6.十九世纪维多利亚小说

An Age of the Novel
Three major phases of growth: from a feeling of optimism (Charles Dickens) through that of complexity (George Eliot) to that of gloom and pessimism (Thomas Hardy)
The contrast of the siblings The implication of Philip being a dwarf and Maggie’s attachment to him: author’s inner-ambivalence and her divided allegiance to moral aesthetic and her private vision as an artist
3. The period of pessimism and the looming of naturalism (late 1880s - onward)
Esther Waters
Samuel Butler
George Gissing George Moore
An Age of the Novel
Victorian British Literature
(1837-1901)
(I) Novel
The father of the historical novel writing in a rich romantic style
Water Scot
Realistic tradition in novel writing
Thomas Huxley
Victorianism:
the social, political and cultural features of this period
6. Optimistic view of social progress undermined by disappointed outcomes: coexistence of hope and despair; a sense of personal growing-up toward maturity and knowledge of the truth of life 7. Moral earnestness: reformers rather than radicals
2. The period of confusion and complexity (mid-19th - 1880s)
George Meredith Anthony Trollope
An Age of the Novel
Three major phases of growth: from a feeling of optimism (Charles Dickens) through that of complexity (George Eliot) to that of gloom and pessimism (Thomas Hardy)
• A Victorian novelist at the end of 19th century embracing modern spirit; a modern poet at the beginning of 20th century • His distinctiveness from Eliot and Dickens: his perspective of human life and world; his departure from moral teaching; his dissent from Christianity
Selected reading: Great Expectations 39th Chapter
George Eliot
• Tolerant and all-inclusive attitude in her understanding of the struggling erring humanity: No grotesque characters and events • Nostalgic pastoral setting and description as a contrast to the present • Psychological realist: an agnostic determinist believing in causality • Embracing utilitarianism, an ambivalent evangelist, sensitive to the evolution theory • Unsatisfactory personal life
Jane Austen
The Victorian Period: An Introduction
• A transition from an agricultural to an industrialized nation, from feudal to modern • Economic affluence and advance in science giving birth to the mixed feeling of optimism and anxiety as well as the dilemma between science and faith for the Victorians to make a choice • Predominant literary trend: Critical realism（批判现实主义） • Predominant literary form: novel
• • • • • • •
Adam Bede, 1859 The Mill on the Floss, 1860 Silas Marner, 1861 Romola, 1863 Felix Holt, the Radical, 1866 Middlemarch, 1871–72 Daniel Deronda, 1876
An inevitable tragic history in record: the triumph of urbanization and industrialization; the tragic lives of people made tragic by their time
Thomas Hardy
1. The period of optimism (1830s – mid-19th)
EmilΒιβλιοθήκη Baidu Bronte
William Thackeray
Charlotte Bronte
An Age of the Novel
Three major phases of growth: from a feeling of optimism (Charles Dickens) through that of complexity (George Eliot) to that of gloom and pessimism (Thomas Hardy)
•
• •
Theme: a novel of growing up dehumanization of urban civilization; the sense of spiritual devastation; the quest for identity and the final return of home and family The irony of “great expectations”，“gentleman” The characterization: Joe, Miss Havisham, Magwitch
nor a radical rebel
Dickens’ novels
• The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club • The Adventures of Oliver Twist • The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby • The Old Curiosity Shop • The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit • Dombey and Son • David Copperfield • Bleak House • Hard Times: For These Times • Little Dorrit • A Tale of Two Cities • Great Expectations • Our Mutual Friend
Victorianism:
the social, political and cultural features of this period
1.
2.
Middle-class prosperity resulting in the dominance of cultural philistinism(市侩文化） Morality conservativeness: hypocritical double standard for both genders
Charles Dickens
• His two-phase career life with obvious mood switch from optimistic one to depressed and gloom • His fictional world: thronged with the diverse specimens of humanity, providing a bird’s-eye view of the panorama of English life • His protagonists, his themes and his limited modern traits • His writing features Spontaneity Grotesquery Melodrama Social criticism A social critic ,yet neither a revolutionist
Late Victorian decadent Aestheticism
Robert Stevenson
Oscar Wilde
An Age of the Novel
Lewis Carroll
Conan Doyle
An Age of the Novel
Common features: 1. For instruction and entertainment 2. Writings reflecting the values of urban and middle class 3. Spiritual transformation: high value attached to family, love, marriage and some other emotional and traditional aspects … 4. Depicting moral fictional worlds 5. Realistic representation of life in a critical way 6. Third-person omniscient point of view in narration
3.
Moral aesthetic dominating literary appreciation
Victorianism:
the social, political and cultural features of this period
4. The wide currency of middle-class Utilitarianism: “Pig philosophy” 5. Darwinism triggering public anxiety and crisis in faith