Lecture 7-The 18th Century

English LiteratureLecture 7广东技术师范学院邵朝杨

The 18th CenturyThe Age of Enlightenment(1688-1798)

概述

1688年的“光荣革命”推翻复辟王朝，确定 了君主立宪制，建立起资产阶级和新贵族领 导的政权，英国从此进入一个相对安定的发 展时期。

散文

18世纪英国散文出现繁荣，散文风格基本建立在 新古典主义美学原则之上。理查德· 斯梯尔 (Richard Steele, 1672-1729)与约瑟夫· 艾迪生 (Joseph Addison, 1672-1719)创办《闲谈者》 (Tatler)与《观察者》(Spectator)刊物，发表 了许多以当时社会风俗、日常生活、文学趣味等 为题材的文章，他们清新秀雅、轻捷流畅的文体 成为后人模仿的典范。 18世纪被称为“散文世纪”的另一个原因是小说 的兴起。

The Literary Background1. 2.

3.

The contending(敌对的) factions(派别) Literati(文人学士) as servants of contention: pamphlets The development of social life

1. The literature of the 18th century was dominated by the interests of contending parties

The Whigs: determined to safeguard popular liberty; The Tories: conservative, would leave as much authority as possible in the royal hands;

2. Literati as servants of contention

The Whigs and the Tories were well balanced in power. To overturn a Tory or a Whig cabinet only a few votes were necessary and to influence such votes London was flooded with pamphlets. Most of the great writers of the age were the willing servants of the Whigs or Tories as pamphleteers.

3. The development of social life

The first half of the 18th century England saw the appearance of a large number of public coffeehouses and private clubs. Nearly all writers frequented the coffeehouses, and matters discussed there became subjects of literature. Hence the enormous amount of 18th-century writing devoted to transient affairs, to politics, fashions, and gossip.

The Enlightenment in EuropeA progressive intellectual movement beginning in France and then spread throughout Europe. The guiding principle or slogan is Ration/Reason, natural right and equality. Ration became standard for measurement of everything. An expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind. Called for universal education: a continuation of Renaissance in belief in the possibility of human perfection through education. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas.

Literary Development

1. Neo-classicism 2. sentimentalism 3. Modern novel 4. Romanticism 5. English drama

1. Neoclassicism 新古典主义

The Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works, this tendency is known as neoclassicism. The neoclassicists held that forms of literatur

e were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers, such as Homer. Addison, Steele, Pope belonged to this school.

新古典主义

18世纪初，新古典主义成为时尚。新古典 主义推崇理性，强调明晰、对称、节制、 优雅，追求艺术形式的完美与和谐。 亚历山大· 蒲柏(Alexander Pope, 1688-1744) 是新古典主义诗歌的代表，他模仿罗马诗 人，诗风精巧隽俏，内容以说教与讽刺为 主，形式多用英雄双韵体，但缺乏深厚感 情。

2. Sentimentalism 感伤主义

Sentimentalism indulged in emotion and sentiment. Criticized the cruelty of the capitalist relations and the gross social injustices brought about by the bourgeois revolutions and the Industrial Revolution. They react against anything rational and to advocate that sentiment should take the place of reason.

Thomas Gray, Oliver Goldsmith, Laurence Stern, Samuel Richardson are representatives of this school.

感伤主义

18世纪中叶，英国发生了工业革命。许 多作家对资本主义工业化发展给大自然 和农村传统生活方式带来的破坏发出悲 哀的感叹，以大自然和情感为主题的感 伤主义作品一度流行。 英国诗歌开始逐渐摆脱新古典主义的束 缚，理性的优势地位为感情或感受所代 替。

3. The beginning of modern novel

Modern English novel began in the 18th century and gave the world such novelists as Defoe, Swift, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and Sterne. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe was one of the forerunners of the English 18th century realistic novel. But it was Henry Fielding and Tobias George Smollet who became the real founders of the genre of the bourgeois realistic novel in England and Europe.