学习目标

1. 了解浪漫主义时期的历史背景

2. 了解浪漫主义的特点

3.   熟悉浪漫主义时期的作家以及赏析作品，注重文本的理解

学习指南

浪漫主义时期

浪漫主义时期知识模块里包括三个知识点：

知识点 1 介绍了浪漫主义早期的两位湖畔诗人 : 华兹华斯和柯勒律治。

知识点 1 中主要讲述了三个方面的内容：

1 ）浪漫主义的介绍，其中包括浪漫主义的定义、浪漫主义时期文学作品的特点和浪漫主义时期的历史背景以及湖畔诗人的缘由；

2 ）介绍诗人华兹华斯，其中包括他的生平介绍，成长历程、作品的主题、主要诗歌作品以及在英国文学史上的意义。

3 ）介绍诗人柯勒律治，其中包括柯勒律治的生平和成长历程、诗歌作品以及意义。

知识点 2 主要介绍了浪漫主义诗歌。在知识点 2 中主要介绍了三位浪漫主义诗人：拜伦、雪莱和济慈以及三位诗人的生平和作品。

知识点 3 主要介绍了浪漫主义小说。在知识点 3 中主要介绍了两位浪漫主义小说家：苏格特和奥斯丁。分别介绍了两位小说家的成长历程和小说代表作品。

知识内容

Unit 1 Pre-Romanticism : Lake poets

  1. William Wordsworth

  2. Samuel Coleridge

Unit 2 The Romantic poems

  1. George Gordon Byron

  2. Percy Bysshe Shelley

  3. John Keats

Unit 3 The Romantic novels

  1. Walter Scott

  2. Jane Austen

实践

Practice 1: What's the significance of the publication of Lyrical Ballads?

Practice 2: Identify the theme of I Wandered lonely as a Cloud.

Practice 3: Read the novel of “ Pride and Prejudice ” and write a book report.

案例

Romanticism ( 浪漫主义 ): The term refers to the literary and artistic movements of the late 18 th and early 19 th century. Romanticism rejected the earlier philosophy of the Enlightenment, which stressed that logic and reason were the best response humans had in the face of cruelty, stupidity, superstition, and barbarism. Instead, the Romantics asserted that reliance upon emotion and natural passions provided a valid and powerful means of knowing and a reliable guide to ethics and living. The Romantic movement typically asserts the unique nature of the individual, the privileged status of imagination and fancy, the value of spontaneity over “artifice” and “convention,” the human need for emotional outlets, the rejection of civilized corruption, and a desire to return to natural primitivism and escape the spiritual destruction of urban life. Their writings are often set in rural, or Gothic settings and they show an obsessive concern with “innocent” characters---children, young lovers, and animals. The major Romantic poets included William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Gordon Byron.

浪漫主义 指 18 世纪末 ， 19 世纪初发生的文学和艺术运动。该运动是对早期启蒙主义哲学的反叛，后者强调在面对残忍、愚蠢、迷信以及野蛮时，逻辑和理性是人类应该做出的最佳反应。与此相对，浪漫主义强调应该依靠情绪以及自然抒发的激情作为生活和伦理问题的有效指导。浪漫主义运动特别强调个体的独一无二，想象、幻想的优先地位，自发性优于 “ 技巧 ” 和 “ 惯例 ” 所具有的价值，人类对于情感表达的自然需求，对与文明相伴的堕落腐化的抵制，以及远离摧毁人类灵魂的城市生活，重返原始自然的渴望。浪漫主义者的作品通常以乡村、田园以及哥特式城堡为背景，对于 “ 天真单纯 ” 的个体，诸如儿童、年轻的恋人以及动物特别关心。浪漫主义的代表诗人包括威廉 . 布莱克、威廉 . 华兹华斯、乔治 . 戈登 . 拜伦、波西 . 比希 . 雪莱以及约翰 . 济慈。

Literary Features of the Romantic Age

The Romantic Age began in 1798 and came to an end in 1832. In 1798 William Wordsworth and his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge published their joint work Lyrical Ballads. In the preface to the second and third editions of this book, Wordsworth laid down the principles on which he thought the composition of poetry should be founded. The publication of Lyrical Ballads marked the break with classicism and the beginning of the Romantic Age. In 1832, the last romantic writer Walter Scott died, so in that year, the Romantic Age came to an end.

