西方文化导论课后题答案7-11章.doc

1. Please give an account of the setting of the Enlightenment.The fact that the Enlightenment first occurred in France was ascribed to the deterioration in economic, political, social and cultural conditions in the 18th-century France. The French people strongly demanded that the declining situation be arrested and reforms be carried out. Under such circumstances, progressive intellectuals began to think more seriously about the solutions to the crises and tried to resort to intellectual and social means. This movement also asked for more political power to the people as the bourgeoisie joined in with its economic support and thus the cultural movement tinned with political colour as a bourgeois mark. On the other hand, the dissemination of scientific knowledge and the influences of British empiricism also immensely heightened intellectual and political awareness of the people in general. This prepared the political basis of the bourgeois revolution to follow.2. Briefly introduce one or two representative figures of the Enlightenment and their central ideas.Voltaire and Montesquieu are two of the representative figures of the Enlightenment. Voltaire exposed the dark side of France such as the corruption and injustice of Christianity by launching his theory on human nature. Also, he argued for the freedom and equality of ordinary people. Whats more, he strongly condemned feudal autocracy and put forward the theory of the enlightened monarchy.Montesquieus political theory developed the principle of dividing political power although the principle itself was not his invention. Montesquieu contributed significantly to the establishment of the modern Western state by exposing the nature of state and human beings in his great work Spirit of Law which has wide-ranging influence on the later generations of modern Western political thinking and practice.For Montesquieu, it was climate that contributed most to the formation of a society and he believed it was shown in national character, political system, marriage codes, religion, and the use of slavery. His geographical and environmental theory is of some progressive significance, but it exaggerates the geographical factor in social development. 1. Say something about the origin and the major concerns of Romanticism. Give examples.Romanticism originated out of the craving for individual freedom by the young intellectuals who could not tolerate ideological and intellectual oppression derived from classicism and rationalism imposed by the ruling class and traditional culture, as was demonstrated in Germany where the Storm and Stress Movement occurred under Rousseaus influence which attracted many followers including Goethe and Schiller.To some extent it was a reaction against the Enlightenment and the 18th-century rationalism and materialism in general. It demanded more reasonable attention to human passion and individuality as a way to reach real human emancipation and freedom. The major concerns of Romanticism comprised individualism, emotionalism, worship of nature, fascination with the alien aspects of foreign lands, enthusiasm for nationalism and often expressed an air of disillusionment.2. What do you think of the similarities and dissimilarities between realism and naturalism?The similarities of realism and naturalism lie in the fact that they both aim to describe real life and try to reveal the nature of social reality, especially the dark side of human society. But in the ways of representation, they differ in the following aspects: first, the naturalist writer does not focus on a typical environment or typical characters for representation of reality, and instead, they would attempt to depict real life as it is by sticking to the inherent factor which would usually lead to the cause or motivation of certain or behaviors; second, the naturalist writer emphasizes more of the influence of environment on human nature and behavior by exposing the dark and evil aspect of human society which is not just similar to social realism but even more violent and barbarous and emotional.1. 2. Choose one representative character from German classical philosophers and make a brief remark on his contribution to the later social or cultural development. Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century German classical philosopher. He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe and of the late Enlightenment. Kant created a new widespread perspective in philosophy which influenced European philosophy through and after his lifetime. He also published important works of epistemology, as well as works relevant to religion, law, and history. His most important works is the Critique of Pure Reason, an investigation into the limitations and structure of reason itself. It encompasses an attack on traditional metaphysics and epistemology, and highlights Kants own contribution to these areas. Kants great contribution lies in his interpretation of human epistemology: the ultimate nature of reality of the “things in themselves” remains forever unaccessible to the human mind and what we can know is only its phenomena. The mind impresses its forms of sensibility via space and time or the original data of the senses and orders them according to the categories of thought.1. Say something you know about Modernism, including its performance and features.Modernism, in its broadest sense, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural schools, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The term encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the “traditional” forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social conventions and daily life were becoming outdated in the new conditions of economic, social and political developments under the influence of industrialization and colonization. Modernism despite its complexity and multiplicity in terms of ideological tendencies and representation modes, could be regarded basically to be irrational, that is, in opposition to rational tradition of the Western culture and civilization. History has repeatedly proved that any radical drive or trend could not last long and so did modernism which, with all its justifications, only survived a few decades since its beginning and had to decline and finally disappeared as a movement though some of its ideas and forms or techniques still maintained. The reason is simple no one could reject all the inheritances his ancestors have passed on to him no matter whether these inheritances are valuable enough for him to benefit from. In that sense people after modernism, particularly the cultural people or intellectuals, have to take a lesson from Modernist Movement, which they should be cautious about the way to handle cultural heritage and need to try to make use of the positive elements from tradition.2. Describe one or two modernist writers focused on his work.James Joyce is one of most prominent modernist writers in the early 20th century whose reputation mainly rests upon his masterful use of the Stream of Consciousness technique in his writing. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses (1922) and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake (1939), as well as the short story collection Dubliners (1914) and the semi-autobiographical novellet A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). Ulysses is one of the most important works of Modernist literature. The action of novel, which takes place in a single day, 16 June 1904, sets the characters and incidents of the Odyssey of Homer in modern Dublin and bases his three protagonists, Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom and Stephen Dedalus, on the triangular relationship in parallel with the construction of Odysseus, Penelope and Telemachus. Ulysses stream-of-consciousness technique, symbolic structure, and experimental prose stylefull of puns, parodies, and allusionsas well as its rich characterization in close association with serious thematic concerns, such as Irish nationalism, sympathy for the Jew and women, and protest against Catholicism, therefore renders the book a highly recognized status in Modernist literature.1. Tell some ideological Representative Figures of the Modern age and their main ideas.(1) Marxs Marxism, its main ideas include scientific socialism, political economics, and dialectic materialism.(2) Darwins theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, Its main idea as follow: i. Species have developed or evolved by a series of small variations.ii. All animals and plants are descended from a single prototype.iii. Natural selection or survival of the fittest ensures that