1、,English Literature,Modern period,II. Various literary trends 1. socialist movement: William Morrisrevolution, socialism, communism 2. apologist of Imperialism & ColonialismRudyard Kipling 3.neo-romanticism: Robert Louis Stevenson 4. naturalism 5. aestheticism: Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde,William Morr
2、is 1834-1896,artistwritersocialist pioneer,contribution to socialist cause “Chants for Socialists” “The Pilgrims of Hope” “A Dream of John Ball” (past) “News from Nowhere” (future),News from Nowhere 1. introduction: utopian romantic science fiction Morris answers to a number of frequent objections t
3、o socialism and his belief in socialism.,Rudyard Kipling,Rudyard Kipling,Born: 1865 Birthplace: Bombay, India Died: 1936 Best Known As: The author of The Jungle Book,Rudyard Kipling the most prominent writer to defend British imperialism and colonialism In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Lit
4、erature, making him the first English language writer to receive the prize, and he remains its youngest-ever recipient.,His major works poem: Seven SeasThe Five Nationsstories: The Jungle BookThe Second Jungle Book novel: Kim (the last and most charming of his portrayals of Indian life),The Jungle B
5、ook (1894) 1. introduction: a collection of stories: fables, using animals to give moral lessons He was also born in India. He had much knowledge about the jungles in India through listening to others and using research.,2. contents: allegories of the politics and society of the time: The best-known
6、 is the adventures of an abandoned “man cub” Mowgli who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. The most famous of the other stories are probably “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi“, the story of a heroic mongoose, and “Toomai of the Elephants“, the tale of a young elephant-handler. The White Seal seeking for his
7、people a haven where they would be safe from hunters, has been considered a metaphor for Zionism.,His characters often narrated the inner contradictions between their wishes to realize their personal desires and ambitions, and the necessity to be thoroughly disciplined and unconditionally obedient s
8、ervants to imperial and colonial interest.,Neo-Romanticismescapism dissatisfied with contemporary reality imagination and fancy, exciting events and romantic characters hardly exist works: exciting adventures in distant lands,Born: 1850 Birthplace: Edinburgh Scotland Died: 1894 (aged 44) Novelist, P
9、oet,Robert Stevenson, His works“New Arabian Nights” “Treasure Island” “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (P474): novella about dual (split) personality “Kidnapped” features: fantastic, impossible and unrealistic; duality of good and evil in human personality,1. introduction: an adventure
10、novel His first major success, a tale of piracy, buried treasure, and adventure, has been filmed frequently. Its most famous character, Long John Silver: giving name to a chain of sea restaurants.,2. contents: (P473) 3. influence: vast on popular perception of pirates: treasure maps with an X, schoo
11、ners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged (one-eyed) seamen with parrots on their shoulders.,2. representatives Joseph Conrad (18571924)“The Nigger of the Narcissus”“The Heart of the Darkness”“Lord Jim” Henry James: psychological novel, international themes“The Portrait of a Lady”“Daisy
12、 Miller”,greatest literary achievement: based on Conrads firsthand experience of the Congo region of West Africa.,symbolism the “darkness” at the “heart” of mens souls the descent into an evil that lurks in the hearts of all men. evil of imperialism the greed for ivory and other resources that chara
13、cterized the exploitation of African people by European colonialism. racist perception of Africa and African people as representative of more “primitive” or “savage,” less developed society.,the school of Aestheticism19th-century European arts movement: art exists for the sake of its beauty alone, a
14、nd that it need serve no political, didactic, or other purpose.separate art or literature from life or social reality,Aestheticism had its forerunners in John Keats and Percy Shelley, and among the Pre-Raphaelites. In Britain the best representatives were Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater.,Walter Pater 1
15、. essayist, art and literary critic. 2. “Studies in the History of Renaissance”: masterpiece, art for arts sake, hedonism 3. views on art,the best kind of art is pure art or art without any meaning or thought or content the function of art: give the highest amount of pleasure and enjoyment to both w
16、riters and readers critics should depend on his own impression, not on any objective standards,Oscar Wilde 1854-1900,2. His works novel: “The Picture of Dorian Gray” short stories “Lord Arthur Saviles Crime” “The Happy Prince and Other Tales”“The Happy Prince” “The Nightingale and the Rose” “A House
17、 of Pomegranates”“The Fisherman and his Soul”“The Star-Child”, play “Lady Windermeres Fan” “Salome” “A Woman of No Importance” “An Ideal Husband” “The Importance of Being Earnest” poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”,Wildes views on art,it is not art that reflects nature but it is nature that is the re
