英国文学复习资料.doc

RomanticismThe romantic period (1785-1830)The Romantic Period in English literature is dated as beginning in 1875 (which was one year after the death of Samuel Johnson and one year before Robert Burns Poem, Chiefly in Scottish Dialect.)or alternatively in 1789 (the outbreak of the French Revolution), or in 1798 (the publication of William Wordsworths and Samuel Taylor Coleridges Lyrical Ballads)and as ending either in 1830 or else in 1832, the year in which Sir Walter Scott died and the passage of the Reform Bill signed the political preoccupations of the Victorian era.1789-1815: Revolutionary and Napoleonic period in France1789: the Revolution begins with the assembly of the States-General in May and the storming of the Bastille on July 14.1793: King Luis executed: England joins the alliance against France.1793-94: The Reign of Terror under Robespierre.1804: Napoleon crowned emperor.1815: Napoleon defeated at Waterloo.1798： Lyrical Ballads published anonymously by William Wordsworths and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.1811-20: the RegencyGeorge, Prince of Wales, acted as regent for George , who has been declared incurably insane.1820-32: Accession of George .Literary groups1. 湖滨派(the Lake School)：华兹华斯、柯勒律治、骚赛2. 伦敦土著派(the Cockney School)：李亨特、哈兹立、济慈3. 恶魔派(the Satanic School)：拜伦，雪莱及其他“Romanticism” is not a term that was used by the writers whom we now designate as Romantic; it is a label that has been applied posthumously and with hindsight.时代精神 the spirit of the ageMany of the major writers did not feel that there was something distinctive about their timenot a shared doctrine or literary quality, but a pervasive intellectual and imaginative climate, which some of them called “the spirit of the age”.In his Defence of Poetry Shelley claimed that the literature of the age “has arisen as it were from a new birth,” and that “an electric life burns” within the words of its best writers which is “less their spirit than the spirit of the age”.Shelley explained this literary spirit as an accompaniment of political and social revolution, and other writers agreed.Distinctive elements in the theory and poetry of the Romantic Period1. The concept of poetry and the poetPoetry as limitation of human life, “a mirror held up to nature” VS “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”poetry expresses the poets own feelings and temperament.The source of poem was not in the outer world but in the individual poet, the essential materials of a poem were not the external people and events, but the inner feelings of the author.Blake and Shelley describe poem as an embodiment of the poets imaginative vision, which they opposed to the ordinary world of common experience.The lyric poem written was in the first person, earlier regarded as a minor kind, become a major Romantic form.2. Poetic spontaneity and freedom Art VS arising from impulse, and free from all rules and the artful manipulation of means to foresee ands. 3. Romantic “natural poetry”The natural scene had become a primary subject. However, the aim of this poetry was not description for its own. Romantic poems habitually endow the landscape with human life, passion and expressiveness.4. Glorification of the commonplaceIn two lectures on Wordsworth, Hazlitt declared that the school of poetry founded by Wordsworth was literary equivalent of the French Revolution, translating political changes into poetical experiments.The aim of Lyrical Ballads was “to choose incidents and situations from common life” and to use a “selection of language really spoken by men” for which the source and model is “humble and rustic life.”5. The supernatural and “Strangeness in Beauty”Coleridge in Lyrical Ballads attempted to achieve wonder by a frank violation of natural laws and the ordinary course of events in poems which “the incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural”.1. What is the relation between the poet and nature described in the poem?The poet, Wordsworth, felt as lonely as a wondering cloud. Suddenly, he saw a crowd of golden daffodils which were dancing in the breeze and were like the shining and twinkling stars on the Milky Way. Daffodils happy and sprightly dance seemed infectious and they not only moved the waves beside them but also made the poet forget his loneliness and become happy. Sometime later, when he is in melancholy, he recalls the scene of daffodils. This recollection in tranquility brings him “bliss”, fills his heart with pleasure.2. Do you think nature can have healing effect on mind?Nature does have healing effect on mind. In romantics eyes, nature is always personified and has life, passion and expressiveness. Take this poem as example, Wordsworth found sensual pleasure when he saw the beautiful daffodils. More important, he recalled the scene of happy daffodils.华兹华斯“The Great Year”(创作旺盛之年)Several major events have been noted as factors in this increased productivity: namely, the death of his brother Tom, the critical reviews of Endymion and his meeting Fanny Brawne.墓志铭：In the Bitternefs of his Heart, at the Malicious Power of enemies, desired these words to be Engraven on his tomb stone: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water” -他觉得他一生中一切成空，付诸流水，有无限的遗憾。-其实，他的名字何曾是水写的？是金水写的！