英美文学史练习题和复习资料3.docVIP

3. The Romantic period Definition of literary terms 1. Romanticism. Romanticism is a term applied to literary and artistic movements of the late 18th and early 19th century. It can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified classicism in general and late 18th-century neoclassicism in particular. It was also to some extent a reaction against the Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in general. Inspired in part by the libertarian ideals of the French Revolution, the romantics believed in a return to nature and in the innate goodness of humans, as expressed by Jean Jacques Rousseau. They emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental. They also showed interest in the medieval, exotic, primitive, and nationalistic. Critics date English literary romanticism from the publication of William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads in 1798 to the death of Sir Walter Scott and the passage of the first reform bill in the Parliament in 1832. 2. Byronic hero. “Byronic hero” is a stereotyped character created by Byron. This kind of hero is usually a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, he would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society. He would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules either in government, in region, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies. The conflict is usually one of rebellious individuals against outworn social systems and conventions. Exercises A. Multiple-choice questions 1. The Romantic Movement expressed a more or less ____ attitude toward the existing social and political conditions. A. positive B. negative C. neutral D. indifferent 2. It is _____ who establish