Ⅰ 谁有关于英国文学的论文要英文的,不要给我网址! 100分
DICKINSONS BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH
作者:, M.
DICKINSONS BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH
Abstract:Analyzes the poem `Because I Could Not Stop for Death,' by Emily Dickinson. The use of remembered images of the past to clarify infinite conceptions through the establishment of a dialectical relationship between reality and imagination, the known and the unknown; The viewpoint of eternity; Understanding of the incomprehensible; The stages of existence.
DICKINSON'S BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH
In "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" (J712), Emily Dickinson uses remembered images of the past to clarify infinite conceptions through the establishment of a dialectical relationship between reality and imagination, the known and the unknown.[1] By viewing this relationship holistically and hierarchically ordering the stages of life to include death and eternity, Dickinson suggests the interconnected and mutually determined nature of the finite and infinite.[2]
From the viewpoint of eternity, the speaker recalls experiences that happened on earth centuries ago. In her recollection, she attempts to identify the eternal world by its relationship to temporal standards, as she states that "Centuries" (21) in eternity are "shorter than the [earthly] day" (22). Likewise, by anthropomorphizing Death as a kind and civil gentleman, the speaker particularizes Death's characteristics with favorable connotations. [3] Similarly, the finite and infinite are amalgamated in the fourth stanza:
The Dews drew quivering and chill-- For only Gossamer, my Gown--My Tippett--only Tulle--(14-16)
In these lines the speaker's temporal existence, which allows her to quiver as she is chilled by the "Dew," merges with the spiritual universe, as the speaker is attired in a "Gown" and cape or "Tippet," made respectively of "Gossamer," a cobweb, and "Tulle," a kind of thin, open net-temporal coverings that suggest transparent, spiritual qualities.
Understanding the incomprehensible often depends on an appreciation of the progression of the stages of existence. By recalling specific stages of life on earth, the speaker not only settles her temporal past but also views these happenings from a higher awareness, both literally and figuratively. In a literal sense, for example, as the carriage gains altitude to make its heavenly approach, a house seems as "A Swelling of the Ground" (18). Figuratively the poem may symbolize the three stages of life: "School, where Children strove" (9) may represent childhood; "Fields of Gazing Grain" (11), maturity; and "Setting Sun" (12) old age. Viewing the progression of these stages-life, to death, to eternity-as a continuum invests these isolated, often incomprehensible events with meaning.[4] From her eternal perspective, the speaker comprehends that life, like the "Horses Heads" (23), leads "toward Eternity" (24).[5]
Through her boundless amalgamation and progressive ordering of the temporal world with the spiritual universe, Dickinson dialectically shapes meaning from the limitations of life, allowing the reader momentarily to glimpse a universe in which the seemingly distinct and discontinuous stages of existence are holistically implicated and purposed.
NOTES
[1.] Others who have written on Emily Dickinson's responses to death include Ruth Miller (The Poetry of Emily Dickinson [Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan U P, 1968]); Robert Weisbuch Emily Dickinson's Poetry [Chicago, 111.: U of Chicago P, 1975]); Carol Anne Taylor ("Kierkegaard and the Ironic Voices of Emily Dickinson ," Journal of English and German Philology 77 [1978]: 569-81); Charles Anderson ( Emily Dickinson's Poetry: Stairway of Surprise [New York: Holt, Reinhart, 1960]); Sharon Cameron (Lyric Time (Baltimore: John Hopkins U P, 1979]); Brita Lindberg-Seyersted (The Voice of the Poet: Aspects of Style in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson [Cambridge: Harvard U P, 1968]).
[2.] The theoretical foundation for aspects of this argument rests in part on the philosophies of such men as Immanuel Kant, who represents the notion of the boundary of human experience as a belt of mediation: "The sensuous world is nothing but a chain of appearances connected according to universal laws; it has therefore no subsistence by itself; it is not the thing in itself and consequently must point to that which contains the basis of this experience, to beings which cannot be cognised merely as phenomena, but as things in themselves" (Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, trans. and ed. Paul Carus [Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co., 1902] 124).
[3.] In The Long Shadow, Clark Griffith grounds this poem in secular traditions, as he points out that Death's stopping for the Lady-Poet reflects a "tradition of nineteenth-century 'courtly love' " (129), an interpretation which allows the reader to evaluate "Death as either kind or malevolent" (130) and "Eternity" (131) as a "pleasant" place or realm of "nothingness" (132).
[4.] In The Rhetoric of American Romance (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U P 1984), Evan Carton says, "To approach God, for Dickinson, is generally to shape a more satisfying . . . relationship between oneself and the universe . . ." (270).
[5.] Jane D. Eberwein, in Dickinson: Strategies of Limitation (Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1985). argues that Death does not "launch the persona of this poem into another world" but rather leaves the persona in a "House" (218).
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本文关键词:DICKINSONS BECAUSE DEATH
Ⅱ 求英国文学论文选题,什么比较好写
你好:
狄更斯的文章现实性太强,我觉得以大多数人的文化背景和经历来说,是不容易理解的。讲到英国文学的话,还是Jane Austen的文章最好写吧。主题贴近生活,从各个方面都能切入。而且研究的文章也多得很。我个人倾向傲慢与偏见和爱玛两本书啦。
恩,还有两个Bronte的也行。勃朗特姐妹够研究一阵的了。
要抓典型的话,就莎士比亚Shakespeare吧,不要去啃哈姆雷特Hamlet那种书,又难读又出不了新意。你可以挑一篇喜欢的喜剧来写,不难理解但也容易写出鲜活的东西来。
我自己是写了几篇安吉拉·卡特,英国新锐作家,你可能不熟,才引进大陆,童话改写著称,有一篇还登了核心。世上无难事,只怕有心人啊。我写的是非常新的女性主义观点。你搜安吉拉卡特的xing意识写作意图可以搜到。
还有华兹华斯的诗歌也写的很多,很好参考。
网站多了去了,光CNKI就看死你了,我常用的还有GALE文学资源数据库,不过是全英的外文数据库。还有读秀,看书和引用参考文献的。你如果在学校应该可以下载,如果不行需要什么paper可以另开问题给我。
还有一些比如中外文学讲坛之类的博客,可以关注一下,主要大概作品确定以后要找一些新的理论来支撑,这样才能把论文写好。
书的话南京大学出版社《欧美文学研究导引》不错,里面的思考题都是很好的论文选题,还有《文学理论名词解释》,相关的批评论文也看一些,注意要找权威期刊的做引用。
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五星级回答,一定要采纳哦,不要辜负我的辛苦劳动!
