英国文学史第七讲：18thC+novelists+Defoe+and+Swift课件.ppt

1、vDefinition:an invented prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals especially with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events.vItalian word novella,applied by Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio to his Decameron(1349).vSpanish picaresque stories e.g.Don Quixote vFr

2、ench romances e.g.The Romaunt of RosevEnglish prose fiction before 1700,e.g.The Pilgrims Progress(1678)vIn 18th century novel became a dominant form of literature in England because it allowed the writer a creative space that no other genres of literature could provide.vAs human horizons expanded wi

3、th the rapid developments in science,industry,and interests of life,the novel became an increasingly popular literary form.vIn a novel authors examined society with greater depth and breadth.vThey wrote revealingly about people living within,or escaping from,the pressures of society.vThey envisioned

4、 the hopes ad values of different classes of people in an age of a thriving bourgeoisie and implied their criticism of a social system that failed to satisfy human wishes and aspirations.vEarly English novels had the middle class as its major audience.vPrototype:seaman Alexander Selkirk,marooned on

5、an island off the coast of Chile.vPrototype of deserted island novel(shared subjects)vLife vWorksvMasterpiece v1660 Born in London in 1660;son of a tallow-chandlerv1666 Witnessed both Plague and Great Fire of 1666v1667 Educated first at Dorking,then at Mortons Academy for Dissenters,Newington Green;

6、to become a Presbyterian Ministerv1684 later jailed for debtv1702,The Shortest Way with Dissenters Fined,put in the pillory and then jailed at Newgate Prison.v1719,Robinson Crusoev1722,Moll Flanders;A Journal of the Plague Year;Roxana.vMost simply:a story of sea adventures -childrens literature.vPol

7、itically:an artistic projection of colonial expansion vIndividually:optimistic attitude+hard working facing life frustrations vSocially：differentwesternculturalvalues：vThe dignity of labor(a slogan to justify the bourgeoisies accumulation of wealth through diligent work and colonial expansion.)v bac

8、k to nature(I looked now upon the civilized world as a thing remote,which I had nothing to do with,no expectation from,and indeed no desires about)vReligious devotion(inner peace does not come from material possessions but from communication with God.)vhttp:/ WorksvSwifts StylevGullivers Travelsvbor

9、n in Dublin.A posthumous son.遗腹子.And his mother was poor.He mainly relied on his unwilling relatives.vstudied at Trinity College,Dublin;detested the routine curriculum;read only those appealing to his own nature;often at war with the college authorities;obstinate and unruly 桀骜不逊 v after graduation,l

10、ived in a relatives house;relation unpleasant as a secretary/servant;eating at the servants table;left the relative and worked in a little church.;never forgot the bitter experience of“living under the roof of a noble family”.vlater,got famous as a writer,VIP in London;vented his early repressed ang

11、er with his pen;tried to help young men of talent;sought them out and brought them up to London;obtained positions for them.vBut unfortunately,he got a brain disease from early age which caused him intense pain.For this disorder,he could not marry though he was loved by 2 women.At last he got mad an

12、d died in misery in 1745.In his will,he bequeathed all his property to the building of a madhouse in Dublin.It is still there now,called“Dr.Swifts Madhouse”v1704:“A Tale of a Tub”to satirize Roman Catholic Church,puritans and church of England and to attack Christianity.It is a parable.He got famous

13、 from then on.v“The Battle of the Books”to attack pedantry in the literary world.v1708:“Bickerstaff Almanac”a squib 小品文，讽刺短文小品文，讽刺短文 about an astrologer 占星家占星家 Partridge duped the London public by predicting future events in the form of an almanac.So Swift wrote his own almanac under the pseudonym o

14、f Isaac Bickerstaff and foretold the death date of Partridge.v1726,novel:“Gullivers Travels”v“The Drapers Letters”“A Modest Proposal”-a most heartbreaking sarcasm.vone greatest master of English prose,novelist;vsimple,clear and vigorous languagevno ornaments in his writing,but loved deeply by reader

15、s vunsurpassed in simple,direct and precise prose va master satirist,his irony is deadly vbut his satire is masked by an outward gravity van apparent calmness conceals his bitter irony vPart I.vOwing to a shipwreck,to Lilliput,6-inch-tall people,two parties:high heels and low heels.Tories and Whigs,

16、religious disputes on“should eggs be broken at the big end or the little end?”.vPart II.vVoyage to Brobdingnag,the king holding Europe only an anthill,60-foot tall.To satirize the strutting and bowing of English lords and ladies.vPart III.vFlying island,Gulliver could call up ancient famous men to q

17、uestion them,a satire on philosophers and projectors.vPart IV.vHouyhnhams,a country where Horses govern;Yahoos,though in shape of men,are beasts.Gulliver disgusts yahoos vice so that he does not want to go back to England but stay with the horses.Eventually he goes back home,only to be filled with disgust.He even swooned/fainted when his wife kissed him.