山东农业大学精品课程《英美文学史》课件：unit 9.pptVIP

Unit 9 Colonial Period: 1700-1800 (also known as the Age of Reason, Enlightenment, Naturalism)  I. Common Beliefs 1. Faith in natural goodness - a human is born without taint or sin; the concept of tabula rasa or blank slate. 2. Perfectibility of a human being - it is possible to improve situations of birth, economy, society, and religion. 3. The sovereignty of reason - echoes of Rene Descartes cogito ergo sum or I think, therefore, I am (as the first certitude in resolving universal doubt.) 4. Universal benevolence - the attitude of helping everyone. 5. Outdated social institutions cause unsociable behavior - religious, social, economic, and political institutions, which have not modernized, force individuals into unacceptable behavior. II. Functions of the Writers of this Period 1. A searching inquiry in all aspects of the world around. 2. Interest in the classics as well as in the Bible. 3. Interest in nature - the absentee landlord phenomenon. 4. Interest in science and scientific experiments. 5. Optimism - experiments in utopian communities 6. Sense of a persons duty to succeed. 7. Constant search of the self - emphasis on individualism in: a. personal religion. b. study of the Bible for personal interpretation. III. Characteristics of the 18th Century Dawn of liberalism: freedom from restraint; age of revolutions in America and in France (1789); experimentation in science; economic concept of laissez-faire; the presence of the frontier; the development of rational religion known as deism; scientific curiosity; growth in nationalism; growth in materialism; the age of the gifted amateur; and belief in progressivism. Philip Freneau I. Freneau as Leader of 18th Century Naturalism  1. Fresh interest in nature. 2. The belief that nature is a revelation of God. 3. Humanitarian sympathy for the humble and oppressed. 4. The faith that people are naturally good. 5. That they lived idyllic and benevolent lives in a primitive past before the ad