英国文学 Alexander Pope.pptVIP

Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) Background Questions What was the Enlightenment Movement? How did it influence the writers in the 18th century England? Why was the 18th century called the Age of Reason? What was Neoclassicism? What were the major beliefs of Neoclassicists? Name several important neoclassical writers. What do you know about “heroic couplet”? How was it important to Neoclassicists? an intellectual movement through the Western Europe which lasted about one hundred years from 1680s to 1789. Engels: “The reasoning intellect was applied to everything as the sole measure. [. . .] Henceforth, superstition, injustice, privilege and oppression were to be superseded by eternal truth, eternal justice, equality grounded on nature and the inalienable rights of man.” The 18th century literature was heavily didactic and moralizing. the classical tendency that was prevailing in Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries (in England in the first half of the 18th century) fixed laws and rules for almost every genre of literature Representative neoclassicists are John Dryden, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson. iambic pentameter rhymed in two lines the best form of poetry for neoclassical writers (from Pope’s An Essay on Criticism) Nature to all things fix’d the Limits fit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? And wisely curb’d proud Man’s pretending Wit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) is a famous eighteenth century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson. Pope is famous for his use of the heroic couplet. Essay on Criticism An Essay on Criticism was first published anonymously on 15 May 1711. Pope began writing the poem early in his career and took about three