【来自英语牛人团】
——————————————————————
最详细的文学解答,最专业的阅读指导
【来自世界文学知道点团队】
(因为你这个问题涉及到英美还有文学,我就把我带的两个团队都写上了,熬夜帮你打的哦,这个必须采纳啊~~有其他问题以后直接点击我名字提问就可以,两个答案都是我帮你回答的,放心采纳。我是【阿美莉猫】)
Ⅲ 急求一篇英国文学内关于一篇小说之类的的英文小论文,1200字左右。
学位论文网
www.xwlunwen.com
有论文详细内容
,论文内容原创,丰富,新颖,高质量高效率,我也写过一篇,觉得不错,你可以去看下
Ⅳ 英国文学论文
The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian, V.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad, Vladimir Nabokov was Russian. In other words, English literature is as diverse as the varieties and dialects of English spoken around the world. In academia, the term often labels departments and programmes practising English studies in secondary and tertiary ecational systems. Despite the variety of authors of English literature, the works of William Shakespeare remain paramount throughout the English-speaking world.
This article primarily deals with literature from Britain written in English. For literature from specific English-speaking regions, consult the see also section at the bottom of the page.
Contents [hide]
1 Old English
2 Renaissance literature
3 Early Modern period
3.1 Elizabethan Era
3.2 Jacobean literature
3.3 Caroline and Cromwellian literature
3.4 Restoration literature
3.5 Augustan literature
4 18th century
5 Romanticism
6 Victorian literature
7 Modernism
8 Post-modern literature
9 Views of English literature
10 See also
11 External links
Old English
Main article: Anglo-Saxon literature
The first works in English, written in Old English, appeared in the early Middle Ages (the oldest surviving text is Cædmon's Hymn). The oral tradition was very strong in early British culture and most literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems were thus very popular and many, including Beowulf, have survived to the present day in the rich corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature that closely resemble today's Norwegian or, better yet, Icelandic. Much Anglo-Saxon verse in the extant manuscripts is probably a "milder" adaptation of the earlier Viking and German war poems from the continent. When such poetry was brought to England it was still being handed down orally from one generation to another, and the constant presence of alliterative verse, or consonant rhyme (today's newspaper headlines and marketing abundantly use this technique such as in Big is Better) helped the Anglo-Saxon peoples remember it. Such rhyme is a feature of Germanic languages and is opposed to vocalic or end-rhyme of Romance languages. But the first written literature dates to the early Christian monasteries founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury and his disciples and it is reasonable to believe that it was somehow adapted to suit to needs of Christian readers. Even without their crudest lines, Viking war poems still smell of blood feuds and their consonant rhymes sound like the smashing of swords under the gloomy northern sky: there is always a sense of imminent danger in the narratives. Sooner or later, all things must come to an end, as Beowulf eventually dies at the hands of the monsters he spends the tale fighting. The feelings of Beowulf that nothing lasts, that youth and joy will turn to death and sorrow entered Christianity and were to dominate the future landscape of English fiction.
Renaissance literature
Main article: English Renaissance
Following the introction of a printing press into England by William Caxton in 1476, vernacular literature flourished. The Reformation inspired the proction of vernacular liturgy which led to the Book of Common Prayer, a lasting influence on literary English language. The poetry, drama, and prose proced under both Queen Elizabeth I and King James I constitute what is today labelled as Early modern (or Renaissance).
Early Modern period
Further information: Early Modern English and Early Modern Britain
Elizabethan Era
Main article: Elizabethan literature
The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the field of drama. The Italian Renaissance had rediscovered the ancient Greek and Roman theatre, and this was instrumental in the development of the new drama, which was then beginning to evolve apart from the old mystery and miracle plays of the Middle Ages. The Italians were particularly inspired by Seneca (a major tragic playwright and philosopher, the tutor of Nero) and Plautus (its comic cliché, especially that of the boasting soldier had a powerful influence on the Renaissance and after). However, the Italian tragedies embraced a principle contrary to Seneca's ethics: showing blood and violence on the stage. In Seneca's plays such scenes were only acted by the characters. But the English playwrights were intrigued by Italian model: a conspicuous community of Italian actors had settled in London and Giovanni Florio had brought much of the Italian language and culture to England. It is also true that the Elizabethan Era was a very violent age and that the high incidence of political assassinations in Renaissance Italy (embodied by Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince) did little to calm fears of popish plots. As a result, representing that kind of violence on the stage was probably more cathartic for the Elizabethan spectator. Following earlier Elizabethan plays such as Gorboc by Sackville & Norton and The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd that was to provide much material for Hamlet, William Shakespeare stands out in this period as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare was not a man of letters by profession, and probably had only some grammar school ecation. He was neither a lawyer, nor an aristocrat as the "university wits" that had monopolised the English stage when he started writing. But he was very gifted and incredibly versatile, and he surpassed "professionals" as Robert Greene who mocked this "shake-scene" of low origins. Though most dramas met with great success, it is in his later years (marked by the early reign of James I) that he wrote what have been considered his greatest plays: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest, a tragicomedy that inscribes within the main drama a brilliant pageant to the new king. This 'play within a play' takes the form of a masque, an interlude with music and dance coloured by the novel special effects of the new indoor theatres. Critics have shown that this masterpiece, which can be considered a dramatic work in its own right, was written for James's court, if not for the monarch himself. The magic arts of Prospero, on which depend the outcome of the plot, hint at the fine relationship between art and nature in poetry. Significantly for those times (the arrival of the first colonists in America), The Tempest is (though not apparently) set on a Bermudan island, as research on the Bermuda Pamphlets (1609) has shown, linking Shakespeare to the Virginia Company itself. The "News from the New World", as Frank Kermode points out, were already out and Shakespeare's interest in this respect is remarkable. Shakespeare also popularized the English sonnet which made significant changes to Petrarch's model.
