VI. John Keats
1. 一般识记 His Life & Literary Career
John Keats (1795-1821) was born in London & educated at the Clarke's School. At 15, he left school & was apprenticed to a surgeon, Thomas Hammond. Subsequently from 1815 to 1816, Keats studied medicine at Guy's Hospital in London. But he left this profession very soon. He read much of Spenser, Milton & Homer. It was Spenser who awakened in Keats his dormant poetic gift, & the first verses which he wrote were in imitation of the Elizabethan Poetry. Besides the classical elements, Hunt, the radical journalist & minor poet, was a vital influence on the early Keats, cultivating him with a taste for liberal politics as well as for the fine arts.
Keats's first important poem "On first Looking into Chapman's Homer" was published in 1816 in the paper, Examiner, run by Hunt. In 1817, he published his first volume of poems. In 1818, a poem based on the Greek myth of Endymion & the moon goddess, Endymion, was published. From 1818 to 1820, Keats reached the summit of his poetic creation. In July 1820, the third & best of his volumes of poetry, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, & Other Poems, was published. Keats died in Rome on February 23,1821.
2. 识记 His Major Poetic Works
The odes are generally regarded as Keats's most important & mature works. Their subject matter, however, is the poet's abiding preoccupation with the imagination as it reaches out to union with the beautiful. In the greatest of these works, he also suggests the undercurrent of disillusion that accompanies such ecstasy, the human suffering which forever questions the visionary transcendence achieved by art.
1)"Ode to a Nightingale"
It expresses the contrast between the happy world of natural loveliness & human world of agony. Here the aching ecstasy roused by the bird's song is felt like a form of spiritual homesickness, a longing to be at one with beauty. The poem first introduces joy & sorrow, song & music. Death & rapture which free him into the world of dream. By combining a tingling anticipation with a lapsing towards dissolution, Keats manages to keep a precarious balance between mirth & despair, rapture & grief. Inspired by the nightingale's song, his thoughts now ascend from the transfigured physical world, through the imagined ecstasy of death, to the timeless present of the nightingale's song. The ultimate imaginative view of "faery lands forlorn" evaporates in its extremity as the full associations of the word "toll" the poet back from his near-loss of self-hood to the real & human world of sorrow & death.
2) "Ode on an Grecian Urn"
It shows the contrast between the permanence of art & the transience of human passion. The poet has absorbed himself into the timeless beautiful scenery on the antique Grecian Urn: the lovers, musicians & worshippers on the Urn exist simultaneously & for ever in their intensity of joy. They are unaffected by time, stilled in expectation. This is at once the glory & the limitation of the world conjured up by an object of art. The urn celebrates but simplifies intuitions of ecstasy by seeming to deny our painful knowledge of transience & suffering.
3) Endymion
Endymion was a poem based on the Greek myth of Endymion & the moon goddess. In this poem, Keats described his imagination in an enchanted atmosphere-a lovely moon-lit world where human love & ideal beauty were merged into one. Endymion marked a transitional phase in Keats's poetry, though he himself was not satisfied with it.
4) Isabella
In July 1820, the third & best of his volumes of poetry, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Ages, &Other Poems, was published, The three title poems all deal with mythical & legendary themes of ancient, medieval, & Renaissance times. At the heart of these poems lies Keats's concern with how the ideal can be joined with the real, the imagined with the actual & man with woman.
4.领会Characteristics of Keats's Poetry
Keats's poetry is always sensuous, colorful & rich in imagery, which expresses the acuteness of his senses. Sight, sound, scent, taste & feeling are all used to give an entire understanding of an experience. He has the power of entering the feelings of others-either human or animal. With vivid & rich images, he paints poetic pictures full of wonderful color. Keats's poetry, characterized by exact & closely-knit construction, sensual descriptions, & by force in imagination, gives transcendental values to the physical beauty of the world.
5.应用 Selected Reading:
"Ode on a Grecian Urn"
