英国文学史 The Victorian Period (1)

The Late Period (1879-1901): Decay of Victorian Values 1. relations with the Irish 2. the status of Roman Catholics in England 3. the sudden emergence of Bismarck's Germany 4. the recovery of the United States 5. the rising rate of emigration because of the severe economic depressions 6. the growth of labor as a political and economic force
B. These novelists often confront the same issues and employ similar styles as their contemporaries among the poets and essayists. C. One significant difference is that the novelists for the most part do not share the preoccupation of the Victorian poets and essayists with humanity's relationship to God.
C. The prose is often highly allusive, sometimes deceptively simple, and always susceptible to fresh and profitable interpretation as the symbol of their thought and the eloquent expression of their convictions.
4. England was the first country to become industrialized, so it was profitable: to capture markets all over the globe. David Thomas said, "(The period) is one of strenuous activity and dynamic change, of ferment of ideas and recurrent social unrest, of great inventiveness and expansion."
The Mid-Victorian Period (1848-1870): Economic Prosperity and Religious Controversy 1. its well-working institutions the monarchy, the queen and her husband, the aristocracy, agriculture The Age of Improvement 2. the conflict between religion and science A. the religious debates between the Utilitarians and the philosophical conservatives
2. The variety of Victorian literature both in style and in subject matter 1) Victorian Poetry: the development of poetic narrative The poets sought new ways of telling stories in verse and wrote extensively of love and personal relationships.
II. Features of the social, cultural and political life in the Victorian Age 1. The growth of the middle class (chiefly the capitalists). Victorian literature is essentially middle-class, urban literature. 2. The development of a very conservative kind of morality.
The Early Period (1832-1848): A Time of Troubles 1. the passing of the first Reform Bill / Reform Acts(改革法案)in 1832 (改革法案) 2. rioting in the early 1849s 3. Chartism(宪章运动) (宪章运动) a movement started by the Chartists, advocating the extension of the right to vote, the use of secret balloting, and other legislative reforms
III. The Diversity of Victorian Literature
1. The weight of the puritan code on the literature of early and mid-Victorian England was considerable. The need to avoid topics which might cause embarrassment to young girls established taboos that novelists could not dare ignore, although they might sometimes skillfully circumvent them. Too much can be made of the importance of these taboos as literary conventions in the Victorian Age.
as one of the dominant forms of literature, so any estimate of Victorian literature has to take into account the outstanding achievements of the Victorian novelists. From the time of Charles Dickens to the final decade, a long line of novelist continued to turn out monumental masterpieces.
2) Victorian Prose: the special and opportune art of the modern world A. Prose conveys the "chaotic variety and complexity" of modern life, the "incalculable" intellectual diversity of the "master currents of the present time".
3. The predominance of the moral aesthetic that proved binding to most Victorian writers. 4. The wide currency of utilitarianism. 5. The advent of the theory of evolution. 6. Faith in progress and a sense of earnestness.
the Utilitarians: religious belief was merely an outmoded superstition. the anti-Utilitarians: a. People had always needed a faith as profoundly as they had needed food. b. If reason seemed to demonstrate the irrelevance of religion then reason must be an inadequate mode of arriving at truth. B. the scientific discoveries damaging to established faiths
B. All of the Victorian prose writers were linked by a common concern for the fate of humanity in an industrial, democratic, and increasingly secularized society.
The Victoriaห้องสมุดไป่ตู้ Age
I. Historical background
An Age of Expansion 1. The world moved farther ahead. 2. The expansionist movement brought England to its highest point of development as a world power. 3. The most important development of the age: the shift from a way of life based on the ownership of land to a modern urban economy based on trade and manufacturing.