The sonnet was introced into English by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century. Poems intended to be set to music as songs, such as by Thomas Campion, became popular as printed literature was disseminated more widely in households. See English Madrigal School. Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre include Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont. Had Marlowe (1564-1593) not been stabbed at twenty-nine in a tavern brawl, says Anthony Burgess, he might have rivalled, if not equalled Shakespeare himself for his poetic gifts. Remarkably, he was born only a few weeks before Shakespeare and must have known him well. Marlowe's subject matter, though, is different: it focuses more on the moral drama of the renaissance man than any other thing. Marlowe was fascinated and terrified by the new frontiers opened by modern science. Drawing on German lore, he introced Dr. Faustus to England, a scientist and magician who is obsessed by the thirst of knowledge and the desire to push man's technological power to its limits. He acquires supernatural gifts that even allow him to go back in time and wed Helen of Troy, but at the end of his twenty-four years' covenant with the devil he has to surrender his soul to him. His dark heroes may have something of Marlowe himself, whose untimely death remains a mystery. He was known for being an atheist, leading a lawless life, keeping many mistresses, consorting with ruffians: living the 'high life' of London's underworld. But many suspect that this might have been a cover-up for his activities as a secret agent for Elizabeth I, hinting that the 'accidental stabbing' might have been a premeditated assassination by the enemies of The Crown. Beaumont and Fletcher are less-known, but it is almost sure that they helped Shakespeare write some of his best dramas, and were quite popular at the time. It is also at this time that the city comedy genre develops. In the later 16th century English poetry was characterised by elaboration of language and extensive allusion to classical myths. The most important poets of this era include Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. Elizabeth herself, a proct of Renaissance humanism, proced occasional poems such as On Monsieur’s Departure.
Canons of Renaissance poetry
Jacobean literature
After Shakespeare's death, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson was the leading literary figure of the Jacobean era (The reign of James I). However, Jonson's aesthetics hark back to the Middle Ages rather than to the Tudor Era: his characters embody the theory of humours. According to this contemporary medical theory, behavioral differences result from a prevalence of one of the body's four "humours" (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) over the other three; these humours correspond with the four elements of the universe: air, water, fire, and earth. This leads Jonson to exemplify such differences to the point of creating types, or clichés.
Jonson is a master of style, and a brilliant satirist. His Volpone shows how a group of scammers are fooled by a top con-artist, vice being punished by vice, virtue meting out its reward.
Others who followed Jonson's style include Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote the brilliant comedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, a mockery of the rising middle class and especially of those nouveaux riches who pretend to dictate literary taste without knowing much literature at all. In the story, a couple of grocers wrangle with professional actors to have their illiterate son play a leading role in a drama. He becomes a knight-errant wearing, appropriately, a burning pestle on his shield. Seeking to win a princess' heart, the young man is ridiculed much in the way Don Quixote was. One of Beaumont and Fletcher's chief merits was that of realising how feudalism and chivalry had turned into snobbery and make-believe and that new social classes were on the rise.
Another popular style of theatre ring Jacobean times was the revenge play, popularized by John Webster and Thomas Kyd. George Chapman wrote a couple of subtle revenge tragedies, but must be remembered chiefly on account of his famous translation of Homer, one that had a profound influence on all future English literature, even inspiring John Keats to write one of his best sonnets.
The King James Bible, one of the most massive translation projects in the history of English up to this time, was started in 1604 and completed in 1611. It represents the culmination of a tradition of Bible translation into English that began with the work of William Tyndale. It became the standard Bible of the Church of England, and some consider it one of the greatest literary works of all time. This project was headed by James I himself, who supervised the work of forty-seven scholars. Although many other translations into English have been made, some of which are widely considered more accurate, many aesthetically prefer the King James Bible, whose meter is made to mimic the original Hebrew verse.
Besides Shakespeare, whose figure towers over the early 1600s, the major poets of the early 17th century included John Donne and the other Metaphysical poets. Influenced by continental Baroque, and taking as his subject matter both Christian mysticism and eroticism, metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or "unpoetic" figures, such as a compass or a mosquito, to reach surprise effects. For example, in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", one of Donne's Songs and Sonnets, the points of a compass represent two lovers, the woman who is home, waiting, being the centre, the farther point being her lover sailing away from her. But the larger the distance, the more the hands of the compass lean to each other: separation makes love grow fonder. The paradox or the oxymoron is a constant in this poetry whose fears and anxieties also speak of a world of spiritual certainties shaken by the modern discoveries of geography and science, one that is no longer the centre of the universe. Apart from the metaphysical poetry of Donne, the 17th century is also celebrated for its Baroque poetry. Baroque poetry served the same ends as the art of the period; the Baroque style is lofty, sweeping, epic, and religious. Many of these poets have an overtly Catholic sensibility (namely Richard Crashaw) and wrote poetry for the Catholic counter-Reformation in order to establish a feeling of supremacy and mysticism that would ideally persuade newly emerging Protestant groups back toward Catholicism.
Caroline and Cromwellian literature
The turbulent years of the mid-17th century, ring the reign of Charles I and the subsequent Commonwealth and Protectorate, saw a flourishing of political literature in English. Pamphlets written by sympathisers of every faction in the English civil war ran from vicious personal attacks and polemics, through many forms of propaganda, to high-minded schemes to reform the nation. Of the latter type, Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes would prove to be one of the most important works of British political philosophy. Hobbes's writings are some of the few political works from the era which are still regularly published while John Bramhall, who was Hobbes's chief critic, is largely forgotten. The period also saw a flourishing of news books, the precursors to the British newspaper, with journalists such as Henry Muddiman, Marchamont Needham, and John Birkenhead representing the views and activities of the contending parties. The frequent arrests of authors and the suppression of their works, with the consequence of foreign or underground printing, led to the proposal of a licensing system. The Areopagitica, a political pamphlet by John Milton, was written in opposition to licensing and is regarded as one of the most eloquent defenses of press freedom ever written.
Specifically in the reign of Charles I (1625 – 42), English Renaissance theatre experienced its concluding efflorescence. The last works of Ben Jonson appeared on stage and in print, along with the final generation of major voices in the drama of the age: John Ford, Philip Massinger, James Shirley, and Richard Brome. With the closure of the theatres at the start of the English Civil War in 1642, drama was suppressed for a generation, to resume only in the altered society of the English Restoration in 1660.
