英國文學史及作品選讀課件 Lecture 5

1、lecture 5the 18th century: jonathan swiftenglish literatureteaching objectives and requirements1 help the students know some information about the 18th century. 2 make the students have a good understanding of jonathan swift. 3 make sure the students have a better understanding of gullivers travels.

2、contents1 brief introduction of the 18th century2 jonathan swift (1667-1745)1.1the historical background of the 18th century (see chang yaoxin, 97-98) at home: abroad: constitutional monarchy, the authoritative power fell into the hands of parliament, which leads to a speedy development in economy,

3、the industrial revolution force its way into england. enclosure of land swept on an unexampled scale over the whole country. consequently, the landlord, the capitalist and the like were enriched with enormous profits, while thousands of peasants were expropriated off the land. in politics, there app

4、eared two hostile parties: the liberal whigs and tories. besides, there was a third partyjacobins, the supporter of james ii, aiming to bring the stuarts back to the throne. social life was never as it had been before.back the development of english capitalism was also witnessed in the rapidly incre

5、asing colonial expansion. victories of wars increased the lands of british empire and its commercial expansion is everywhere throughout the world. then there came the outbreak of american revolution in 1776, and the french revolution in 1789, which with liberty, equality and fraternity as its watchw

6、ords, awoke the oppressed people as well as the poor, and inspired them to strive for an ideal society. thus, there arose the enlightenment both in england and in other lands in western europe in the 18th century. enlightenment is a progressive intellectual movement, the expression of struggle of th

7、e progressive bourgeoisie against feudalism. the enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudice and other survivals of feudalism. they welcome religious intolerance, fiercely attack the church power, called on the development of science and technology and freedom of politics and

8、 academic thinking, having the greatest esteem for reason which they believed, should be the only basis of ones thinking and action. the people who greatly exerted influence upon the enlightenment are john locke, newton (in england) voltaire, rousseau, montesquieu (in france). 1.2 literature of the

9、period generally speaking, the literature of this century may be divided into three periods according to the development of the enlightenment from its early stage to its eventual crisis. the first period (1700-1745): neoclassicism the second period (1740s-1750s): the original of realistic novel the

10、third period: sentimentalism and pre-romanticismit covers the first 4 decades, and is characterized by neo-classicism and its fine expression is in poetry and then in prose-periodicals. the representatives are joseph addition, richard steel, and pope. the poetry of this period is chiefly a literatur

11、e of wit, concerned with civilization, with man in his social relationships and consequently it is critical and in some degree moral and satirical. the major form of poetry is heroic couplet. the first two decades of the 18th c. saw that english periodicals were mushrooming. in the field of periodic

12、als, daniel defoe edited and published the first english periodical “the review” in 1704-1713. a few years later there came addition and steel, whose masterly editorship of “the tattler” and “the spectator” made them well-known as two essayists and coauthors.back the second period refers to the year

13、 from 1740s to 1750s, which saw the early growth of realistic novels. the novelists in this period are chiefly daniel defoe, swift, samuel richardson, henry fielding, tobias smollett and their successors in the last decades of the century, such as lawrence sterne and oliver goldsmith. backthe 3rd ru

14、ns through the rest decades of the century, in which the decline of the great enlightenment brought about sentimentalism (thomas gray, oliver goldsmith, laurence sterne, samuel richardson) and pre-romanticism (william blake and robert burns) as protests against the social reality of the day. back2.1

15、 the works of swifts bickerstaff almanac the battle of the books the tale of a tub the journal to stella drapiers letters gullivers travels a modest proposal 2.2 gullivers travels the story: it records the pretended four voyages of one lempel gulliver, and his adventures in four astounding countries

16、. the first book tells of his voyage and shipwreck in lilliput. such as the statesmen obtain place and favor by cutting monkey capers on the tight rope before their sovereign, and the two great parties, the littleendians and bigendians who plunge the country into civil war over the momentous questio

17、n of whether an egg should be broken on its big or its little end, are satires on the politics of swifts own day and generation. the second voyage is about gullivers adventure in brobdingnag. the meanness of humanity seems all the more detestable in view of the greatness of these superior beings. in

18、 the third voyage, gulliver continues his adventures in laputa, and this is a satire upon all the scientists and philosophers. in the last adventures gulliver came to a place where inhabitants are those wise horses, while the creatures in human beings are those corrupted race, avarice, degenerated a

19、nd mean. in the first three voyages swifts purpose is to strip off the veil of habit and custom, with which men deceive themselves, and show the crude vices of humanity as swift fancies he sees them. in the fourth voyage the merciless satire is carried out to its logical conclusion which brings us t

20、o the great perplex at swifts real intension in creating the superior and intelligent horses as the ruling animal, while the yahoo, a frightful race, having the form and appearance of men, live in unspeakable degradation. artistic features: gullivers travels is swifts highest achievement. it gives a

21、n unparalleled sarcastic depiction of all the social vices of his age and is therefore a satire on the whole english society of the early 18th century. it touches upon the political, religious, legal, military, scientific, philosophical and literary institutions and the people who work there. it dis

22、closes the ugly appearances of the british ruling classes and exposes their hypocrisy and greed, their plots and corruption, their ferocity and degradation, their merciless oppression and exploitation of the common people. it lashes the unjust wars and inhuman colonialism in the 18th century and cri

23、ticizes the remnants of feudalism and the new evils appearing in the rising new capitalism. it also mocks at the predominant money worship in human relations at that time. he had strong contempt for all the rulers and social evils and cherished a great love for the common people. artistically, gulli

24、vers travels is both fantasy and a realistic work of fiction. though the four voyages are obviously fabricated, they are told in a vivid and convincing way and include some straightforward descriptions of men and things in the 18th century besides the numerous indirect references to situations of th

25、e writers day. he invariably kept his motto in mind: “proper words in proper places, makes the true definition of a style.” there is no ornament in his writings, but it appeals directly to the hearts of the readers.2.3 a modest proposal a modest proposal is the best and most famous political satire

26、of swift, written in 1829. under the cruel oppression of english government and irish landlords, the irish poor then lived in extreme misery. in this situation, various proposals were made by the “projectors” of the ruling class, about overpopulation, unemployment, and other problems, only to make p

27、oor peoples life even more miserable. in indignation, swift, in the guise of an economic “projector” wrote this pamphlet, quietly recommending that it would be more humane to breed up the poors children as food for the rich. the pamphlets showed swifts strong sympathy for the poor, his condemnation on the ruling class and the landlords, as well as his master-hand in writing satires. the proposal is a most devastating piece of