18世纪名词解释

2024年3月25日发(作者：七十华诞)

18世纪名词解释

1. Enlightenment Movement(启蒙运动)

Under the influence of scientific discoveries (Newton) and flourishing of

philosophies, French enlightenment started.

Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire伏尔泰, Montesquieu孟德斯鸠, Locke

洛克, Hobbes霍布斯, and Rousau卢梭 believed that the world was an object of

study and that people could understand and control the world by means of reason

and empirical（以观察或实验为依据的） rearch.

• an intellectual movement beginning in France and then spread throughout

Europe

• a continuation of Renaissance in belief in the possibility of human perfection

through education

• the guiding principle or slogan（标语，标号） is Ration（定量？）/Reason, natural

right and equality (American Independence War in 1776; French Revolution in

1789)

• Ration became standard for measurement of everything.

• In religion, it was against superstition（迷信）, intolerance（心胸狭窄）, and

dogmatism（教条主义，独断，武断）; in politics, it was against tyranny（暴政，苛政）;

and in society, it was against prejudice, ignorance, inequality, and any obstacles to

the realization of an individual’s full intellectual and physical well-being. At the

same time, they advocated（提倡） universal education. In their opinion, human

beings were limited, dualistic（二元的）, imperfect, and yet capable of rationality

（合理性，合理的行为见解） and perfection through education.

The great enlighteners:

• Alexander Pope,

• Joph Addison,

• Jonathan Swift, and

• Samuel Johnson

2. Sentimentality literature伤感文学

--- It was a partial reaction against that cold, logic rationalism which

dominated people’s life since the last decades of the 17th century.

--- A ready sympathy and an inward pain for the miry of others became part

of accepted social morality and ethics.

--- started by Samuel Richardson’s

Pamela

and

Clarissa

--- reprented in novel form by Laurence Sterne’s

A

Sentimental Journey through France and

Italy

(1768)

--- reprented in poetry by “The Graveyard School”:

Thomas Gray, Edward Young

--- emphasizing the emotion/heart instead of ration

---gradually merged into Romanticism

3. Satire: A literary manner which blends humor with criticism for the purpo

of instruction or the improvement of humanity.

The necessary ingredients

--- Humor

--- Criticism, either general criticism of humanity or human

nature or specific criticism of an individual or group.

--- Some kind of moral voice: simply mocking or criticism

is not “satire.”

The best and most reprentative works are found in tho written by Pope

and Swift.

Alexander Pope

• Mock epic: “The Rape of the Lock”

• Literary Satire: “The Dunciad”

• Jonathan Swift

• “A Modest Proposal”

•

Gulliver’s Travels