英国文学史及作品选读课件Chapter 8The Age of Romanticism.pptVIP

Chapter Ⅷ The Age of Romanticism 1798-1832 1. Historical background A Review of British Literature French Revolution: -----The time spirit described by Charles Dickens: ( A Tale of Two Cities) It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way … 2. Romanticism: In a historical sense, Romanticism was a movement in philosophy, political theory, and the arts that developed in France and Germany in the latter half of the eighteenth century and flourished in England through to the first three decades in the nineteenth century. The most prominent historical event associated with Romanticism was the French Revolution (1789-1799), which for many presaged the end of aristocratic rule and hereditary social divisions in Europe. 2.1 Origins of Romanticism The tone of Romanticism was shaped by the emotionalism of Rousseau, and the exotic legends and mythology found in Oriental and Homeric literatures and 17th-cent. travel writers. 2.2 Rene Wellek: “The Concept of Romanticism in Literary History” (1963): Romanticism is often associated with the primacy of imagination, the worship of nature, and the use of natural imagery and symbolism in myth –making. 2. 3 Common characteristics of the second generation of British Romantics— Byron, Shelley, and Keats : They wrote swiftly, traveled widely, and died prematurely. They had a new intuition for the power of the wild landscape, and the spiritual correspondence between Man and Nature, 3. William Wordsworth  3. 1 “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”: It is Lyrical Ballads that ushers in the Romantic age in English literature.