专业八级英国文学TheAgeofRomanticism.ppt

Chapter Eight The Age of Romanticism(1798-1832) By Zhang Mingyue Content Ⅰ.Historical background Ⅱ.Intellectual background Ⅲ.Characteristic features of the romantic movement Ⅳ.Authors and works Ⅰ.Historical background American and French revolutions National liberation movements Democratic movement Industrial revolution Luddite movement Ⅱ.Intellectual background The shift in literature from emphasis on reason to instinct and emotion was intellectually prepared for by a number of thinkers in the later half of the 18th century. Rousseau(1712-1778), the father of romanticism, rejects the worship of reason. In the really vital problems of life it is much safer to rely on feelings, to follow our instincts and emotions. He preaches that civilized men should “return to nature”. He praises the natural man as “the noble savage” and attacks the civilized man as “the depraved animal”. Ⅱ.Intellectual background 2. Edmund Burke(1729-1797), his work A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful is and important piece that deals with aesthetics. He distinguishes between two kinds of beauty – the sublime and the beautiful. According to him, sublimity is a kind of masculine beauty, more powerful and loftier than the beautiful. Beautiful is associated with smallness, elegance, and smoothness. 3. Thomas Paine(1737-1809), he published The Rights of Man. It claiming that it is the right of the people to overthrow a government that opposes humanity. This assertion of individual rights is in direct opposition to Neo-classicist’s thinking of binding oneself to traditions and conventions. Ⅲ.Characteristic features of the romantic movement Subjectivism Spontaneity Singularity Worship of nature Simplicity There is a dominating note of melancholy in the poems of the romantic poets. It was an age of poetry by which the poets outpoured their feelings and emotions. Ⅳ.Authors and works William Wordsworth(1770 -- 1850) Samue