The Grecian Urn that the poem depicts is a piece of ancient Greek pottery with a pastoral scene overwrought upon it. The urn represents a piece of artifact, & it has endured a long history, yet remains untarnished, & the pastoral scene on it can still be seen clearly.
On the surface, this ode is about the Grecian Urn, but we can fairly say it is a commentary on nature & art, for art has the power to preserve intense human experiences, so that they may go on being enjoyed by men from generation to generation. Pleasure in life cannot be protected from change, while artifact can remain intact.
The Ode consists of 5 stanzas, the first four stanzas describing a pastoral scene on the urn, & the last epitomizing the relation of the timeless ideal world in art to the woeful actual world.
VII Jane Austen
1. 一般识记Her life & Literary Career
Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born in a country clergyman's family on 16 December 1775, in the parish of Steventon. She was educated at home with her sister. Through a wide reading of books available in her father's library, Jane acquired a thorough knowledge of 18th -century of Dr. Johnson, the poetry of W. Cowper, as well as the novels by Richardson & Fielding. She lived a quiet, retired &, in public terms, uneventful life, though she did move to several places like Bath, Southampton & Chawton. And her closest companion was her elder sister Cassandra, who like her, never married. Austen began as a child to write novels for her family entertainment. Her works were later published anonymously due to the prejudice against women writers then. She died in Winchester.
In her lifelong career, Jane Austen wrote altogether six complete novels, which can be divided into two distinct periods. Her first novel, Sense & Sensibility (1811), tells a story about two sisters & their love affairs; Pride & Prejudice (1813), the most popular of he novels, deals with the five Bennet sisters & their search for suitable husbands; & Northanger Abbey (1818) satirizes those popular Gothic romances of the late 18th century, Mansfield Park (1814) presents the antithesis of worldliness & unworldliness; Emma (1815) gives the thought over self-deceptive vanity; & Persuasion (1818) contrasts the true love with the prudential calculations. Several incomplete works were published long after Austen's death. These include The Watsons (1923), Fragment of a Novel (1925), & Plan of a Novel (1926).
2.识记 Her Major Works
Pride & Prejudice, originally drafted as "First Impressions" in 1796, is the most delightful of Jane Austen's works. The title tells of a major concern of the novel pride & prejudice. If to form good relationships is our main task in life, we must first have good judgment. Our first impressions, according to Jane Austen, are usually wrong, as is shown here by those of Elizabeth. In the process of judging others, Elizabeth finds out something about herself: her blindness, partiality, prejudice & absurdity. In time she discovered her own shortcomings. On the other hand, Darcy too learns about other people & himself. In the end false pride is humbled & prejudice dissolved.
3. 领会 Her Literary creation & literary achievements
In her lifelong career, Jane Austen wrote altogether 6 complete novels. They are Sense & Sensibility; Pride & Prejudice; Northanger Abbey; Mansfield Park; Emma & Persuasion. Austen's main literary concern is about human beings in their personal relationships. Because of this, her novels have a universal significance. She is particularly preoccupied with the relationship between men & women in love. Stories of love & marriage provide the major themes in all her novels.
The works of Jane Austen, delightful &profound are part of the supreme achievements of English literature. With trenchant observation & in meticulous detail, she presents the quiet, day-to-day life of the upper-middle-class English. Her characteristic theme is that maturity is achieved through the loss of illusions. Faults of character displayed by the people of her novels are corrected when, through tribulation, lessons are learned. Even the most minor characters are vividly particularized in Austen's lucid style. All these show a mind of the shrewdest intelligence adapting the available traditions & deepening the resources of art with consummate craftsmanship. Because of her sensitivity to universal patterns of human behavior, Jane Austen has brought the English novels, as an art form, to its maturity, & she has been regarded by many critics as one of the greatest of all novelists.

