Bài giảng Văn Hóa Anh

The Gothic novel: the novel which exploits the possibilities of mystery and terror in gloomy landscapes, decaying mansions with dark dungeons, secret passages, instruments of torture, g

 3 The rapid development of social life

The public movement: the Enlightenment

The eighteenth-century England is also known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason The Enlightenment Movement was a progressive

movement which flourished in France and swept through the whole Western Europe at the time

The Enlightenment was an expression of struggle of the progressive class of bourgeoisie against feudalism The movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance

of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas

 The enlighteners fought against class inequality,

stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism

 The enlighteners celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science They held that rationality or reason should be the only, the final cause of any human thought and

activities They called for a reference to order, reason and rules

They believed that when reason served as the

yardstick for the measurement of all human activities and relations, every superstition, injustice and

oppression was to yield place to "eternal truth",

eternal justice" and "natural equality" The

enlighteners advocated universal education They believed that human beings were limited, dualistic, imperfect, and yet capable of rationality and

perfection through education

the great enlighteners

Famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers are:

 1 the reign of classicism

 2 the revival of romantic poetry

 3 the beginnings of the modern novels

 1 Neoclassicism: a revival in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of

classical standards of order, balance, and harmony in literature Alexander Pope, John Dryden and Samuel Johnson were major exponents of the neoclassical school

 It found its artistic models in the classical literature of the ancient Greek and Roman writers like Homer, Virgil, Horace, etc and in the contemporary French writers such as Voltaire and Diderot It put the stress on the classical artistic ideal of order, logic, proportion, restrained emotion, accuracy, good taste and decorum.

 Homer: Greek epic poet Two of the greatest works in Western literature,

the Iliad 《伊利亚特》 and the Odyssey 《奥德赛》, are attributed to him

 Virgil: Roman poet His greatest work is the epic poem Aeneid, 《埃涅阿斯

纪》 which tells of the wanderings of Aeneas after the sack of Troy讲述了 埃涅阿斯在特洛伊陷落后的流浪经历

 Horace: Roman lyric poet His Odes and Satires《颂歌》 和 《讽刺作 品》 have exerted a major influence on English poetry

 Voltaire : French philosopher and writer whose works epitomize the Age of Enlightenment, often attacking injustice and intolerance He wroteCandide (1759) and the Philosophical Dictionary (1764)

 Diderot: French philosopher and writer whose supreme accomplishment was his work on theEncyclopédie (1751-1772), which epitomized the spirit

of Enlightenment thought He also wrote novels, plays, critical essays, and brilliant letters to a wide circle of friends and colleagues

Novel

characters and often a complex plot

may be complex and well developed (round character) or undifferentiated and one-dimensional (flat character)

or narrative poem The protagonist is the character on whom the action centers and with whom the reader sympathizes most Usually the protagonist strives against an opposing force, or antagonist, to accomplish something

play or narrative poem.

The Gothic Novel

 3 The Gothic novel: the novel which exploits the possibilities

of mystery and terror in gloomy landscapes, decaying mansions with dark dungeons, secret passages, instruments of torture, ghostly visitations ghostly music behind which lurks no one knows what as the central story, the persecution of a beautiful maiden by an obsessed and haggard villain The real originator

of English Gothic novel was Horace Walpole, with his famous

Castle of Otranto (1764)

rationalism opened up to later fiction the dark, irrational side of human nature

Epistolary Novel

 4 Epistolary novel: a type of nnovel in which the

narrative is carried on by means of series of letters

Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740) and Clarissa

Harlowe (1748) are among the best known epistolary

novels

 It can be classified into two kinds: the monologue

epistolary novel and the dialogue epistolary novel

5 Sentimentalism: is a literal movement in the

middle of the 18th century in England which

concentrates on the distressed of the poor unfortunate and virtuous people and demonstrates that effusive emotion was evidence of kindness and goodness It reveals grief, pains and tears The representatives are

Laurence Sterne who wrote A Sentimental Journey

through France and Italy (1768) and Oliver

Goldsmith who wrote The Vicar of Wakefield (1766).

It came into being as a result of a better discontent on the part of certain enlighteners in social reality

Pre-romanticism

 6 Pre-romanticism: a literal trend in the English

literature of the latter half of the 18th century which composes the romance devoted to the medieval times William Blake and Robert Burns are two representatives

of pre-romanticists

Daniel Defoe

English realistic novel.

