七.The 18th C The Age of Enlightenment 2.pptVIP

NovelsDaniel DefoeJonathan Swift Henry Fielding Daniel Defoe(1660-1731) He was born in a merchant family and was a merchant himself. One of the forerunners of English realistic novel Robinson Crusoe Defoe’s masterpiece, published when Defoe is almost 60 Defoe embellished the real story about a sailor with his own imagination. Story run away from home → become a sailor → a planter in Brazil → to an uninhabited island because of shipwreck → made a living there all by himself (will-power is amazing)→ save a negro named Friday who became his servant (negro-slavery)→ back to England → visit the remote island again and Friday was killed Analysis of Robinson Crusoe A. Robinson----a real Hero The best qualities of his character are his marvelous capacity for work , his boundless energy and persistence in overcoming obstacles. He struggles hard against nature and makes her bend before his will. He is representative of the English bourgeoisie at the earlier stages .He is most practical and exact , always religious and mindful of his own profit. B. Labour Defoe glorifies human labour. Labour saves Robinson from despair, and is a source of pride and happiness. He toils for the sake of subsistence and the fruits of his labour are his own. C. Defoe’s bourgeois outlook manifests itself in the fact that he does not condemn Negro slavery in his book . Here lies colonization in germ. Other Novels 1. “Moll Flanders”《摩尔.弗兰德斯》 It is in a form of autobiography telling a story about a girl. For the first time a lovely woman became the central character of a piece of literary work. And it anticipates many later novels that take women as the center of attention in order to expose how the social system victimized those like Moll. 2. “Captain Singleton”《新利顿船长》 3. “Colonel Jacque”《杰克上校》 They are adventure stories. Defoe’s enlightenment thoughts in the work: Man is good and noble by nature but sometimes man’s nature is changed by evil social environment. Feature