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1、英美文学精粹英美文学精粹赏析析Selected Readings In English and American Literature人民邮电出版社人民邮电出版社Victorian PeriodHistorical BackgroundThe Reform Bill of 1832 marked the passing of the political power from the decaying aristocrats to the industrial capitalists.The Industrial Revolution made England the workshop of t
2、he world”Rapid development of science and techCultural backgroundDarwins evolutionary theory&Marxs historical view greatly shook peoples religious convictionUtilitarianismFeatures of Victorian LiteratureNovels became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of progressive t
3、houghtWriter became social and moral critics/critical realismTennyson and Browning paved the way the 20th century modern poetryCharles Dickens 1812-1870 I.LifeEnglish novelist,generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period.Dickenss works are characterized by attacks on social evils,injust
4、ice,and hypocrisy.II.Artistic features Master storytellerMaster of languageCharacter portrayalDickens believes life is made up of both joy and sorrow.His works are a mixture of humor and pathos.III.Works Oliver Twist The Old Curiosity Shop Dombey and Son David CopperfieldGreat Expectations The Old C
5、uriosity Shop Our Mutual FriendsThe Tale of Two CitiesIV.Selected ReadingsOliver Twist notable for Dickenss unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives.The book exposed the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London during the Dickensian era.Charlotte Bronte 1816-1855 I.LifeEnglish w
6、riter noted for her novel JANE EYRE(1847),sister of Anne Bront and Emily Bront.The three sisters are almost as famous for their short,tragic lives as for their novels.In their works they described love more truthfully that was common in Victorian age England.II.Brontes worldCharlottes works are all
7、about the struggle of an individual consciousness towards self-realization,about some lonely and neglected young women with a fierce longing for love,understanding and a full,happy lifeIII.Feature of the Bronte NovelsShe presents a vivid realistic picture of the English society by exposing the cruel
8、ty,hypocrisy and other evils of the upper classes,and by showing the misery and suffering of the poor.Her writings are marked through out by an intensity of vision and of passion.The characters are created in a romantic way.IV.Selected Readings Jane Eyre Jane Eyre is the bittersweet story of the lif
9、e of a strong,passionate young woman,who survives a wretched childhood to become a governess and falls deeply in love with her troubled but compelling employer,Mr.Rochester.Scandalous revelations wreck their wedding day and send her fleeing.After much soul-searching,she returns to the aftermath of t
10、ragic events to a reunion that at long-last allows her to experience true happiness.Comment on Heroine Jane EyreThough Jane Eyre is not physically attractive,she possesses a beauty of her own.What Jane lacks in physical beauty,she makes up for in intelligence,wit and strength of character.Jane is no
11、 austere and unemotional woman.She is undoubtedly capable of endurance,wit and courage in critical moments.The true subject of Jane Eyre is the moral courage with which Jane confronts her own conflicting passions.Robert Browning 1812-1889 I.Life Englishpoet and playwright whose mastery ofdramatic ve
12、rse,especially dramatic monologues,made him one of the foremostVictorianpoets.Brownings wife,Elizabeth Barrett,also a famous poet,once a serious contender for Poet Laureate after WordsworthII.Poetic Achievementsbest-known for his dramatic monologue technique.In his monologues,he spoke in the voice o
13、f an imaginary or historical character.He had a fondness for people who lived during the Renaissance.Most of his monologues portray persons at dramatic moments in their lives.III.Selected Readings My Last Duchess poem frequentlyanthologisedas an example of thedramatic monologue.It first appeared in
14、1842 in BrowningsDramatic Lyrics.The poem is written in 28rhymedcoupletsofiambic pentameter.Thomas Hardy 1840-1928 I.Life English poet and novelist,famous for his depictions of the imaginary county Wessex.Hardys work reflected his stoical pessimism and sense of tragedy in human life.II.Hardy novelsF
15、ar from the Madding Crowd(1874)The Return of the Native(1878)The Mayor of Casterbridge:The Life and Death of a Man of Character(1886)The Woodlanders(1887)Tess of the dUrbervilles:A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented(1891)Jude the Obscure(1895)III.Literary ThemesHardy criticises certain social constrain
16、ts on the lives of those living in the 19th century.Considered a Victorian realist,Hardy examines the social constraints that are part of Victorian society and criticises beliefs that limited peoples lives and caused unhappiness.IV.Features Novels known as“novels of character and environment”are the
17、 representative of Hardy as both a naturalistic and critical realist writer.Hardy is a great painter of nature.In his hand,the Wessex prairie comes to life,with its own color,temper,mystery and force of destruction.It is as much a living character as men and women in the novels.In his works,the stro
18、ng elements of naturalism are combined with a tendency towards symbolism and also combined with realism.Three types in the characters pursuit of a marriage according to their different attitudes:those who would marry for material wealth and social position;those for beauty and passion,and those for
19、true love with a consideration of the partners personal merit as well as his economical and social status.V.Selected readings Tess of the DUrbervilles Hardys writing often illustrates the ache of modernism,and this theme is notable inTess,which,as one critic noted,portrays the energy of traditional
20、ways and the strength of the forces that are destroying them.Hardy describes modern farm machinery with infernal imagery;also,at the dairy,he notes that the milk sent to the city must be watered down because the townspeople cannot stomach whole milk.Angels middle-class fastidiousness makes him rejec
21、t Tess,a woman whom Hardy often portrays as a sort ofWessexEve,in harmony with the natural world.When he parts from her and goes to Brazil,the handsome young man gets so ill that he is reduced to a mere yellow skeleton.All these instances are typically interpreted as indications of the negative cons
22、equences of mans separation from nature,both in the creation of destructive machinery and in the inability to rejoice in pure nature.Another important theme of the novel is the sexualdouble standardto which Tess falls victim;despite being,in Hardys view,a truly good woman,she is despised by society
23、after losing her virginity before marriage.Hardy plays the role of Tesss only true friend and advocate,pointedly subtitling the book a pure woman faithfully presented and prefacing it withShakespeares words fromThe Two Gentlemen of Verona:Poor wounded name!My bosom as a bed/Shall lodge thee.However,
24、although Hardy clearly means to criticiseVictoriannotions of female purity,the double standard also makes the heroines tragedy possible,and thus serves as a mechanism of Tesss broader fate.Hardy variously hints that Tess must suffer either toatonefor the misdeeds of her ancestors,or to provide temporary amusement for the gods,or because she possesses somesmall but lethal character flawinherited from the ancient clan.