英国文学第五章TheModernperiod.docVIP

1. Modern period: from the second half of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century. 2. The social, historical background of the modern English literature： First World War tremendously weakened the British Empire and brought about great sufferings to its people as well The Second World War marked the last stage of the disintegration of the British Empire The Great Depression made the English think about the life of the poor People were in economic, cultural, and belief crisis. 3. The ideological background of the modern English literature ① Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ scientific socialism ②Darwins theory of evolution ③ Einsteins theory of relativity ④Freuds analytical psychology ⑤Irrationalism philosophers 4. Modernism： ①Original source: skepticism and disillusion of capitalism. ②Basis: the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis ③Theme: the distorted, alienated and ill relationships between man and nature, man and society, man and man, and man and himself. ④Concentration: more on the private than on the public, more on the subjective than on the objective. ⑤Concerning: the inner being of an individual. ⑥Characteristics: the dehumanization of art. And pay more attention to the psychic time than the chronological one. In their writings, the past, the present and the future are mingled together and exist at the same time in the consciousness of an individual. ⑦The relation with realism: a reaction against realism. Rejection to rationalism, which is the theoretical base of realism; it excludes from its major concern the external, objective, material world, which is the only creative source of realism; by advocating a free experimentation on new forms and new techniques in literary creation, it casts away almost all the traditional elements in literature such as story, plot, character, chronological narration, etc., which are essential to realism. As a result, the works created by the modernist writers are often l