Sentimentalism_and_Thomas_Gray_(for_teaching)_华南师范大学课件.pptVIP

Elegy (悼亡诗，挽歌) In classical times and in the Renaissance: love poetry written with a specific meter, Since the 17th century: a formal poem of lament and consolation concerning a particular persons death, or reflection on death in general. Milton‘s “Lycidas” (1638) is an example of the pastoral elegy (田园挽歌), in which the speaker and the person mourned are shepherds. Dirge (挽歌)：A less formal and lengthy form of elegy. Usually sung. Sentimentalism (感伤主义) One of the significant and popular trends in English literature in the second half of the 18th century. Sentimentalism is overindulgence in one’s emotion for the sake of his overwhelming discontent towards the social reality, and pessimistic belief and emphasis upon the virtue of man. Sentimentalism Leslie Stephen: Sentimentalism could be defined to be indulgence in emotion for its own sake. The sentimentalist does not weep because painful thoughts are forced upon him but because he finds weeping pleasant in itself. He appreciates the luxury of grief…but the general sense that something is not in order in the general state of things, without as yet any definite aim for the vague discontent was shared by the true sentimentalist.” Sentimentalist Literature Poetry: Edward Young‘s celebrated blank-verse dramatic rhapsody Night Thoughts《夜思》(1742) and Thomas Grays An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard 《墓畔哀歌》. Drama: Richard Brinsley Sheridan and his The Rivals 《情敌》(1775) and The School for Scandal 《造谣学堂》, a fine comedy of manners (风尚喜剧), was staged in 1777. Fiction: Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield (1776) 《威克菲尔德牧师传》 The Deserted Village 《荒凉的村庄》; Lawrence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy《项迪传 》 (1760-1767), Sentimental Journey 《伤感旅行》. Thomas Gray (1716-1771) Thomas Gray It’s not until “An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard” was published in 1751 that Gray was recognized. Gray died at 55, buried in the country churchyard celebrated in his “Elegy.” An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard a poem