4. 应用Selected Reading
An Excerpt From Chapter I of Pride & Prejudice
1) Structure, characterization & language style
The structure of the novel is exquisitely deft, the characterization in the highest degree memorable, while the irony has a radiant shrewdness unmatched elsewhere. At the heart of the novelist's exploration of the marriage, property & intrigue lies the exhilarating suspense of the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet & Darcy, & Jane Austen's delicate probing of the values of the gentry. The moments of high comedy in the novel are always related to deeper issues. Elizabeth's rejection of the odious Mr. Collins suggests her independence & self-esteem, but when Collins is accepted by her friend Charlotte Lucas, we see the reality of marriage as a necessary step if a woman is to a void the wretchedness of aging spinsterhood. Conversely, in the elopement of Lydia & Wickham, we are shown the dangers of feckless relationships unsupported by money. The comic characters in Pride & Prejudice are: Mr. & Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins & that monstrous snob Lady Catherine de Burgh, who make us laugh even as they parody erroneous views of marriage & class.

5. 应用 Characteristics of Jane Austen's novels
1) Austen's novels describe a narrow range of society & events: a quiet, prosperous, middle class circle in provincial surroundings, which she knew well from her own experience
2) Her subject matter is also limited, for most of her novels deal with the subject of getting married, which was in fact the central problem for the young leisure-class lady of that age, who had no other choice in her life but to find a good husband.
3) Austen's interest was in human nature; in her depiction of human nature, instead of being fascinated by great waves of elevated emotion, by passion or heroic experience, she focused on the trivial & petty details of everyday living, which became very interesting through her truthful & lively description.
4) Austen's novels are brightened by their witty conversation & omnipresent humor. Her language shines with an exquisite touch of lively gracefulness, elegant & refined, but never showy.



Chapter 4 The Victorian Period

一． 学习目的和要求
通过本章的学习，对19世纪维多利亚时代英国的政治，经济，历史，文化背景，对维多利亚时代的诗歌，散文，小说在创作思想上的进步和创作技巧上的改革，以及对该时代主要作家的生平，观点，创作旨意，艺术品特点及其代表作的主题，结构，语言，人物刻画等都有一个全面的了解。 并通过作品选读加深体会感受，增强对作品的理解和鉴赏能力。
二． 考核要求
（一） 维多利亚时期概述
1． 识记:（1）维多利亚时期的界定
（2）社会政治，经济，文化背景。
2． 领会:（1）维多利亚时期的文学特点
（2）批判现实主义小说对后世文学的影响。
3． 应用：宪章运动，功利主义，批判现实主义，戏剧独自等名词的解释
（二） 该时期的重要作家
 1． 一般识记：重要作家的生平与创作生涯
2． 识记: 重要作品及主要内容
3． 领会：重要作家的创作思想，艺术特色及其代表作品的主题思想，人物塑造，语言风格，社会意义等。
4． 应用:（1）狄更斯和萨克雷作品的批判现实主义思想及各自的创作手法，艺术特色。
（2）小说《简•爱》，《呼啸山庄》的主题思想与人物塑造。
（3）"我逝去的公爵夫?quot;中的戏剧独白。
（4）乔泊•艾略特和哈代小说中环境，氛围描述与人物内世界的展示。

