The Victorian Period (维多利亚时期)

本章概述

一. 维多利亚时代英国的政治/经济/历史/文化背景.
二.诗歌/散文/小说在创作思想上的进步和创作技巧上的改革.
三.主要作家与作品.

文学史分析

一. The time period :
chronologically the Victorian period roughly coincides with the reign of Queen Victoria who ruled over England from 1836 to 1901 .

二. The thoughts :

1.The influence of science and technology :

A.Ideologically , the Victorians experienced fundamental changes . The rapid development of science and technology shook people's religious convictions .The religious collision continued and was intensified .

B.Danwin's The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man shook the theoretical basis of the traditional faith .

2. The utilitarianism :

A.Utilitarianism was widely accepted and practiced . Almost everything was put to the test by the criterion o futility .

B. This theory held a special appeal to the middle-class industrialists.

三. The literary forms :

1. The novels :

A. The critical realistic novelists :

a. Among the famous novelists of the time were the critical realists like Charles Dickens , Thackeray , Charlotte Bronte , Emily Bronte , Mrs. Gaskell and Anthony Trollope , etc .

b. They carried their duty forward to the criticism of the society and the defence of the mass . They shared one thing in common ,that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the common people . in the last few decades there were also George Eliot , the pioneering woman who , according to D.H. Lawrence , was the first novelist that "started putting all the actions inside "

B. The modern novelists :
a. George Eliot , according to D.H. Lawrence , was the first novelist that :started putting all the actions inside . "

b. Thomas Hardy , that Wessex man who not only continued to expose and criticize all sorts of social iniquities , but finally came to question and attack the Victorian conventions and morals .

2. The prose :

A. The features :
The Victorian age also produced a host of great prose writers , many of them joined forces with the critical realist novelists in exposing and criticizing the social reality , and some became very influential in the ideological field . At the same time , they brought English prose to a very high point in both prose art and literary criticism .

B. The works :
Among the most influential prose works of the time are Carlyle's Sartor Resartus , The French Revolution ,Macaulay 's History of England , Ruskin's five-volumed Modern Painters and Huxley's lecture essays .

3. The poetry :

A. features :
The poetry of this period was mianly characterized by experiments with new styles and new ways of expression_r_r .

B. The poets :
Robert Browning created the verse novel by adopting the novelistic presentation of characters . Other poets like Alfred Tennyson , Matthew Arnold , Edward Fitzgerald all made their respective attempts at poetic innovations and helped open up new ways for the twentieth-century mordern poetry .

主要作家作品

A. 查尔斯*狄更斯
B. 布朗蒂姐妹
C. 阿尔弗雷德*丁尼生
D. 罗伯特* 布朗宁
E. 乔治*艾略特
F. 托马斯*哈代

查尔斯*狄更斯

一. The literary thoughts :

1. It is his serious intention to expose and criticize in his works all the poverty , injustice ,hypocrisy and corruptness he sees all around him .

2. But his social attitudes are very complicated . He hates the state apparatus , but as a bourgeois writer , he can in no way supply any fundamental solution to the social plights .

3. At the same time , he hopes to call people's attention to the existing social problems , thus effecting some reform or amelioration .

二. The works :

Most of his works are deeply rooted in his knowledge of that petty-bourgeois urban world . A combination of optimism about people and realism about the society is present from the very beginning .

1. The earlier works :

In his early novels , he attacks one or more specific social evils .

A. Papers of the Pickwick lifted him into a position of fame and fortune .
B. others include : Oliver Twist ,Nicholas Nickleby , David Copperfield ,Martin Chuzzlewit and Dombey and Son .

2. The later works :
The later works show the development of Dickens towards a highly conscious artist of the modern type . The physical settings here are sometimes a mixture of the contemporary and the recollected past .

A. All of the works , with the exception of A Tale of Two Cities , Present a criticism of the more complicated and yet most fundamental social institutions and morals of the Victorian England .

B. Others include : Bleak House , Little Dorrit , Hard Times , Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend .

三. The artistic features :

1. In language :
A. With his first sentence , he engages the reader's attention and holds it to the end . The settings of his stories have an extraordinary vividness , a result of years' intimacy and rich imagination .

B. In languge , he is often compared with Shakespeare for his adeptness with the vernacular and large vocabulary . His humor and wit seem inexhaustible .

2. In Character-portrayal :

A. Character-portrayal is the most distinguishing feature of his works .
B. His best-depicted characters are those innocent , virtuous , persecuted , helpless child characters .
C. And he is also famous for the depiction of those horrible and grotesque Characters like Fagin .
D. These charcters are impressive not only because they are true to life , but also because they are often larger than life .

3. The mingling of humor and pathos :

A. Dicken's works are also characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos . He seems to believe that life is itself a mixture of joy and grief . Life is delightful because it is at once comic and tragic . He is a humorist .

B. To match his humorous genius , Dickens is also noted for his pictures of pathos .