授课时间 | 2017-2018学年第二学期 05.13-05.19 |
授课对象 | 15-17级各专业选修生 |
授课主题 | Lecture 12 Chapter 9 Social Images in 19th-Century English Novels |
教学目的与 要 求 | 1 Help the students know about the historical background of the Victorian Age, especially the achievements in novels of the Victorian Age. 谢灵运2 Be familiar with the novelists Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Thomas Hardy. |
关掉的英语教学重、 难 点 | 1 Charles Dickens 2 Thomas Hardy |
主要教学方 法 | Lecture; Discussion; Multi-media |
教学内容的组织与设计 | 1 The Victorian Age ● Chronologically the Victorian period roughly coincides with the reign of Queen Victoria who ruled over England from 1837 to 1901, but it really began with the passage of Reform Bill in 1832 and clod at the end of the Boer War in 1902. All in all, the Victorian Age was a period of rapid growth, development, and reform. This period has been generally considered as one of the most glorious in the English history. ● The Victorian Age is usually subdivided into the following phas: the early Victorian Period (1832-1848), the Mid-Victorian Period (1848-1870), and late Victorian Period (1870-1902). 1.1 Historical Background of the Victorian Age ● In 1832 the Reform Bill was pasd, which placed the power of the nation into the hands of the wealthy industrialists who would soon reconcile with the aristocracy and redouble their exploitation of the working people. Thus, after 1832, the conflict between labour and capital became sharper in the English political scene. This conflict resulted in the Chartist Movement (1836-1848), in which they demanded basic rights and better living and working conditions. ● During the next twenty years, England ttled down to a time of prosperity and relative stability. The middle-class life of the time was characterized by prosperity, respectability, modesty and domesticity. Common n and moral propriety, which were ignored by the romanticists, again became predominant preoccupation in the literary works. ● But the last three decades of the century witnesd the decline of the British Empire and the glory of the Victorian values. Beginning from the 70’s, a sharp decline occurred with economic depressions, agricultural failures, and the flooding of Australian wool and American wheat. Domestic balance of power, which ud to be the Whigs and Tories, was also threatened with the growth of labour as a political and economic force. Class struggle was intensified in the last two decades of the 19th century. 1.2 Ideology of the Victorian Age ap蛮子●湖北卫视春晚 Ideologically, The Victorians experienced fundamental changes. The rapid development of science and technology, new inventions and discoveries in geology, astronomy, biology and anthropology drastically shook people’s religious convictions. Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of man (1871) shook the theoretical basis of the traditional faith. New scientific discoveries incread people’s religious doubts and anxieties. ● On the other hand, Utilitarianism was widely accepted and practiced. Almost everything was put to the test by the criterion of utility, that is, the extent to which it would promote the material happiness. The Bible and the Evangelical Orthodoxy were regarded either as an outmoded superstition or tested by the principle of utility. Church rvice became a form of instead of real devotion. This theory held a special appeal to the middle-class industrialists, who greed drove them to exploiting workers to the utmost and brought greater suffering and poverty to the working mass. 1.3 Literature of the Victorian Age ● Victorian literature, as a product of its age, naturally took on its quality of magnitude and diversity. It was many-sided and complex, and reflected both romantically and realistically the great changes that were going on in people’s life and thought. Great writers and great works abounded. ◆ In this period, the novel became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of progressive thought. Among the famous novelists of the time were the critical realists like Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Mrs. Gaskell (1810-1815) and Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), etc. An in the last few decades there were also George Eliot, the pioneering woman who, according to D. H. Lawrence, was the first novelist that tareted putting all the actions inside,” and Thomas Hardy. Although writing from different points of view and with different techniques, they shared one thing in common, that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the common people. They were angry with the inhumane social institutions, the decaying social morality as reprented by money-worship and Utilitarianism, and the widespread miry, poverty and injustice. ◆ Pro and poetry are also produced in this period. Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, the typical feature of who poetry is dramatic monologue and Matthew Arnold—”the “Big Three” created memorable poetry. ◆ In addition to the trend of critical realism, there appeared other trends, such as Aestheticism, reprented by Oscar Wilde, who advocated the theory of “art for art’s sake”, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood led by Dante Gabriel Rostti. ● Victorian literature, in general, truthfully reprents the reality and spirit of the age. The high-spirited vitality, the down-to-earth earnestness, the good-natured humor and unbounded imagination are all unprecedented. In almost every genre it paved the way for the coming century, where its spirits, values and experiments are to witness bumper harvest. English critical realism: English critical realism o f the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the early fifties. The critical realists described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic view point. The greatest English realist of the time was Charles Dickens. With striking force and truthfulness, he pictures bourgeois civilization, showing the miry and sufferings of the common people. Another critical realist, William Makepeace Thackeray, was a no less vere expor of contemporary society. Thackeray’s novels are mainly a satirical portrayal of the upper strata of society. Other adherents to the method of critical realism were Charlotte and Emily Bronte, and Elizabeth Gaskell. In the fifties and sixties the realistic novel as reprented by Dickens and Thackeray entered a stage of decline. It found its reflection in the works of George Eliot. Though she described the life of the laboring people and criticized the privilegedclass, the power of exposure became weaker in her works. She emed to be more morally than socially minded. The English critical realists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling class, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people. 