Other forms of literature written ring this period are usually ascribed political subtexts, or their authors are grouped along political lines. The cavalier poets, active mainly before the civil war, owed much to the earlier school of metaphysical poets. The forced retirement of royalist officials after the execution of Charles I was a good thing in the case of Izaak Walton, as it gave him time to work on his book The Compleat Angler. Published in , the book, ostensibly a guide to fishing, is much more: a meditation on life, leisure, and contentment. The two most important poets of Oliver Cromwell's England were Andrew Marvell and John Milton, with both procing works praising the new government; such as Marvell's An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland. Despite their republican beliefs they escaped punishment upon the Restoration of Charles II, after which Milton wrote some of his greatest poetical works (with any possible political message hidden under allegory). Thomas Browne was another writer of the period; a learned man with an extensive library, he wrote prolifically on science, religion, medicine and the esoteric.
Restoration literature
Main article: Restoration Literature
Restoration literature includes both Paradise Lost and the Earl of Rochester's Sodom, the high spirited sexual comedy of The Country Wife and the moral wisdom of Pilgrim's Progress. It saw Locke's Treatises on Government, the founding of the Royal Society, the experiments of Robert Boyle and the holy meditations of Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theatres from Jeremy Collier, the pioneering of literary criticism from Dryden, and the first newspapers. The official break in literary culture caused by censorship and radically moralist standards under Cromwell's Puritan regime created a gap in literary tradition, allowing a seemingly fresh start for all forms of literature after the Restoration. During the Interregnum, the royalist forces attached to the court of Charles I went into exile with the twenty-year old Charles II. The nobility who travelled with Charles II were therefore lodged for over a decade in the midst of the continent's literary scene. Charles spent his time attending plays in France, and he developed a taste for Spanish plays. Those nobles living in Holland began to learn about mercantile exchange as well as the tolerant, rationalist prose debates that circulated in that officially tolerant nation.
The largest and most important poetic form of the era was satire. In general, publication of satire was done anonymously. There were great dangers in being associated with a satire. On the one hand, defamation law was a wide net, and it was difficult for a satirist to avoid prosecution if he were proven to have written a piece that seemed to criticize a noble. On the other hand, wealthy indivials would respond to satire as often as not by having the suspected poet physically attacked by ruffians. John Dryden was set upon for being merely suspected of having written the Satire on Mankind. A consequence of this anonymity is that a great many poems, some of them of merit, are unpublished and largely unknown.
Ⅳ 谁有关于英国文学小说的完整论文
2006 年1 月
Jan. 2006
天津外国语学院学报
Journal of Tianjin Foreign Studies University
第13 卷第1 期
Vol . 13 No. 1
收稿日期:2005 - 08 - 29
作者简介:梁晓晖(1970 - ) ,女,副教授,研究方向:西方文论、英语文体学
从女主人公的性格矛盾
看《傲慢与偏见》的自我解构
梁晓晖
(国际关系学院英文系,北京100091)
摘 要: 《傲慢与偏见》历来被认为是作者为讴歌女性追求幸福婚姻的不懈努力而作。而从分析
女主人公在小说关键情节中的矛盾性格,可以透析作者真正的初衷其实与历来的解读恰恰相反,
她原是为更淋漓地揭露女子在当时的条件下难以得到理想婚姻这一社会现实,于是作家实际要
表达的思想对作品表面上展现的意义形成了解构。
关键词: 《傲慢与偏见》;性格矛盾;解构
Abstract : Pride and Prejudice has traditionally been interpreted as a work praising those women who fought