A. Introduction to the Victorian Period
1. 识记
(1) Definition: the Victorian Period
Chronologically the Victorian period roughly coincides with the reign of Queen Victoria who ruled over England from 1836 to 1901. The period has been generally regarded as one of the most glorious in the English history.
(2) Political, Economical & Cultural Background
The early years of the Victorian England was a time of rapid economic development as well as serious social problems. After the Reform Bill of 1832 passed the political power from the decaying aristocrats into the hands of the middle-class industrial capitalists, the Industrial Revolution soon geared up. Towards the mid-century, England had reached its highest point of development as a world power. And yet beneath the great prosperity & richness, there existed widespread poverty & wretchedness among the working class. The worsening living & working conditions, the mass unemployment & the new Poor Law of 1834 with its workhouse system finally gave rise to the Chartist Movement (1836-1848).
During the next twenty years, England settled down to a time of prosperity & relative stability. The middle-class life of the time was characterized by prosperity, respectability & material progress.
But the last three decades of the century witnessed the decline of the British Empire & the decay of the Victorian values.
Ideologically, the Victorians experienced fundamental changes. The rapid development of science & technology, new inventions & discoveries in geology, astronomy, biology & anthropology drastically shook people's religious convictions. Darwin's The Origin of Species (1859) & The Descent of Man (1871) shook the theoretical basis of the traditional faith. On the other hand, Utilitarianism was widely accepted & practiced. Almost everything was put to the test by the criterion of utility, that is, the extent to which it could promote the material happiness.
2. 领会
(1) Features of the Victorian Literature
Victorian literature, as a product of its age, naturally took on its quality of magnitude & diversity. It was many-sided & complex, & reflected both romantically & realistically the great changes that were going on in people's life & thought. Great writers & great works abounded.
(2) Features of Victorian novels
In this period, the novel became the most widely read & the most vital & challenging expression of progressive thought. While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the 18th-century realist novel, novelists in this period carried their duty forward to the criticism of the society & the defense of the mass. Although writing from different points of view & with different techniques, they shared one thing in common, that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the common people. They were angry at the inhuman social institutions, the decaying social morality as represented by the money-worship & Utilitarianism & the widespread misery, poverty & injustice. Their truthful depiction of people's life & bitter & strong criticism of the society had done much in awakening the public consciousness to the social problems & in the actual improvement of the society.
Victorian literature, in general, truthfully represents the reality & spirit of the age. The high-spirited vitality, the down-to-earth earnestness, the good-natured humor & unbounded imagination are all unprecedented. In almost every genre it paved the way for the coming century, where its spirits, values & experiments are to witness their bumper harvest.

3. 应用 Definitions of several terms
1) The Chartist Movement (1836-1848)
The English workers got themselves organized in big cities & brought forth the People's charter, in which they demanded basic rights & better living & working conditions. They, for three times, made appeals to the government, with hundreds of thousands of people's signatures. The movement swept over most of the cities in the country. Although the movement declined to an end in 1848, it did bring some improvement to the welfare of the working class. This was the first mass movement of the English working class & the early sign of the awakening of the poor, oppressed people.
2) Utilitarianism
Almost everything was put to the test by the criterion of utility, that is, the extent to which it could promote the material happiness. This theory held a special appeal to the middle-class industrialists, whose greed drove them to exploiting workers to the utmost & brought greater suffering & poverty to the working mass.
3) Critical Realism
The Victorian Age is an age of realism rather than of romanticism-a realism which strives to tell the whole truth showing moral & physical diseases as they are. To be true to life becomes the first requirement for literary writing. As the mirror of truth, literature has come very close to daily life, reflecting its practical problems & interests & is used as a powerful instrument of human progress.
4) Dramatic Monologue
By dramatic monologue, it is meant that a poet chooses a dramatic moment or a crisis, in which his characters are made to talk about their lives, & about their minds & hearts. In " listening" to those one-sided talks, readers can form their own opinions & judgments about the speaker's personality & about what has really happened. Robert Browning brought this poetic form to its maturity & perfection & his "My Last Duchess" is one of the best-known dramatic monologues.

B. Victorian Writers
I. Charles Dickens

 

1． 一般识记 His Life & Literary Career
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born at Portsmouth. His father, a poor clerk in the Navy Pay office, was put into the Marsalsea Prison for debt when young Charles was only 12 years old. The son had to give up schooling to work in an underground cellar at a shoe-blacking factory - a position he considered most humiliating. We find the bitter experiences of that suffering child reflected in many of Dickens's novels. In 1827, Charles entered a lawyer's office, & two years later he became a Parliamentary reporter for newspapers. From 1833 Dickens began to write occasional sketches of London life, which were later collected & published under the title Sketches by Boz (1836). Soon The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836-1837) appeared in monthly installments. And since then, his life became one of endless hard work. In his later years, he gave himself to public readings of his works, which brought plaudits & comfort but also exhausted him. In 1870, this man of great heart & vitality died of overwork, leaving his last novel unfinished.