济慈的文学见解I think poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularityit should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost in remembrance.If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all.Negative Capability 消极能力The letter to Benjamin Bailey reflects Keatss idealistic phrase. In it, Keats asserts that the product of the sensual intuition seems superior to the product of the rational intellect, and that what the imagination produces and records as Beauty is not illusion but “truth”an authentic reality“whether it existed before or not” in the material sense.In a letter to his brothers George and Thomas Keats, we find his classic definition of “negative capability: when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after facts & reason-with a great poet the sense of Beauty overcomes every other considerations, or rather obliterates all consideration.”RomanticismThe romantic period (1785-1830)The Romantic Period in English literature is dated as beginning in 1875 (which was one year after the death of Samuel Johnson and one year before Robert Burns Poem, Chiefly in Scottish Dialect.)or alternatively in 1789 (the outbreak of the French Revolution), or in 1798 (the publication of William Wordsworths and Samuel Taylor Coleridges Lyrical Ballads)and as ending either in 1830 or else in 1832, the year in which Sir Walter Scott died and the passage of the Reform Bill signed the political preoccupations of the Victorian era.1789-1815: Revolutionary and Napoleonic period in France1789: the Revolution begins with the assembly of the States-General in May and the storming of the Bastille on July 14.1793: King Luis executed: England joins the alliance against France.1793-94: The Reign of Terror under Robespierre.1804: Napoleon crowned emperor.1815: Napoleon defeated at Waterloo.1798： Lyrical Ballads published anonymously by William Wordsworths and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.1811-20: the RegencyGeorge, Prince of Wales, acted as regent for George , who has been declared incurably insane.1820-32: Accession of George .Literary groups4. 湖滨派(the Lake School)：华兹华斯、柯勒律治、骚赛5. 伦敦土著派(the Cockney School)：李亨特、哈兹立、济慈6. 恶魔派(the Satanic School)：拜伦，雪莱及其他“Romanticism” is not a term that was used by the writers whom we now designate as Romantic; it is a label that has been applied posthumously and with hindsight.时代精神 the spirit of the ageMany of the major writers did not feel that there was something distinctive about their timenot a shared doctrine or literary quality, but a pervasive intellectual and imaginative climate, which some of them called “the spirit of the age”.In his Defence of Poetry Shelley claimed that the literature of the age “has arisen as it were from a new birth,” and that “an electric life burns” within the words of its best writers which is “less their spirit than the spirit of the age”.Shelley explained this literary spirit as an accompaniment of political and social revolution, and other writers agreed.Distinctive elements in the theory and poetry of the Romantic Period6. The concept of poetry and the poetPoetry as limitation of human life, “a mirror held up to nature” VS “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”poetry expresses the poets own feelings and temperament.The source of poem was not in the outer world but in the individual poet, the essential materials of a poem were not the external people and events, but the inner feelings of the author.Blake and Shelley describe poem as an embodiment of the poets imaginative vision, which they opposed to the ordinary world of common experience.The lyric poem written was in the first person, earlier regarded as a minor kind, become a major Romantic form.7. Poetic spontaneity and freedom Art VS arising from impulse, and free from all rules and the artful manipulation of means to foresee ands. 8. Romantic “natural poetry”The natural scene had become a primary subject. However, the aim of this poetry was not description for its own. Romantic poems habitually endow the landscape with human life, passion and expressiveness.9. Glorification of the commonplaceIn two lectures on Wordsworth, Hazlitt declared that the school of poetry founded by Wordsworth was literary equivalent of the French Revolution, translating political changes into poetical experiments.The aim of Lyrical Ballads was “to choose incidents and situations from common life” and to use a “selection of language really spoken by men” for which the source and model is “humble and rustic life.”10. The supernatural and “Strangeness in Beauty”Coleridge in Lyrical Ballads attempted to achieve wonder by a frank violation of natural laws and the ordinary course of events in poems which “the incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural”.3. What is the relation between the poet and nature described in the poem?The poet, Wordsworth, felt as lonely as a wondering cloud. Suddenly, he saw a crowd of golden daffodils which were dancing in the breeze and were like the shining and twinkling stars on the Milky Way. Daffodils happy and sprightly dance seemed infectious and they not only moved the waves beside them but also made the poet forget his loneliness and become happy. Sometime later, when he is in melancholy, he recalls the scene of daffodils. This recollection in tranquility brings him “bliss”, fills his heart with pleasure.4. Do you think nature can have healing effect on mind?Nature does have healing effect on mind. In romantics eyes, nature is always personified and has life, passion and expressiveness. Take this poem as example, Wordsworth found sensual pleasure when he saw the beautiful daffodils. More important, he recalled the scene of happy daffodils.华兹华斯“The Great Year”(创作旺盛之年)Several major events have been noted as factors in this increased productivity: namely, the death of his brother Tom, the critical reviews