for a happy marriage. However ,when observed from the conflicting character of the heroine Elizabeth , the
work is found to contain a contrary underlying message ,which deconstructs the obvious significance of the
novel . In fact , the author intends to expose a reality that a woman at the end of the 18th century can find no
freedom at all to challenge the social convention.
Key words : Pride and Prejudice ;charater conflict ; deconstruction
中图分类号: I106. 4 文献标识码:A 文章编号:1008 - 665x(2006) 01 - 0049 - 06
一、对《傲慢与偏见》的传统认识
《傲慢与偏见》自诞生不久就成为家喻户晓
的作品,并吸引了历代评论家的关注。很多对
这部作品的评注与关于莎翁、狄更斯、勃朗特姐
妹的文评在数量上同时名列榜首。在众多对这
部小说的述评中,关注的焦点大多集中在作品
女主人公伊丽莎白( Elizabeth Bennet) 的性格展
开上,以及她在婚姻中对金钱与爱情的抉择而
体现的作品意义上;对人物的观察也从小说的
小环境指向当时社会的大背景: 18 世纪末19
世纪初的英国,妇女在经济上从而也在社会与
家庭地位上附属于男性(Brown ,1985 :1 - 26) ,
这一点在财产传男不传女的制度上可见一斑。
小说中伊丽莎白的父亲因无男性子嗣,如果过
世之后,家庭财产将划归其侄子所有,而妻子及
亲生女儿则无权问津。对于像伊丽莎白这样中
产阶级出身但财产微薄的知识女性,要想获得
一种体面的生活和地位,唯一的途径就是嫁给
一个好男人。与此相矛盾的是,社会等级制度
森严,婚姻讲究门当户对,于是这些中产阶级的
姑娘们也只能在中产阶级内部依照个人条件优
劣尽量择优录取配偶了。总之,婚姻是人们寻
求经济保障及社会地位的途径。伊丽莎白的堂
兄柯林斯(Collins Bennet) 深知这一点,所以经济
殷实但庸俗不堪的他在向才貌出众的伊丽莎白
求婚时,认为自己这是便宜了伊丽莎白;伊丽莎
白的好友夏绿蒂(Charlotte Lucus) 也深知这一
点,所以在柯林斯向好友伊丽莎白求婚未果转
而隔天就向自己求婚时她也欣然应允。达西
(Darcy) 、宾礼小姐(Miss Bingley) 都深知这一点,
这两个上流社会的宠儿曾极力想要拆散伊丽莎
白的姐姐珍妮与宾礼先生的结合———珍妮个人
9 4
无论有多么优秀,她的中产阶级身份是难以弥
补的。
只有伊丽莎白鄙视这一点,在历来评注者
的心目中她崇尚以爱情为基础的婚姻,反对以
经济条件或社会地位作为择偶标准(Jones ,
1987 : 28) 。所以她首先不顾母亲的极力反对
拒绝了能给自己带来殷实生活的柯林斯的求
婚;之后又因误解拒绝了能给自己带来奢华生
活及显赫地位的达西的第一次求婚,尽管后者
正在努力逾越等级差别的藩篱。在她周围人包
括在她自己眼中,她都是出类拔萃、与众不同
的。她父亲评价说,自己的女儿们“没有哪一个
值得夸奖的⋯⋯她们跟人家的姑娘一样,又傻,
又无知;倒是丽萃(伊丽莎白昵称) 要比她的几
个姐妹伶俐些”(Austen ,1991 :3) 。在与达西尽
释前嫌后, 当伊丽莎白问及达西喜欢上自己的
原因时,达西说是她的“脑子灵活”吸引了自己,
伊丽莎白自己更补充说“你对于殷勤多礼的客
套已经感到腻烦。天下有种女人,她们无论是
说话、思想、表情,都只是为了博得你称赞一声,
你对这种女人已经觉得讨厌。我所以会引起你
的注意,打动了你的心, 就因为我不像她们”
(Austen ,1991 :338) 。奥斯汀(Jane Austen) 笔下
的这位女子,在批评家眼里是追求自由与平等
的楷模,她“从不允许让他人左右自己的意志,
也从不屈从于传统上妇女的从属地位(does not
permit her‘will’to be dictated to by another ,and she
will never admit the submissive role traditionally as2
cribed to women. . . ) ”(Hardy ,1984 :47) 。在读者
心目中她是漂亮、聪慧、勇敢的化身,她不慕金
钱,不依权贵,在200 多年前就敢于冲破世俗的
偏见追求并得到了自己理想中的幸福。
那么,这种美满的结局在当时的英国社会
真的能够出现吗? 一个乡村女性真的能够冲破
等级差别的束缚吗? 在随后半个多世纪里的作
家们的笔下,妇女地位都远没有提升到能够这
样随心所欲的地步。《名利场》( Vanity Fair) 中
的夏普(Miss Sharp) 为寻求一个经济上得以依
赖的伴侣可谓机关算尽也未有所果; 《福罗斯河
上的磨坊》( The Mill on the Floss) 中的玛琪(Mag2
gie) 为追求一份符合道德的情感付出了生命的
代价;简·爱(Jane Eyre) 必须要嫁给一个失去了
健康的老男人才算拥有了一份幸福的婚姻;而
苔斯(Tess) 这样的出水芙蓉也与理想的爱人失
之交臂,花折玉损。那么,奥斯汀为何远在世纪
的交界就编造出这种理想式的神话呢? 这位乡
间的小女子是否真如那些大评论家所言,不谙
世事、不食人间烟火呢(Gillie ,1997 :142) ? 这些
应该能从作品本身找到答案。
二、伊丽莎白的性格矛盾
伊丽莎白是否真如读者及她自己认为的那
样不依权贵,不慕金钱,不媚世俗? 评论家们都
喜欢从她与达西的关系发展中分析出她的上述
性格。
首先,伊丽莎白一直宣称自己不在乎达西
的评判,这是否就能够说明她不慕权贵? 达西
是贵族的代表,不在乎达西,当然是够有骨气的
了。自从舞会上第一次见面被达西冷落之后,
伊丽莎白就一直对达西没有好感,对她而言“达
西只是个到处不讨人喜欢的男人,何况他曾经
认为她不够漂亮不配跟她跳舞”(Austen ,1991 :
19) ,在随后的交往中伊丽莎白抓住所有机会对
达西贵族式的傲慢冷嘲热讽,颇失礼貌;她甚至
在一次聚会中回绝了威廉爵士的撮合,拒绝与
达西跳舞。至此,伊丽莎白的性格是统一的:她
率真,甚至有些刚烈。
但不久,伊丽莎白因要照顾病在宾礼家的
姐姐也滞留在那里时,与达西等人有了几天近
距离接触后,对达西的态度发生了一些转变。
她开始关注达西了:她会一边做针线活一边聆
听宾礼小姐与达西的谈话,甚至开始主动参与
达西等人的聊天,她还注意到达西在关注自己。
故事中说达西对伊丽莎白的关注引起了宾礼小
姐的嫉妒。这对三角关系的对台戏在下面这段
引文中演绎得颇为生动:
宾礼小姐⋯⋯不大一会儿工夫,就站起身
来,在房间里踱来踱去,故意在达西面前卖弄她
优美的体态和矫健的步伐,只可惜达西只顾在
那里一心一意地看书,因此她只落得枉费心机。
她绝望之余,决定再作一次努力,于是转过身来
对伊丽莎白说:
“伊丽莎白·班纳特小姐,我劝你还是学学
我的样子,在房间里走动走动吧。告诉你,坐了
那么久,走动一下可以提提精神。”
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天津外国语学院学报 2006 年第1 期
伊丽莎白觉得很诧异,可是立刻依了她的
意思。于是宾礼小姐献殷勤的真正目的达到了
⋯⋯达西先生果然抬起头来⋯⋯(Austen ,
1991 :48 - 49)
正如申丹教授所澄清的,叙事声音与叙事声音
是两回事(申丹,1998 :208) 。加点部分的叙事
声音俨然是来自作者,但叙事眼光却可以有两
种理解:如果是作者的叙事眼光, 伊丽莎白当
然是透明的了;但如果作者在此使用了伊丽莎
白的叙事眼光,即这一段是伊丽莎白所观察到
的或是她接受完邀请一起在屋子里溜达后的顿
悟———以她的敏锐及近来对达西和宾礼小姐的
关注,这也是完全有可能的———那么,她的这种
揣摩背后就有了另一层意思:她也在嫉妒宾礼
小姐,在不停地评判宾礼小姐。否则,在接下来
达西笑说她俩在卖弄身姿而宾礼小姐叫着要惩
罚他时,她就不会话里带刺儿了:
“噢,吓坏人!”宾礼小姐叫了起来。“我从
来没听到过这么毒辣的话。⋯⋯亏他说得出,
该怎么罚他呀?”
