英美文学选读之浪漫主义时期

Chapter III The Romantic Period

一、本章的学习目的和要求

通过本章的学习，了解浪漫主义文学的产生的历史，文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征，基本主张，及其对时代及后世英国文学用至文化的影响；了解该时期重要作家的文学生涯，创作思想，艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构，人物刻画，语言风格，思想意义等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品，了解其思想内容和写作特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。

二、本章考核知识点及考核要求

（一）考核知识点

1.浪漫主义时期概述

1）浪漫主义时期英国社会的政治，经济，文化背景

2）浪漫主义文学创作的基本主张

3）英国浪漫主义文学的特色

4）浪漫主义文学对同时代及后世英国文学的影响

2.浪漫主义时期主要作家的文学创作思想及其代表作品的主题结构，人物塑造，语言风格，艺术手法及社会意义等。

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（二）考核要求

1.浪漫主义时期概述

1）识记：a.浪漫主义时期的界定

b.历史文化背景

2）领会：a.浪漫主义思潮的意义与影响。

b.浪漫主义文学创作的基本主张及对后世文学的影响。、

3）应用：a.名词解释：浪漫主义

b.浪漫主义时期文学特点的分析

2.该时期的重要作家

1）识记：浪漫主义时期的重要作家，代表作品及其主要内容。

2）领会：重要作家的创作思想，艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构，人物塑造，语言风格，社会意义等。

3）应用：a.浪漫派诗歌（所选作品）的主题，意象分析

b.小说《傲慢与偏见》的主题和主要人物的性格分析。

一、概述

1. 一般识记

English Romanticism

English Romanticism, as a historical phase of literature, is generally said to have began in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth & Coleridge''s Lyrical Ballads & to have ended in 1832 with Sir Walter Scott''s death & the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament.

2. 识记Historical & Cultural background

During this period, England had experienced profound economic & social change. The biggest social change in English history was the transfer of large masses of the population from the countryside to the towns. As a result of the Enclosures & the agricultural mechanization, the peasants were driven of their land；some emigrated to the colonies；some sank to the level of farm laborers & many others drifted to the industrial towns where there was a growing demand for

labor. But the new industrial towns were no better than jungles, where the law was "the survival of the fittest." The cruel economic exploitation caused large-scale workers'' disturbances in England. 来源:考试大-自考

3. 领会

（1）Influences of the Romantic Movement

Romanticism constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit. In essence it designates a literary & philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life & all experience. It also places the individual at the center of art, making literature most valuable as an expression of this or her unique feelings & particular attitudes & valuing its accuracy in portraying the individual''s experiences.

（2）The Romantic views about literature

a. The Romantic period is an age of poetry. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley & Keats are the major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution.

b. The Romantic period is also a great age of prose. The two major novelists of the Romantic period are Jane Austen & Walter Scott.

c. Besides poetry & prose, there are quite a number of writers who have fried their hand at poetic dramas in this perio

d.

4.应用

（1）Literary Terms

a. The Romantic Movement

It expressed a more or less negative attitude towards the existing social & political conditions that came with industrialization & the growing importance of the bourgeoisie. The Romantics felt that the existing society denied people their essential human needs, so they demonstrated a strong reaction against the dominant modes of thinking of the 18th-century writers & philosophers. Where their predecessors saw man as a social animal, the Romantics saw him essentially as an individual in the solitary state & emphasized the special qualities of each individual''s mind. Romanticism actually constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer.

b. The Gothic novel

It is a type of romantic fiction that predominated in the late 18th century & was one phase of the Romantic movement, its principal elements are violence, horror & the supernatural, which strongly appeal to the reader''s emotion. With its descriptions of the dark, irrational side of human nature, the Gothic form has exerted a great influence over the writer of the Romantic period. Works like The Mysteries of Udolpho （1794）by Ann Radcliffe & Frankenstein （1818）by Mary Shelley are typical Gothic romance.

（2）Characteristics of Romantic literature in English history.

The Romantic period is an age of poetry Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley & Keats are the major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature, which was later regarded as the poetic revolution. Wordsworth & Coleridge were the major representatives of this movement. They explored new theories & innovated new techniques in poetry writing. They saw poetry as a healing energy：they believed that poetry could purify both individual souls & the society. The Romantics not only extol the faculty of imagination, but also stress the concept of spontaneity & inspiration, regarding them as something crucial for true