ModernistEnglishLiterature现代主义-文学.doc

English Modernist Literature Historical Background Social and Political Background: the influences of the two world wars World War I weakened the British Empire and World War II marked the last stage of the disintegration 瓦解/崩溃of the British Empire. The two world wars not only brought economic chaos but also spiritual disillusionment to the English people, inspiring cynical post-war works. Development in human rights: The Education Act in 1870 (the encouragement of elementary education compulsory and universal resulting in the steadily growing rate of literacy among the masses) and the Married Women’s Property Act in 1882 (first wave of feminist movement; higher education and suffrage for women) Cultural Background: Spiritual crisis: Owing to the two wars, skepticism and distrust spread in the modern Western civilization, leading to prevalent despair and despondency意气消沉. Ideologically: many kinds of pessimism and determinism (naturalism fatalism); In natural science: the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution (the survival of the fittest; natural selection in the world); Einstein’s theory of relativity In social science: Karl Marx’s scientific socialism (the fundamental contradictions within the capitalist system—and that the workers were anything but free); Nietszche’s尼采 theory of irrationalism非理性主义; Sartre’s 萨特theory of existentialism存在主义; Schopenhauer’s 叔本华theory of Will意志本体论; Bergson’s柏格森 irrational philosophy非理性哲学; Sigmund Freud’s 弗洛伊德analytical psychology心理/精神分析 (the unconscious theory潜意识) (resulting in the emphasis on individual subjective experience主观体验, the rejection and revolt against rationalism唯理主义, materialism唯物主义 and positivism实证主义, the negation of the practical philosophical ideas and the Realist political and aesthetic ideology) Culturally: questioning of and challenge to the previous optimism, the bourgeois conservative 保守的values, the axioms公理 of the Victorian Age, the progress of civilization; the reflections on a new definition of the mean