《英国文学史8.pptVIP

Part VI The 18th CenturyThe Age of Enlightenment in England Background knowledge 1. Historical background Two hostile parties Rapid development of social life 2. Cultural background The Enlightenment The Enlightenment was a progressive intellectual movement throughout Western Europe in the 18th century and in Russia in the 19th century. Generally speaking, the Enlightenment movement was an expression of struggling of the bourgeoisie against feudalism Literary features: 1. Classicism 2. Sentimentalism 3. Pre-romanticism 4. Gothic novel Classicism: As a critical term, classicism is a body of doctrine thought to be derived from or to reflect the qualities of ancient Greek and Roman culture, particularly in literature, philosophy, art, or criticism. Classicism stands for certain definite ideas and attitudes, mainly drawn from the critical utterances of the Greek and Romans or developed through an imitation of ancient art and literature. Neoclassicism The term mainly applies to the classical tendency that dominated English literature during the last decades of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. In literary creation, it emphasized the classical artistic ideals of order, logic, proportion, restrained emotion, accuracy, good taste and decorum. Sentimentalism came into being as the result of a bitter discontent among the enlightened people with social reality. The representatives of sentimentalism continued to struggle against feudalism, but they sensed the contradictions in the process of capitalist development. Dissatisfied with reason, which classicists appealed to, sentimentalists appealed to sentiment, “ to the human heart.” Pre-romanticism: In the latter half of the 18th century, a new literary movement arose in Europe, called the Romantic Revival. It was marked by a strong protest against the bondage of Classicism, by a recognition of the claims of passion and emotion, and by a renewed interest i