《英美文学选读》资料-2-英国Neoclassical.docVIP

Chapter 2 The Neoclassical Period(1660—1798) Neoclassicism: a revival in literature in the late 17th and 18th centuries, characterized by a regard for the classical ideals of reason, form, and restraint. The Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason: It was an intellectual and philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to scrutinize previously accepted doctrines and traditions and that brought about many humanitarian reforms. The enlighteners celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science. They held that rationality or reason should be the only, the final cause of any human thought and activities. The enlighteners advocated universal education. Literature in the neoclassical period 1. The Enlightenment Movement brought a revival of interest in the old classical works. This tendency is known as neoclassicism. According to the neoclassicists, all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers. They believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy. 2. Neoclassicists had fixed laws for literature. Prose should be precise, direct, smooth and flexible. Poetry should be lyrical, epical, didactic, satiric or dramatic. Drama should be written in the Heroic Couplets (iambic pentameter rhymed in two lines); the three unities of time, space and action should be strictly observed; regularity in construction should be adhered to, and type characters rather than individuals should be represented 3. In the last few decades of the 18th century, however, the neoclassical emphasis upon reason, intellect, wit and form was rebelled against or challenged by the sentimentalists, and was, in due time, gradually replaced by Romanticism. But the poetic techniques and certain classical graces such as order, good form, unified structure, clarity and conciseness of language developed in this period have become a permanent heritage. 3 phases of literat