18、flection of art real art is based on lying, and art should not begin with the study of life but with the study of what is untrue and does not exist art is above life, thus the artistic form is extremely important,Historical Background,inside:1. The Boer War: 1899-19022. The bankruptcy of the rural e
19、conomy3. The surplus capital invested into the colonies4. 3 large-scales strikes: 1911-1914,The Boer War The Boer War of (1881-1902) was involved all the Boer Republics and the British empire. It started a result of cultural resentment between the Boers (Dutch settlers in South Africa) and immigrati
20、ng British.,outside:1.the newly emerged imperial powers: Germany, Italy and Austria2. England, France and Russia.3.1914: the 1st W.W.4. In 1917, the U.S.S.R. -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,5. In 1929, the great economic depression6. In the 1920s, fascism began in Italy7. In the 1930s, Nazism r
21、ose with Hitler 8. In 1939, the 2nd W.W. broke out,Modernism cultural movement in art, architecture, music and literature between 1910 and the early years after the W.W.II. It includes various trends or schools: imagism, expressionism, dadaism, stream of consciousness, and existentialism,Modernism m
22、eans a departure from the conventional criteria or established values of the Victorian age. This departure is prepared by aesthetic movement and affected by the sickness of fin de siecle and speeded up by W.W.I. Many intellectuals were disillusioned with the condition of their country, influence by
23、Freud.,The basic themes are the alienation and loneliness: modern world is materially rich but spiritually barren. Human beings are helpless and cant do things like their forefathers once did.,features of modernist writings 1. complexity and obscurity: consciousness, no time sequence, no limitation
24、of space, difficult for readers to follow the time and space shifts. 2. use of symbols and irony 3. allusionunite the past, present and future, enrich the meaning of the work,W.B. Yeats 1865-1939, Irish poet and dramatistreceived the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. greatest lyric poet Ireland ha
25、s producedleader of Irish literary renaissance,II. His works 1. Poetry “Down by the Salley Gardens” “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” “The Wild Swans at Coole” “When You Are Old” “Leda and the Swan” (Greek myth) “Easter 1916” (1916 Easter Rising) “Sailing to Byzantium”,love lyrics “Adams Curse” “No Secon
26、d Troy” “The Cold Heaven”hopeless and passionate love for Maud Gonne,2. Verse drama “The Countess Cathleen”: Maud Gonne “Cathleen Ni Houlihan”,escaping the busy streets of city and longing for the peaceful and tranquil life of simplicity in nature Innisfree: a symbol for the speakers passed youth, w
27、hich the speaker is unable to return to in the real world. Emotionally, the speaker can return again and again to the tranquility of Innisfree.,The Wild Swans at Coole,analysis compare the present and the past. He contrasts the swans as a species with himself as an individual: as a species the swans
28、 will live on after he dies. Their beauty will remain. He by contrast, is aging and fading. He will eventually die.,the swans represent permanence or immortality. Their passion, energy and beauty will last. Their hearts remain young. The passing of time does not cause the swans to fade.,Leda and the
29、 Swan Michelangelos painting, Greek Mythology: the rape of Leda by the god Zeus in the form of a swan Leda was the wife of Tyndareus (king of Sparta). Leda was the mother of the famous beauty Helen, but Helens father was Zeus.,Sailing to Byzantium mature Byzantium is the name given to both the state
30、 and the culture of the East Roman Empire which had its capital in Constantinople from 330 until 1453.eternal beauty of artcontrast changing of human existence,Comments on Yeats 1. much aware of his Irish origin, interested in mysticism and was an active promoter of Irish literary rebirth. 2. His st
31、yle is both simple and rich, colloquial and formal, with a quality of metaphysical wit and symbolic vision.,T.S. Eliot-modernist poet1888-1965,I. His life Thomas Stearns Eliot American-English (St. Louis, Missouri) poet, playwright, and literary critic, a leader of the modernist movement in literatu
32、re. 1948: Nobel Prize for Literature,In 1927, Eliot became a British citizen and entered the Anglican Church. 1948Order of Merit by King George VINobel Prize for Literature “for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry“,Eliot died of emphysema in London in 1965. His body was crema
33、ted and, according to Eliots wishes, the ashes taken to St Michaels Church in East Coker, the village from which Eliots ancestors emigrated to America. On the second anniversary of his death, a large stone placed on the floor of Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey was dedicated to Eliot.,II. His works