This age is an age of romantic enthusiasm. At first the literature reflected the political turmoil of the age stirred by French Revolution. When the turmoil was over, it suddenly developed a new creative spirit, which shows itself mainly in the poetry of the romantic poets, and makes this age resemble the Elizabethan Age.

This age is emphatically an age of poetry. Many young enthusiastic writers turned to poetry as a happy man to singing. The glory of the age is seen in the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats.

Women as novelists appeared in this age. It was during this period that women assumed, for the first time, an important place in English literature. Mrs. Anne Radcliff was one of the most successful writers of the school of exaggerated romance. Jane Austen offered us her charming descriptions of everyday life in her enduring work. Their works raised woman to the high place in literature which she has ever since maintained.

The greatest historical novelists Walter Scott also appeared in this period. His historical novels combine a romantic atmosphere with a realistic depiction of historical background and common people's life. Scott marked the transition from romanticism to the period of realism which followed it.

Romantic prose of the period was represented by Lamb, Hazlitt, De Quincey and Hume. Lamb was the best essayist, whose familiar essays are very famous.

Romantic Poets

Romanticists expressed the ideology and sentiment of those classes and social strata who were discontent with and opposed to the development of capitalism. They split into two groups because of the different attitudes toward the capitalist society.

Some romantic writers reflected the thinking of those classes which had been ruined by the bourgeoisie. They turned to the feudal past and idealized the life of the Middle Ages to protest against capitalist development. Therefore, they stood on the side of the feudal forces and even combined themselves with those forces. These romantic poets are called Passive Romantic poets represented by Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey.

Others expressed the aspiration of the labouring classes. They held out an ideal of future society free from oppression and exploitation. They were the firm supporters of the French Revolution. These romantic poets are called Active or Revolutionary Romantic poets represented by Byron, Shelley and Keats.

Key Features of Romantic Writing

The most characteristic features of the works of the romanticists are: 1) Their own aspiration and ideals are in sharp contrast to the common, sordid daily life under capitalism; 2) Their writings are filled with strong-willed heroes or even titanic images, formidable events and tragic situations, powerful conflicting passions and exotic pictures. Sometimes they resorted to symbolic methods, with active romanticists, symbolic pictures represent a vague ideal of some future society, while with passive romanticists, these pictures often take on a mystic colour . 3) The romanticists paid great attention to the spiritual and emotional life of man. Personified nature plays an important role in the pages of their works.

Ode ( 颂歌 ): Long, often elaborate formal lyric poem of varying line lengths dealing with a serious subject matter and treating it reverently. It aims at glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Conventionally, many odes are written or dedicated to a specific subject. For instance, Ode to the West Wind is about the winds that bring change of season in England. Ode to the Nightingale is about the nightingale that lures the poet temporarily away from his great misery. The earliest English odes include the Epithalamion and the Prothalamion , or marriage hymns by poet Edmund Spenser. 指篇幅较长 ， 结构较为复杂的抒情诗。诗行长度不一，通常以虔诚的语调讲述一个严肃崇高的主题。或咏物志事，或怀时抒情，或向某人致意。大多数的颂歌为方便起见描述的都是一个特定的主题。例如《西风颂》讲述的是给英格兰带来季节变化的西风。《夜莺颂》描写的是带领诗人暂时脱离苦海的夜莺。英国最早的抒情诗出现于 16 世纪，作品为著名诗人斯宾赛所著的《婚后曲》、《婚前曲》或婚礼赞美歌。

常见问题

1. What aspects are involved in Romanticism?

2. When learning Romanticism, you should know the definition, the features and significance of Romanticism. Most importantly, you should know some representative writers during this period. When learning a writer, you should know his life, his works and the themes of some main works.

知识结构