Her censure could be ruthless,but her heart,was big enough to tolerate.,5.She is noted for her masterly,psychological explorations.In fact she,has been seen as the precursor of“the,psychological novel”.,A.She explores the inner lives of her,characters,and portrays peoples,relationship to their localized,conditions.,B.She often reveals the motives of her,characters and the moral lesson to be,learned from them.,C.She develops her characters gradually,and explains the hereditary influences,and impulses which govern human,action.,6.Her works show superb conception and,execution.,7.Thackeray called her the greatest,philosophical novelist of all time,bringing ideals,intellect,and philosophy,to the novel.Henry James learned from,her both thematically and in technical,terms.,8.Her subject matter:,Her early novels(her best novels)mainly,deal with life in the countryside.Her,novels show her emotional attachment to,traditional ways of village life,and,express her view that social stability and,harmonious human relationship can only,be found in the long-established traditions,of village life.,9.Her major works:,A.,Adam Bede,1859,亚当,比德,B.,The Mill on the Floss,1859-1869,弗洛斯河上的磨坊,C.,Silas Marner,1861,织工马南传,D.,Middlemarch,1871-1872,米德尔马奇,Her position in English novel,She achieved a position of respect never,approached by any other English woman,writer.Among all the Victorian women,novelists,only the Bronte sisters seem her,equals;in the study of aspiration and,nobility in the mind of woman she has no,rival.,Thomas Hardy(1840-1928),The contrast between Victorian and post-Victorian literature is rather startling.Dickens,the outstanding Victorian novelist,was a man of colossal optimism;and Hardy,also one of the three most preeminent Victorian writers,was sunk on the deeps of pessimism.,1.Thomas Hardy was last and one of the,greatest of Victorian novelists.,2.Life in his time became drastically,different with drastic changes in mood,and tenor.The world became increasingly,more amoral.Man was no longer a free,ethical being in face of the forces out of,his control.,3.The age of Emile Zolas naturalism had,arrived.,4.Hardy did not embrace Zolas naturalistic,aesthetic,but he was apparently affected:,the spirit of determinism permeated his,later novels as well.In this aspect and,more,Hardy anticipated the coming of,the modern novel in his country.,5.Hardy was a poet as well as a prolific,novelist.His career is divided sharply,between his Victorian novels and post-,Victorian poetry.,A.his Victorian novels,Hardys novels and short stories fall,into 3 groups.Most of them are,described separately under their titles.,a.Novels of Character and Environment,（性格和环境小说）,Under the Greenwood Tree,1872 ,绿荫下,Far from the Madding Ground,1874,远离尘嚣,The Return of the Native,1878 ,还乡,The Mayor of Casterbridge,1886,卡斯特桥市长,The Woodlanders,1887 ,林地居民,Wessex,Tales,1888 ,威塞克斯故事,Tess,of the,Durbervilles,1891,德伯家的苔丝,Jude the Obscure,1896 ,无名的裘德,b.Romances and Fantasies,罗曼史和幻想,A Pair of Blue Eyes,1873 ,一双蓝眼睛,The Trumpet Major,1880 ,号兵长,Two on a Tower,1882 ,塔上二人,A Group of Noble Dames,1891,一群贵妇人,The Well-Beloved,1892 ,意中人,c.Novels of Ingenuity,爱情阴谋故事,Desperate Remedies,1891 ,非常手段,A,Laodicean,1881 ,一个冷淡的女人,a dozen minor novels,eg,.:,A Changed Man,1913,一个改变了的男人,The Waiting Supper and Other Tales,1913,晚餐及其他故事,B.his post-Victorian poetry,For the last three decades of his life,Hardy,turned to poetry and became one of the major,Victorian poets.His famous verse work include:,a.,Poems of Past and Present,1902,过去和现在的诗集,b.,The Dynasts,1904-1908 ,列王,5.his writing features,A.His stance on the nature of life and the,cosmos is determinist in nature.,Dickens:benevolence,George Eliot:good choice,Hardy:a world,amoral in nature,where,“the President of the Immortals”,(the Fate)sits high up on the throne,hostile often or nonchalant at best,the human world.,B.Hardys stories are always moving and,bewitching.,a.Hardy deviates cons