2 Charles Dickens (1812-1870) 2.1. Life of Charles Dickens ● Charles Dickens is the greatest reprentative of English critical realism and he was called “the expression of the conscience of his age”. ● He was born in a middle class family. His father was a clerk, but an extravagant spender and was thrown into prison becau of debts. He once was a child labor and worked in a shoe-blacking factory. After his father was relead, he was nd to school again. When he was 15, he worked as a lawyer’s clerk. When he was 19, he became a reporter. When he was 21 he published first essay. Then he gradually became a successful writer. After his death he was buried at the poets’ corner. 2.3 Major Works of Charles Dickens and Comments on the Works The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club（匹克威克外传）; Oliver Twist（雾都孤儿）; Dombey and Son（董贝父子）; David Copperfield（大卫科波菲尔）; Hard Times （艰难时事）; A Tale of Two Cities（双城记）; Great Expectations（远大前程）. Refer to Textbook A New Conci History of English Literature (P228-233) 2.4 Features of Charles Dickens’ novels ● A tendency to depict the grotesque characters (His characters always have peculiar habits, manners or behaviors) (such as Micawber) ● Believing in social reforms to change the world, thus sometimes created unnatural happy ending for his novels ● Delicate structure and plot (well-designed and attractive) ● Good at depicting pathetic scenes to arou sympathy ● Good at using rhetorical devices to make his language vivid and humorous 3 William Makepeace Thackeray Refer to Textbook A New Conci History of English Literature (P234-237). 4 Thomas Hardy 4.1 Life and achievements Thomas Hardy is both a naturalistic and a critical realist writer. He is best known for his novels of character and environment, which are also called Wesx Tales or Wesx stories. Most of his novels are t in Wesx. Refer to Textbook A New Conci History of English Literature (P240-245). 4.2 Major novels and comments 4.2.1 Tess of the D’Urbervilles ● The story (A New Conci History of English Literature, 242-243) ● Major characters 腐乳怎么做◆ Tess Durbeyfield — The protagonist, eldest daughter in a poor rural working family; a fresh, pretty country girl. ◆ Angel Clare — The son of a clergyman; Tess’s husband and true love. He considers himlf a freethinker, but his notions of morality turn out to be fairly conventional: he rejects Tess on their wedding night when she confess that she isn’t a virgin, even though he, too, has engaged in premarital x. He works at the Talbothay’s dairy to gain practical experience becau he hopes to buy a farm of his own. ◆ Alec Stoke-d’Urberville — The libertine son of Simon Stoke and Mrs. d’Urberville. He either rapes or duces Tess when she is no more than venteen years old, and later pursues her relentlessly until she agrees to become his mistress again. ◆ Jack Durbeyfield (Sir John d’Urberville) — Tess’s father, a carter in Marlott (bad on the Dort village of Marnhull) who is lazy and given to drinking. When he learns that his family is descended from nobility, he works less and less and starts pretending that he is an aristocrat. ◆ Joan Durbeyfield — Tess’s hardworking mother who has a practical outlook on life. This includes being prepared to u her daughter for her own gains. 一重山 ● Themes ◆ The theme “ache of modernism” is notable in Tess, which portrays “the energy of traditional ways and the strength of the forces that are destroying them”. Modern farm machinery with infernal imagery, the milk nt to the city watered down, Angel’s middle-class fastidiousness making him reject Tess, Angel’ reduction to a “mere yellow skeleton” in Brazil, all the instances are typically interpreted as indications of the negative conquences of man’s paration from nature, both in the creation of destructive machinery and in the inability to rejoice in pure nature. ◆ Another important theme of the novel is the xual double standard to which Tess falls victim—despite being, in Hardy’s view, a truly good woman, she is despid by society after losing her virginity before marriage. ● Symbolism ◆ From numerous pagan and neo-Biblical references made about her, Tess can be viewed variously as an Earth goddess or as a sacrificial victim. Early in the novel, she participates in a festival for Ceres, the goddess of the harvest, and when she performs a baptism she choos a passage from Genesis, the book of creation, over more traditional New Testament vers. At the end, when Tess and Angel come to Stonehenge, commonly believed in Hardy’s time to be a pagan temple, she willingly lies down on an altar, thus fulfilling her destiny as a human sacrifice. ◆ This symbolism may help explain Tess as a personification of nature—lovely, fecund, and exploitable—while animal imagery throughout the novel strengthens the association. Examples are numerous: Tess’s misfortunes begin when she falls asleep while driving Prince to market, thus causing the hor’s death; at Trantridge, she becomes a poultry-keeper; she and Angel fall in love amidst cows in the fertile Froom valley; and on the road to Flintcombe-Ashe, she compassionately kills some wounded pheasants to end their suffering. 4.2.2 Other works and comments Refer to Textbook A New Conci History of English Literature (P241-242, 244-245). |
作业布置 | 变量代换1 What factors can explain the ri of novels as a dominant literary genre during the Victorian Age? 2 Plea talk briefly about Charles Dickens’s literary career, and the main features of his works. 3 Discuss the character of Tess. To what extent is she a helpless victim? When is she strong and weak? 4 What is Hardy’s attitude toward religion, as revealed by Tess and Angel? |
主要参考资 料 | |
备 注 | |
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