“要是你存心罚他,那是再容易不过的事,”
伊丽莎白说。“彼此都可以罚来罚去,折磨来折
磨去。作弄他一番吧⋯⋯讥笑他一番吧。你们
既然这么相熟,你该懂得怎么对付他呀。”(Aus2
ten , 1991 :49)
这俨然是在说“你要想惩罚他当然是有办法的
喽,又何必问我呢? 不过你们俩关系那么亲密,
你是舍不得惩罚他的呀”。宾礼小姐一直在露
骨地追求达西,这话(加点部分) 跟她说是没有
问题的。但伊丽莎白已经看出来达西并不怎么
喜欢这位朋友的妹妹,与她毫无亲密可言,这话
冲达西一说就有点挑唆的味道了———对并不怎
么动心的一方说你与另一方多好只能拉远双方
的距离。这与宾礼小姐就达西对伊丽莎白的青
睐而挑衅达西的话简直是异曲同工:
为了挑拨达西厌恶这位客人,她(宾礼小
姐) 常常闲言闲语,说他跟伊丽莎白终将结成美
满良缘,而且估料着这一门良缘会给达西带来
多大幸福。
第二天宾礼小姐跟达西两人在矮树林里散
步,她说:“我希望将来有一天好事如愿的时候,
你得委婉地奉劝你那位岳母出言吐语要谨慎
些,还有你那几位小姨子,要是你能力办得到,
最好也得把她们那种醉心追求军官的毛病医治
好。还有一件事我真不好意思说出口;尊夫人
有一点儿小脾气,好像是自高自大,又好像是不
懂礼貌,你也得尽力帮助她克制一下。”(Aus2
ten ,1991 :45)
当然,伊丽莎白比宾礼小姐聪明,说的话远没有
后者这么直白。但她那段话显然在影射宾礼小
姐对达西的纠缠,这只能引起达西对宾礼小姐
的反感。作为两个漂亮的女性,她们自觉不自
觉地在互相嫉妒,互相攀比,甚至有点互相排
挤。宾礼小姐企图用伊丽莎白不熟悉的话题
(如关于达西小姐的近况) 不让伊丽莎白参与自
己和达西的谈话,伊丽莎白则用智慧使达西的
注意点一直在自己的话题之内而把宾礼小姐排
除在外。
在单独与达西、宾礼这些上流社会的人在
一起的这段时间里,从她态度的些许转变可以
看出伊丽莎白在潜意识中调整了自我,她对达
西不再那么不屑一顾了。正如拉康在自己的镜
像理论中所提及的:人的自我是他者眼中自我
的体现( Eagleton ,1983 ,5 Chaper) 。伊丽莎白的
新自我正是在与宾礼小姐的竞争与认同中建立
起来的:她对达西近来的关注直接产生于宾礼
小姐对达西的追求及对自己的妒忌。在心理
上,她一直讨厌却又转而关注达西是对以宾礼
小姐为代表的上流社会观念最明显的附庸!
伊丽莎白对上流社会观念的附庸,还体现
于她对妈妈在达西等上流人物面前违背礼仪的
行为的过度紧张上;而在中产阶级面前,如与卢
科斯(Lucus) 一家的交往中,她却放松得多。她
对权贵的依附远比她自己认为的严重!
从此出发,就容易解释伊丽莎白在拒绝达
西的第一次求婚后的反常行为了。上次从宾礼
家回来后,伊丽莎白受韦翰(Mr. Wickham) 的蒙
惑,相信达西曾毫无道理地剥夺了他父亲给韦
翰的重报,于是开始鄙视达西的为人。再加上
后来她无意中得知是达西拆散了姐姐与宾礼,
对他就更产生了怨恨之情。在这种情绪中,依
她一贯的性格与作风,她面对达西的求婚拒绝
起来应该是坦然而轻松的。但听完达西的求婚
陈词后,她的反应却远没有那么简单:
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从女主人公的性格矛盾看《傲慢与偏见》的自我解构
尽管她对他的厌恶之心根深蒂固,她究竟
不能对这样一个男人的一番盛情漠然无动于
衷;虽说她的意志不曾有过片刻的动摇,可是她
开头倒也体谅到他将会受到痛苦,因此颇感不
安,然而他后来的那些话引起了她的怨恨,她那
一片怜惜之心便完全化成了愤怒。
In spite of her deeply - rooted dislike , she
could not be insensible to the compliment of such a
man’s affection , and though her intentions did not
vary for an instant , she was at first sorry for the pain
he was to receive ; till , roused to the resentment by
his subsequent language , she lost all compassion in
anger. (Austen , 1991 :168 - 169)
这一段表现出伊丽莎白的心情是矛盾的。如果
按照伊丽莎白的不同情绪重新排列这段文字,
更可以看清她此时心情的矛盾性:
她同情或倾心于达西 她憎恶达西
1. In spite of her deeply - rooted dislike ,
she could not be insensible
to the compliment of such
a man’s affection , 2. and though her intentions did not vary for an instant ,
she was at first sorry for
the pain he was to receive ; 3. till ,roused to the resentment by his subsequent language ,she lost
all compassion in her anger.
以上三个句子中表达两种情感的分句之间形成
了极其平衡的句式,展现出女主人公内心两种
情感在激烈地斗争。而且除了最后一句,分号
之前的两句都是以对达西的同情为句子重心的
(出现在主句中) 。如果不是被达西随后的言语
激怒,伊丽莎白对达西的同情很可能在最后一
句也占据上风,而对他的宿怨却淡化为“虽然”、
“尽管”后的次要分句了。
我们不禁要问,对于一个自己本来就不喜
欢而且又伤害了自己心上人和亲姐姐的人,这
种宿怨难道能够淡化和抹杀? 更令人不解的
是,达西走后伊丽莎白为了这个自己“不在乎”
的人心潮澎湃、大哭不已。
她心里纷乱无比。她不知道如何撑住自
己,她非常软弱无力,便坐在那儿哭了半个钟
头。她回想到刚才的一幕,越想越觉得奇怪。
达西先生竟会向她求婚,他竟会爱上她好几个
月了! 竟会那样地爱她,要和她结婚,不管她有
多少缺点,何况她自己的姐姐正是由于这些缺
点而受到他的阻挠,不能跟他朋友结婚,何况这
些缺点对他至少具有同样的影响⋯⋯这真是一
件不可思议的事! 一个人能在不知不觉中博得
别人这样热烈的爱慕,也足够自慰了。可是他
的傲慢,他那可恶的傲慢,他居然恬不知耻地招
认他自己是怎样破坏了珍妮的好事,他招认的
时候虽然并不能自圆其说,可是叫人难以原谅
的是他那种自以为是的神气,还有他提到韦翰
先生时那种无动于衷的态度,他一点儿也不打
算否认对待韦翰的残酷⋯⋯一想到这些事,纵
使她一时之间也曾因为体谅到他一番恋情而触
动了怜悯的心肠,这时候连丝毫的怜悯也完全
给抵消了。(Austen ,1991 :172 - 173)
这位一向快乐、开朗、坚强的姑娘表现得极其反
常。我们不禁怀疑,奥斯汀是否向我们隐瞒了
伊丽莎白的真实情感,伊丽莎白本人是否也没
有向自己坦白自己的真实心声? 从引文中可以
看出,达西在她心目中的地位远远要比她所承
认的要高,她早已把他看作是一个不同凡响的
人物了。这样一个人向她求婚本是很让人自得
的,可偏偏这个人又伤害了自己爱的人,同时还
以傲慢的态度伤害着自己的自尊。不拒绝不可
以,拒绝了心里又觉得遗憾,这就是她内心情感
斗争的原因,她性格的矛盾所在。而达西能在
她的心中举足轻重,当然不会是她所一直看中
的人品方面的原因———她现在有足够的理由怀
疑他的人品。可如果抛开了人品,那么除了他
英俊潇洒之外,只能是他那她一向声称嗤之以
鼻的贵族身份在起作用了,所以她才会惊谔,
“达西先生竟会向她求婚!”
