VIII.The-18th-Century研究生英语提高.docVIP

VIII. The Eighteenth Century The Eighteenth Century Culture This chapter looks at the culture of eighteenth century Europe from several perspectives. It begins by looking at traditional “high culture”—the art and architecture, the music and drama of the educated classes. A transition occurred from the baroque style to a revival of classicism, which became the dominant style in the arts of the eighteenth century. The discussion then focuses on “popular culture” in the lives of ordinary people. It compares a basic institution of high culture, the salon, with the equivalent institution of popular culture, the coffeehouse. Although other themes seemed to dominate the culture of the eighteenth century, Christianity remained central to European civilization. The focus is on the dominant intellectual phenomenon of the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment. Described are the origins of the Enlightenment in seventeenth-century skepticism, the rationalism of the scientific revolution, and the cultural revival of classicism. The basic concepts that connected enlightened thought—natural law, reason, and progress—are then explained. This leads to a discussion of the French Enlightenment, French philosophes, and the most typical work of the Enlightenment, the Encyclopédie with an examination of its impact on religion and government. High Culture: From the Baroque to the Classical The predominant cultural style of the seventeenth century, known as the baroque, still dominated many of the arts in the early eighteenth century. The baroque appealed to the emotions and spirituality through the ornately decorated, the extravagantly expressed. Whether looking at the energetic statues of Bernini, paintings of suffering martyrs by Caravaggio, or the voluptuous pastel nudes of Rubens, the viewer was overwhelmed by the lavish baroque style. Architects brought baroque emotions to palaces and churches, composers brought them to oratorios and fugues, artisans even sought the baroque style in