英国文学选读课件9

2. English Critical Realism

(1) What is Critical Realism?

Critical Realism is the main trend of the literary thoughts in the 19th century; it reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of cash upon human nature. Critical realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint of bourgeoisie reality. As far as the literary form or “genre” is concerned, the major contribution made by the 19th century critical realists lies in their perfection of the novels. Like the realists of the 18th century, the 19th century critical realists made use of the form of novel for full and detailed representations of social and political events, and of the fate of individuals and of whole social classes.

In spite of the parliamentary reform in 1832, the living conditions of the workers did not grow better but became steadily worse. The great misery of the workers led to an upsurge of labor movements and organization of the workers into unions. In 1836 arose the working-class movement known as Chartism. In 1837, the workers formulated their political demands in The People’s Charter. But the late forties witnessed the decline of Chartism owing to the defeat of the revolutions on the Continent and the easing of social tension in England.
George Eliot at 30 by Francois D’Albert Durade
(4) What is the Victorian Period in English history?

Chronologically the Victorian Period roughly coincides with the reign of Queen Victoria over England from 1837 to 1901. The period has been generally regarded as one of the most glorious in the English history.
Emily Bronte
In the fifties and sixties the realistic novel entered a stage of decline.

George Eliot described the life of the laboring people and criticized the privileged classes, but the power of exposure became much weaker in her work. The significance of her work lies rather in the portrayal of the pettiness and stagnancy of English provincial life.
Lecture 9 English Literature of The Mid and Late 19th Century 1
Ⅰ. The Rise of Critical Realism in England
1. Social Background Since the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 18th century, the class structure in English society had undergone radical changes. With the development of capitalism, there arose a powerful working class, though the conflict between labor and capital was for some time the background of the struggle between the feudal and the bourgeois classes. England became a typical capitalist country.

(3ห้องสมุดไป่ตู้ Representative writers

The greatest English realist of the time was Charles Dickens. With striking force and truthfulness, he creates pictures of bourgeois civilization, describing the misery and sufferings of the common people.
The method of critical realism was further adopted by such writers as Charlotte and Emily Bronte, and Elizabeth Gaskell.
Charlotte Bronte Elizabeth Gaskell
(2) What are the main characteristics of the English critical realism?
English critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the early fifties. The English critical realists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classes, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people. Humor and satire abound in the English realists novels of the 19th century. The realistic novels of the 19th century went a step further than those of the 18th century in that they not only pictured the conflicts between separate individuals who stood for definite social strata, but also showed a the broad social conflicts over and above the fate of mere individuals.
Queen Victoria, after whom the era
Ⅱ.Victorian Poets


The term Victorian has connotations of repression and social conformity, however in the realm of poetry these labels are somewhat misplaced. The Victorian age provided a significant development of poetic ideals such as the increased use of the Sonnet as a poetic form, which was to influence later modern poets. Poets in the Victorian period were to some extent influenced by the Romantic Poets such as Keats, William Blake, Shelley and W.Wordsworth. Wordsworth was Poet Laureate until 1850 so can be viewed as a bridge between the Romantic period and the Victorian period. Wordsworth was succeeded by Lord Tennyson, Queen Victoria's favorite poet. Victorian Poetry was an important period in the history of poetry, providing the link between the Romantic movement and the modernist movement of the 20th Century. It is not always possible to neatly categorise poets in these broad movements. For example Gerard Manley Hopkins is often cited as an example of a poet who maintained much of the Romantics sensibility in his writings.