 Adventures of Robinson Crusoe：The book is an expression of the bourgeois qualities of individualism and private enterprise Robinson is a new man - a man sure of himself and sure of being able to establish himself anywhere in the world He is a man of a new age, in which doubt and uncertainty are replaced

by hope and confidence Robinson is the enterpriser of his age

He is ready to command nature, his enemy, and to found his colony beyond the seas He is a merchant-adventurer,

interested in material profits He is a colonist, the empire builder.

Jacque and Roxana They clearly manifest Defoe's deep

concern for the poor in his society They are the first literary works devoted to the study of the problems of the lower-class people.

Point of view

middle class, hardworking, ingenious, liberal in mind and advanced in opinion He valued the Puritan ethic and belied in diligence and self-reliance All his life, he was busy,

speculative and active He, like Robinson, is a man whose personal pride would never allow him to belie his own

background and class His works are reflections of the belief, strength, weakness, interest, and morals of the bourgeois middle class to which he belonged

and did everything he could to reach them and help them He was among the first writers ever to give concern to the

problems of the social outcast

Jonathan Swift

He is best-known for the extended prose work Gulliver's

Travels, in which a fantastic account of a series of travels is the

vehicle for satirizing familiar English institutions, such as religion, politics and law

A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books They were

published together in 1704 and made him well-known as a satirist A Tale of a Tub is written in the form of a parable The phrase " a tale of a tub" was a 17th century slang for a joke, a hoax, an idle discourse.

 The Battle of Books is mainly an attack on pedantry in literary

world of the time The two works established his name as a satirist

 Pamphlets on Ireland

works They have now become part of classic English literature Swift's life in Ireland gave him an intimate knowledge of the miserable condition of the Irish people Two of the most

famous ones are "The Draper's Letters“(1724) and "A Modest

Proposal“(1730) Gulliver's Travels(1726), as a whole, is one

of the most effective and devastating criticisms and satires of all aspects in the then English and European life - socially, politically, religiously, philosophically, scientifically, and morally Its social significance is great and its exploration into human nature profound

Swift is one of the greatest writers of satiric prose No reader of his can escape being impressed by the great simplicity, directness and vigor of his style

Easy, clear, simple and concrete diction,

uncomplicated syntax, economy and conciseness of language mark all his writings Seldom is there

ornament or singularity of any kind His simplicities, more often than not, as a camouflage for insidious intentions, for big serious matters,, and an outward earnestness, simplicity, innocence and an apparently cold impartial tone render his satire all the more

powerful and effective

It is a book simple enough for a child, and yet

complex enough to carry an adult beyond his depth It

is a satire on the 18th century english society,

touching upon the political, religious, legal, military, scientific, philosophical as well as literary institutions, about almost every aspect of the society Bitterly satirical, the book take great pains to bring to light the wickedness of the then English society, with its

tyranny, its political intrigues and corruption, its

aggressive wars and colonialism, its religious disputes and persecution, and its ruthless oppression and

exploitation of the common people

Some narrative features

 The novel is a fantasy ad a realistic work of fiction The language, as is typical of all Swift’s works, is very simple, unadorned, straightforward and effective It is noted for its exceptionally tidy structural arrangement The four

seemingly independent parts are linked up by the central idea of social satire and make up an organic whole

Some comments

While social exposure and satire of the book is

generally acknowledged, there have been great

controversies over its deeper intention, especially with Part Four, What sort of thing is man? This is certainly the central question to the book Some people are shocked by its open blunt “negativeness” towards human beings, others feel satisfied with its religious implication that, man in his development from

primitive forms of life, has achieved only a very

limited rationality and morality

Samuel 1761)

Richardson(1689 The accidental beginning of his literary career came in

1739 when, at the age of 51, Richardson was asked by two bookseller friends to compile a volume of model letters for people without much formal education to practice in their correspondence Richardson intended that his manual should not only teach people how to write letters but also be morally instructive He was duly rewarded for his kindness and the pain he had taken for the composition of such moving letters

His works:

Pamela (1740-1741)

Or (Virtue Rewarded, in a Series of Familiar Letters

from a Beautiful Young Damsel to Her Parents)

Clarissa Harlowe (1747)

Or: Virtue Triumphant

Sir Charles Grandison (1753-1754)

He wrote only three novels, all in epistolary form

Henry Fielding(1707 1754)

Fielding was a man of extraordinary vitality and

capacity He was a dramatist, an essayist and a

novelist His fame is established chiefly upon his success as a novelist Joseph Andrews (1742), his first novel

The History of Jonathan Wild the Great (1743)

