The Victorian Period.pptVIP

The Victorian Age I. Historical background An Age of Expansion 1. the world 2. the expansionist movement 3. the most important development of the age: a way of life based on the ownership of land → a modern urban economy based on trade and manufacturing 4. the first country to become industrialized The Early Period (1832-1848): A Time of Troubles 1. the passing of the first Reform Bill / Reform Acts （改革法案） 2. rioting in the early 1849s 3. Chartism（宪章运动） a movement started by the Chartists, advocating the extension of the right to vote, the use of secret balloting, and other legislative reforms II. Features of the social, cultural and  political life in the Victorian Age 1. the growth of the middle class (chiefly the capitalists). Victorian literature is essentially middle-class, urban literature 2. the development of a very conservative kind of morality 3. the predominance of the moral aesthetic 4. the wide currency of utilitarianism 5. the advent of the theory of evolution 6. faith in progress and a sense of earnestness III. The Diversity of Victorian Literature 1. the considerable weight of the puritan code on the literature of early and mid-Victorian England 2. the variety of Victorian literature both in style and in subject matter 1) Victorian Poetry: the development of poetic narrative A. new ways of telling stories in verse B. writing extensively of love and personal relationships 2) Victorian Prose: the special and opportune art of the modern world A. the “chaotic variety and complexity” of modern life, the “incalculable” intellectual diversity of the “master currents of the present time” B. a common concern for the fate of humanity in an industrial, democratic, and increasingly secularized society