Chapter III The Romantic Period
一、本章的学习目的和要求
通过本章的学习，了解浪漫主义文学的产生的历史，文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征，基本主张，及其对时代及后世英国文学用至文化的影 响；了解该时期重要作家的文学生涯，创作思想，艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构，人物刻画，语言风格，思想意义等； 同时结合注释，读懂所选作品，了解其思想内容和写作特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。
二、本章考核知识点及考核要求
（一） 考核知识点
1.浪漫主义时期概述
1） 浪漫主义时期英国社会的政治，经济，文化背景
2） 浪漫主义文学创作的基本主张
3） 英国浪漫主义文学的特色
4） 浪漫主义文学对同时代及后世英国文学的影响
2.浪漫主义时期主要作家的文学创作思想及其代表作品的主题结构，人物塑造，语言风格，艺术手法及社会意义等。
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（二） 考核要求
1.浪漫主义时期概述
1）识记：a.浪漫主义时期的界定
b.历史文化背景
2） 领会：a.浪漫主义思潮的意义与影响。
b.浪漫主义文学创作的基本主张及对后世文学的影响。、
3） 应用：a.名词解释：浪漫主义
b.浪漫主义时期文学特点的分析
2.该时期的重要作家
1） 识记：浪漫主义时期的重要作家，代表作品及其主要内容。
2） 领会：重要作家的创作思想，艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构，人物塑造，语言风格，社会意义等。
3） 应用：a.浪漫派诗歌（所选作品）的主题，意象分析
b.小说《傲慢与偏见》的主题和主要人物的性格分析。
一、概述
1. 一般识记
English Romanticism
English Romanticism, as a historical phase of literature, is generally said to have began in
1798 with the publication of Wordsworth & Coleridge''s Lyrical Ballads & to have ended in 1832
with Sir Walter Scott''s death & the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament.
2. 识记 Historical & Cultural background
During this period, England had experienced profound economic & social change. The
biggest social change in English history was the transfer of large masses of the population from
the countryside to the towns. As a result of the Enclosures & the agricultural mechanization, the
peasants were driven of their land； some emigrated to the colonies； some sank to the level of
farm laborers & many others drifted to the industrial towns where there was a growing demand for labor. But the new industrial towns were no better than jungles, where the law was "the survival of
the fittest." The cruel economic exploitation caused large-scale workers'' disturbances in England.
来源:考试大-自考
3. 领会
（1） Influences of the Romantic Movement
Romanticism constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social
civilization to the inner world of the human spirit. In essence it designates a literary &
philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life & all
experience. It also places the individual at the center of art, making literature most valuable as an
expression of this or her unique feelings & particular attitudes & valuing its accuracy in portraying
the individual''s experiences.
（2） The Romantic views about literature
a. The Romantic period is an age of poetry. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley &
Keats are the major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature,
which was later regarded as the poetic revolution.
b. The Romantic period is also a great age of prose. The two major novelists of the Romantic
period are Jane Austen & Walter Scott.
c. Besides poetry & prose, there are quite a number of writers who have fried their hand at
poetic dramas in this period.
4.应用
（1） Literary Terms
a. The Romantic Movement
It expressed a more or less negative attitude towards the existing social & political conditions
that came with industrialization & the growing importance of the bourgeoisie. The Romantics felt
that the existing society denied people their essential human needs, so they demonstrated a strong
reaction against the dominant modes of thinking of the 18th-century writers & philosophers.
Where their predecessors saw man as a social animal, the Romantics saw him essentially as an
individual in the solitary state & emphasized the special qualities of each individual''s mind.
Romanticism actually constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer.
b. The Gothic novel
It is a type of romantic fiction that predominated in the late 18th century & was one phase of
the Romantic movement, its principal elements are violence, horror & the supernatural, which
strongly appeal to the reader''s emotion. With its descriptions of the dark, irrational side of human
nature, the Gothic form has exerted a great influence over the writer of the Romantic period.
Works like The Mysteries of Udolpho （1794） by Ann Radcliffe & Frankenstein （1818） by
Mary Shelley are typical Gothic romance.
（2） Characteristics of Romantic literature in English history.
The Romantic period is an age of poetry Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley &
Keats are the major Romantic poets. They started a rebellion against the neoclassical literature,
which was later regarded as the poetic revolution. Wordsworth & Coleridge were the major
representatives of this movement. They explored new theories & innovated new techniques in
poetry writing. They saw poetry as a healing energy： they believed that poetry could purify both
individual souls & the society. The Romantics not only extol the faculty of imagination, but also
stress the concept of spontaneity & inspiration, regarding them as something crucial for true