The History of Tome Jones, A Foundling (1749) , his masterpiece

In both theory and practice, Fielding establishes once and for all the from of the English novel He has held

a unique position in the history of English literature

by being called the “father of the English novel”, for his contribution to the establishment of the form of modern novel Fielding set up the theory of realism in literary creation He wrote specifically "comic epic in prose", the first to give the modern novel its structure and style

Before him, the relating of a story in a novel was either in the epistolary form (a series of letters) as in

Richardson's Pamela, or the picaresque form

(adventurous wanderings ) through the mouth of the

principal character, as in Defoe's Robinson Crusoe,

but Fielding adopted "the third-person narration" In planning his stories, he tries to retain the grand epical form of the classical works but at the same time keeps faithful to his realistic presentation of the common life

as it is

young fellow with manly virtues and yet not without fault The full-blooded characters are realistically depicted in brilliant, witty and highly artistic language

His outstanding quality is "good nature" and "goodness of heart" He is never an indifferent spectator of the misery or happiness of anyone He would not willingly inflict even the most trifling harm on anybody Yet Tom is very far from being

a model character He lives by impulse, not by reason The most serious mistake that Tom commits is his liaison with Lady Bellaston after his arrival in London A simple country boy thoroughly ignorant of the ways of the depraved high society in London, he is completely taken by surprise by a bad woman and becomes, for a short time , her paid lover But as soon as he learns the true character of the woman , he

immediately terminates the connection.

 Sophia was Fielding's ideal of what an amiable English girl should be But he did not make her "perfectly perfect' Though very sweet-tempered, she can flame up into an angry passion on occasions She has also a little vanity which causes her to toy with the idea of playing the part of

a tragic heroine, sacrificing herself to her father's wishes

William Blake(1757 1827)

 His life story (Page 283-284)

 His position in English literature: the representative of pre-romanticist

 His main works:

Robert Burns(1759 1796)

 His life story (P.P 290 293)

 The greatest of the 18th century Scots poet

 His works:

 Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect

 The Tree of Liberty

 My Heart’s in the Highland (Page 294)

 A Red, Red Rose (Page 295)

Hyperbole

I am hungry as a horse

You run like a rabbit

He is sneaky as a snake She is happy as a clam.

The girl was a fish in the water.

The clown was a feather floating away

The flowers danced in the wind

The Earth coughed and choked in all of the

pollution

The friendly gates welcomed

us

Stan the strong surfer saved several swimmers on Saturday

Tiny Tommy Thomson takes toy trucks to Timmy’s on Tuesday

Princess Kitty will kiss

Timmy T Tippers’s lips

The pain may drain Drake, but maybe the weight is fake.

 A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for

emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.

 Author’s use colorful exaggerations to add interest to a story

 “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!”

is much more interesting than “I’m hungry.”

 Getting a shot in my arm stung

 Getting a shot in my arm stung like a bee

 These books are heavy.

 These books are heavy as lead

 The queen’s dress is red

 The queen’s dress is red as a cardinal

Activity: Rewrite these sentences with a more interesting hyperbole.

 The music was loud

 The garden is pretty

 The tired man snored loudly

 The flowers grew quickly

 I ate so much lunch my tummy is full

2 "His arguments withered like grapevines in the fall.“

6 "Find four furry foxes“

9 "The road isn't built that can make it breathe hard!“

(slogan for Chevrolet automobiles)

A Metonymy

B Alliteration

C Hyperbole

D Personification

10 Education is our passport to the future, and tomorrow

belongs to those who prepare for it today." —Malcolm X, civil rights activist and writer.

A Metaphor

B Metonymy

C Personification

D Simile

11 "Education is our passport to the future,

and tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."

—Malcolm X, civil rights activist and writer.

13 English is unrivaled as the most widely-spoken

language in the world It is the sole or joint language of

more nations and territories than any other tongue.

A Metaphor

B Hyperbole

C Personification

D Metonymy

William Shakespeare

His Life, Time And Works

Lecturer: Nguyen Trong Ly

Childhood

 Parents: John Shakespeare and Mary Arden

 Birthday celebrated April 23, 1564

 Born in Stratford upon Avon

 Attended the Stratford Grammar School

Young Adulthood

 1582 Married Anne Hathaway

 She was 8 years older

 The King’s Men

 Playwright

 38 plays

 Poet

 154 Sonnets

The Globe

The Globe

 Built 1598

 Made from the leased Black Friar’s Theater

 Burned during a performance of Henry VII

Staging Areas

 Stage>platform that extended into the pit

 Dressing & storage rooms in

galleries behind & above stage

 second-level gallery> upper

stage> famous balcony scene in R

changed play women’s roles

indecent for a woman to appear