19世纪英国文学总结
- 格式：doc
- 大小：100.00 KB
- 文档页数：9
19世纪末迎来英国戏剧的复兴
◆奥斯卡·王尔德Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
《道林·格雷的画像》（The Picture of Dorian Gray，1891年）
《莎乐美》（Salomé，1893年）
乔治·萧伯纳George Bernard Shaw （1856-1950）
• 《皮格马利翁》（Pygmalion）
• 《圣女贞德》（Saint Joan）
The Victorian Age—English Critical Realism
Victorian literature:
Novel became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of progressive
thought.
Writers like Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy showed their
primary concern is about the people in the society with sympathy for the poor and the unfortunate
and became the major voice of the literary world by presenting a faithful picture of the horrible
capitalist England.
The big output by the Victorian poets, especially Alfred Tennyson, the most representative poet of
the time, and Robert Browning, the most original and experimental poet, paved the way for the
20th-century modern poetry, both in subject matters and technique.
Dickens
Points of view:
He hates the social evils and intends social reform by exposing and criticizing in his works all the
poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and corruption in the 19th –century England.
He thinks that the state should intervene to control the rapacity of landlords and capitalists.
He wants improvement in the life of the poor, but is afraid of a real revolution.
Dickens is a humanitarian who pours all his love and sympathy for those poor, weak, innocent,
injured and neglected good people.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)---The greatest representative of English critical realism
Major Works
There is abundant variety in Dickens’s invention of character and situation. Dickens has often
been compared to Shakespeare for creative force and range of invention.
1836—1841, first period, Period of youthful optimist: fun, high spirit, naive optimism
1) Sketches by Boz (1836) «博兹特写集», the first book
2) The Pickwick Papers (1837) «匹克威克外传»
3). Oliver Twist (1837-1838)«奥克佛·特维斯特»，《雾都孤儿》
4). Nichols Nickleby (1838-1839)«尼古拉斯·尼克尔贝»
5). The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841)«老古玩店»
6). Barnaby Rudge (1841) «巴纳比·拉奇»
1842-1850, The second period-- Period of excitement, irritation and frustration: exposing the
corrupting influence of wealth and power, optimism turned into dissatisfaction and irritation
1) American Notes (1842) «美国札记»
2) Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844)«马丁·朱述尔维特»
3) A Christmas Carol(1843)《圣诞颂歌》
4) The Chimes《教堂钟声》 5) The Cricket on the Hearth《灶上蟋蟀》(以圣诞为题材, 具有浓郁宗教色彩。
6) Dombey and Son(1847-1848)«董贝父子»
7) David Copperfield (1849-1850)«大卫·科波菲尔», the most autobiographical, one of the
greatest English novels
The third period, a Period of steadily intensifying pessimism, showing underlying tone of
bitterness, loss of hope for English bourgeois society
In his novels of this period, Dickens, consciously and subconsciously, shows himself more
and more at odds with bourgeois society .
1) Bleak House(1852-1853) «荒凉山庄» 2) Hard Times(1854) «艰难时世»
3) Little Dorrit (1855-1857)«小杜丽» 4) A Tale of Two Cities(1859) «双城记»
5) Great Expectations(1860-1861) «远大前程»
6) Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865) «我们的共同朋友»
7) Edwin Drood (unfinished)(1869)«艾德温·德鲁德之迷».
Characteristics of Dickens’ Life
A man of action and business in the world, a student and writer of books
The best shorthand reporter on the London press
The best amateur actor on the stage
A successful periodical editor
Radical in politics and ideology
Concerned about social problems
Faithful to the people, pessimistic to capitalist society, the expression of the conscience of
his age
His Literary Creation & Literary Achievements
His later works show a highly conscious modern artist. The settings are more complicated; the
stories are better structured. Most novels of this period present a sharper criticism of social evils
& morals of the Victorian England, for example, Bleak House, Hard Times, Great Expectations &
so on. The early optimism could no more be found.
Charles Dickens is one of the greatest
critical
realistic
writers of the Victorian Age. It is his
serious intention to expose & criticize in his works all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy(伪善） &
corruptness（腐败） he saw all around him. In his works, Dickens sets a full map & a large-scale
criticism of the 19th-century England, particularly London. A combination of optimism about
people & realism about society is obvious in these works. His representative works in the early
period include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield & so on.
Charles Dickens is a master story-teller. His language could, in a way, be compared with
Shakespeare's. His humor & wit seem inexhaustible. Character-portrayal is the most outstanding