看来,虽然伊丽莎白在努力蔑视权贵(而且
她比小说中几乎所有人做得都好,这一点可以
从她在女贵族凯瑟琳·达西家的自持举止中窥
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天津外国语学院学报 2006 年第1 期
视一二) ,但她骨子里还是有崇拜贵族的观念
的。让一个18 、19 世纪的年轻女子做到完全摒
弃等级观念谈何容易!
其次,再来看看伊丽莎白在择偶过程中对
金钱的态度。对柯林斯的态度最能展现她不慕
金钱的气节了。在母亲与柯林斯一齐对她软硬
兼施下,她依然不为柯林斯的地位及金钱所动,
拒绝了他的求婚,放弃了这个当时看来益处颇
多的机会。几天后好友夏绿蒂与柯林斯意外订
婚让她吃惊得不敢相信:
她现在听到这件事,不禁大为惊讶,连礼貌
也不顾了,竟大声叫了起来:
“跟柯林斯先生订婚! 亲爱的夏绿蒂,那怎
么行!”⋯⋯
她不仅为这样一个朋友的自取其辱、自贬
身份而感到难受,而且她还十分痛心地断定,她
朋友拈的这一个阄儿,决不会给她自己带来多
大的幸福。(Austen ,1991 :112 - 113)
此时,伊丽莎白对爱情与金钱的态度是非常明
朗的,夏绿蒂只重经济地位不重情感的婚姻选
择在伊丽莎白看来是自我羞辱,不配再与自己
为友的。她不会静下心来为夏绿蒂考虑一下:
姿色平平的夏绿蒂几乎毫无资产,又将过了待
嫁的年龄,可她也需要吃喝生活呀。
不久伊丽莎白为当地新来的军官韦翰的风
度谈吐所折服,并着迷于他对自己的追求。舅
妈发现了她的感情端倪,劝她不要对没有经济
来源的韦翰用情无拦,她表示会慎重考虑,并保
证起码不再鼓励韦翰追求自己。这时伊丽莎白
对金钱的态度俨然有了松动。
更为突出的是,伊丽莎白对夏绿蒂以金钱
为基础的婚姻选择的严酷态度与后来对韦翰为
了金钱选择了金小姐的宽容态度形成了强烈反
差。韦翰这么快就停止对伊丽莎白的追求而与
金小姐订婚,舅妈指责他贪图金钱,伊丽莎白却
为他辩解说:
美少年和凡夫俗子一样,也得有饭吃,有衣
穿。⋯⋯拿婚姻问题来讲,见钱眼红与动机正
当究竟有什么不同? 做到什么地步为止就算知
礼,打哪儿起就要算是贪心? (Austen , 1991 :
137)
伊丽莎白为韦翰所作的开脱依照她本来的原则
是牵强的。这里,她显然已经接纳了金钱也可
以成为婚姻中所考虑的因素这一观念。
如果说针对韦翰与金小姐订婚一事,她从
原来的反对态度到接纳了在婚姻中对金钱的选
择,那么随后在她自己的婚姻中她可以说是亲
自作出了与金钱有关的选择。
达西第一次求婚失败后写给伊丽莎白一封
信,尽述了韦翰的为人和自己拆散珍妮与宾礼
的原因。两人误解得以消除。次年春天,伊丽
莎白与舅舅、舅妈一齐游玩路过达西的庄园,里
面的秀丽风景及高雅布置深深打动了伊丽莎
白,其中的建筑更是一下子吸引了她的注意。
比起建筑的外观房屋里面的陈设更是让人心
怡,她不禁想到,“我本可以在这儿当个主妇
的!”伊丽莎白这些想法是在再次见到达西之前
产生的。她与达西虽已前嫌尽释,但也还谈不
上感情颇深。这个时候就有了想当达西太太的
想法,物质利益起到了相当重要的作用。
更为关键的是,当伊丽莎白的妹妹莉迪亚
与韦翰私奔之后,达西出高价收买了韦翰,让他
与莉迪亚完婚。达西是用金钱保住了伊丽莎白
本人及其她家人的名誉,从而为两人的婚姻铺
平了道路。在那个年代,有了名誉才有获得婚
姻及幸福的可能,而金钱在这段故事里成了不
可或缺的东西。聪明的伊丽莎白在受惠于金钱
之后是否意识到自己先前对金钱的鄙夷有多么
幼稚,多么不切实际?