34、 Poetry “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” “The Waste Land” “Four Quartets” “The Hollow Men” “Ash Wednesday”,Plays “Murder in the Cathedral” “The Family Reunion” “The Cocktail Party” “The Elder Statesman” critical essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent”,The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock str
35、eam of consciousness, Prufrocks mind jumps from one subject to another without transitionary words. reflect the helplessness and insignificance of a modern man. allusion and irony: a love song-full of warm emotion, but the poem is just the contrary.,The Waste Land 1. introduction: an epic: Originall
36、y more than 1000 lines, late deleted by Pound and now only 433 left. Eliot quoted at least 35 different works and used 6 languages.,2. Background: Greatly influenced by Jessie Weston, “From Ritual to Romance” and James Fraser: “The Golden Bough” the story of the Fisher King, a mythic figure whose lo
37、ss of power or fertility produces a corresponding drought in his kingdom. Only through the death of this king and his replacement by a new, young, and vigorous knight who can find the Holy Grail can the land be restored to fertility.,3. contents: five sections The Burial of the Dead 死者葬仪 A Game of C
38、hess 对弈 The Fire Sermon 火诫 Death by Water 水里的死亡 What the Thunder Said 雷霆的话,4. Comments on The Waste Land 1). spiritual breakup of a modern civilization in which human life has lost its meaning, significance and purpose and the urgent need of regeneration 2). milestone of modern poetry, the most impo
39、rtant event in the 20th century poetry. 3). highly controversial, difficult to understand.,Comments on T. S. Eliot 1. leader of modernism and perhaps the most important literary critic in the English-speaking world. 2. greatly influenced the development of modern British and American poetry and set
40、the way poems were read and taught for nearly a century.,G. B. Shaw 1856-1950,Irish playwright and critic,In 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature,I. his life: George Bernard Shaw Dublin, George Carr Shaw, and Lucinda Elisabeth Shaw, 16-years younger than her husband. George, drunkard, died in 1885, his c
41、hildren and wife did not attend his funeral. brought up mostly by servants, mother eventually left the family to teach music, singing, in London, died in 1913.,15, junior clerk, in 1876 went to London, not return for nearly thirty years, literary career by writing novels and drama criticism without
42、much success. in 1884 the Fabian Society (a society of socialists, organized in England in 1884 to spread socialistic principles gradually without violence): supported abolition of private property, radical change in the voting system.,1893 writing the party program for the new Independent Labour pa
43、rty, launched petition against the imprisonment of Wilde. In 1898 married the wealthy Charlotte, remained with Charlotte until her death, occasionally linked with other women, passionate correspondence with Mrs. Patrick Campbell, a widow and actress, who got the starring role in Pygmalion.,wrote ove
44、r 52 plays, continued to write even in his 90s. In 1925 awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, accepted the honour but refused the money. died at 94, falling from a ladder while pruning a tree. His ashes, mixed with those of his wife, were scattered along footpaths and around the statue of Saint Jo
45、an in their garden.,II. His works: 1. Unpleasant plays: “Widowers Houses”, “Mrs. Warrens Profession” 2. Pleasant plays: “Arms and the Man”, “Candida”, “The Man of Destiny”, “You Never Can Tell”,3. 3 plays for puritans: “The Devils Disciple” “Captain Brassbounds Conversion” , “Caesar and Cleopatra” 4
46、. “Man and Superman”, “Major Barbara”, “Pygmalion”, “Heartbreak House”, “The Apple Cart”, “Saint Joan”,Mrs. Warrens Profession,3. theme: attack social hypocrisy, the social and economic roots of a womans “immoral” behavior,Major Barbara 1. introduction: comic stage play about wealth and poverty one
47、of the most revolutionary plays: satire of the essential characteristics of modern capitalism,3. characterization 1). Barbara: lovable and inspiring, a big-hearted young woman with very human passions and uncompromising ideals 2). Undershaft: cash worship, never troubled by moral considerations or c
48、onscience-true face of monopoly capitalist,He manufactures weapons for purpose of profit and declares that he sells arms “to all men who offer an honest price for them, without respect of persons or principles: to Royalist and Republican, to Communist and Capitalist, to Protestant and to Catholic, t
49、o Burglar and to policeman, to black man and white man and yellow man, to all sorts and conditions, all nationalities, all faith, all causes and all crime.”,1. introduction: based on Ovids tale of Pygmalion Greek mythology: a king of Cyprus who fell in love with a statue. The goddess of love Aphrodite took pity on him and brought the statue to life, and he married her.,Saint Joan 1. introduction: masterpiece, regarded as “a second Shakespeare”, who had revolutionized the British theatre. The play was written four years after Joan was declared a saint.,