小说似在宣扬伊丽莎白一向追求以爱情为
基础的婚姻,应该说她最后得到了爱情。但在
她的择偶过程中,随着性格的发展变化,她对物
质条件有了越来越多的考虑,也在无意中让金
钱成就了自己的爱情。
三、《傲慢与偏见》作品意义的自我解构
《傲慢与偏见》历来被认为是推崇了以爱情
为基础的婚姻,同时批评了以金钱或社会地位
为追求目标的婚配。女主人公伊丽莎白的理想
与追求正是作者所要提倡的观念。然而,从对
伊丽莎白的性格分析中可以看出,任何人的性
格发展都是很难脱离他的时代背景的:在18 世
纪末19 世纪初的英国,一个没有财产的女性是
难以完全摆脱世俗的束缚的,无论她有多么出
众、多么努力。
3 5
从女主人公的性格矛盾看《傲慢与偏见》的自我解构
伊丽莎白不例外,她首先对社会观念作出
了妥协,先是依从了达西的地位并接受了达西
的金钱,而后才确保了与达西的婚姻,从而最终
得到了爱情。小说中女主人公性格的矛盾性实
现了作品意义的自我解构:这部提倡以爱情为
婚姻目标的作品最后竟要书中的楷模附庸权
贵、接受金钱———刚烈如斯也逃脱不了顺应社
会规约的结局。
奥斯汀本人也不例外,否则这位情感无比
丰富的美丽女性怎会一生未嫁,我们很难想像
她在情感的路途中有过怎样与现实难以调和的
理想和难尽人意的无奈。她早期就创作出《傲
慢与偏见》这样一部作品,表达她的理想,暗藏
她的无奈,从反面构成了与她之后人生的巧合:
要么如伊丽莎白选择妥协,要么如自己选择孤
守一生;反叛而拥有幸福是不可能的。这位一
贯描写乡绅、淑女理想式恋爱生活的作家经常
被批驳为与社会现实脱节( van Ghent , 1953 :
99) 。是的,我们在她的作品里确实找不到狄更
斯笔下社会风云的波澜壮阔,哈代那里工业化
的城市对农业化的乡村的侵蚀,乔治·艾略特对
人与社会关系的深入透析。而奥斯汀作品对社
会风潮的只字不提,其实恰恰形成了对社会现
实的有力揭露。为什么呢? 这里存在一个有趣
的悖论:
奥斯汀是位反讽大师,她那开篇名句“凡是
有钱的单身汉,总想娶位太太,这已经成了一条
举世公认的真理”中男人想讨老婆的愿望与其
反语女人对男人的追求同时在篇中得到了体现
———我们要习惯她在文中言于此而意于彼。于
是大家注意到:小说在人物语言、故事叙述中都
充满了反讽,而小说在人物塑造乃至作品意义
上的自我解构才是作者最大的反讽:作者塑造
了一个敢于蔑视社会规约的女子,而她的性格
发展和结局又告诉我们,一个18 世纪末的年轻
女子是不能逃脱社会规约的。福科在谈到“性”
与“社会权力”时说,人们敢于谈论性的问题,似
乎在表明自己敢于藐视社会权力。而实际上人
们口头上的这一点点大逆不道并不妨碍行为上
的循规蹈矩,同时口头上的假自由又让人们误
以为社会规约有松动性,是民主的,是可以接纳
的———人们是在用自己的貌似反叛维护着社会
规约(Culler ,1997 :5 - 6) 。伊丽莎白正是用自
己的貌似反叛维护着社会规约。
同时,作家奥斯汀则以她注入人物的貌似
反叛实则顺从反叛着这个社会———伊丽莎白的
经历证明了人们无论怎样奋斗还是不得不回到
社会规约之中。这就是奥斯汀这位反讽大师展
现现实的方式:她让人物以貌似反叛顺应了现
实,又让自己以笔下人物的最终顺从批判了现
实。
参考文献:
[1 ] Austen ,Jane. Pride and Prejudice[M] .Beijing :Foreign Language Teaching and Study Press ,1991.
[2 ] Brown ,Julia. A Reader’s Guide to the Nineteenth Century English Novel [M] . New York :Macmillian ,1985.
[3 ] Butler ,Marilyn. Romantics , Rebels & Reactionaries [M] .London :Oxford University Press ,1981.
[4 ] Cluysenaar ,Anne. Introction to Literary Stylistics :A Discussion of Dominant Structures in Verse and Prose[M] .London :B. T.Batsford ,1976.
[5 ] Culler ,Jonathan. Literary Theory ———A Very Short Introction[M] .London :Oxford ,1997.
[6 ] Eagleton ,Terry. Literary Theory[M] . Oxford :Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd. ,1983.
[7 ] Gillie ,Christopher. A Preface to Jane Austen[M] .London :Longman ,1974.
[8 ] Hardy ,John. Jane Austen’s Heroines [M] .London :Routledge & Kegan Paul ,1984.
[9 ] Jones ,Vivien. How to Begin Studying English Literature[M] .London :Macmillian ,1987.
[10 ] Selden ,Raman. A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory[M] . Kentucky :The University Press of Kentucky ,1985.
[11 ] Van Ghent ,Dorothy. The English Novel [M] . New York :Harper Thorchbooks ,1953.
[12 ] Wellek ,Rene. Concepts of Criticism[M] . Yale University Press ,1963.
[13 ] 申丹. 叙述学与小说文体学研究[M] . 北京:北京大学出版社,1998.
[14 ] 韦勒克·沃伦. 文学理论[M] . 刘象愚等译. 北京:三联书店,1984.
4 5
天津外国语学院学报 2006 年第1 期
Ⅵ 英语论文选题——关于英国文学的,要用英文写的
写哈姆雷特。要是能把哈姆雷特的复杂写出来,你就狠了。哈姆雷特一般的论题探讨复仇(revenge),出卖背叛(betrayal),他的软弱和冲动(balanced man),他的恋母情结(oedipus complex),女人的软弱(frailty, thy name is a woman!),表面和真实(appearances vs reality),人们应有的位置(reversal of moral order)
这些都是很常见的,你去搜索一下就能找到成千上万。基本上哈姆雷特的爸爸被他的叔叔杀了,他叔叔还把他妈妈娶了。哈姆雷特遇到了他爸爸的鬼魂跟哈姆雷特说让他报仇,然而哈姆雷特却一再犹豫,并且伤害周围对他好的人,他的性格很复杂,值得探讨。最后全都被灭了,都死了。所以是莎士比亚的悲剧。
Ⅶ 英语文学小论文选题,关于英国文学的
从大卫科波菲尔里的人物形象看查尔斯狄更斯的naive optimism。
今天刚好上狄更斯这一刻~老师有提到这个 你看过大卫科比菲尔的话可以考虑啊。~
Ⅷ 我需要关于英国文学的英语论文1500词
The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian, V.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad, Vladimir Nabokov was Russian. In other words, English literature is as diverse as the varieties and dialects of English spoken around the world. In academia, the term often labels departments and programmes practising English studies in secondary and tertiary ecational systems. Despite the variety of authors of English literature, the works of William Shakespeare remain paramount throughout the English-speaking world.
This article primarily deals with literature from Britain written in English. For literature from specific English-speaking regions, consult the see also section at the bottom of the page.
Contents [hide]
1 Old English
2 Renaissance literature
3 Early Modern period
3.1 Elizabethan Era
3.2 Jacobean literature
3.3 Caroline and Cromwellian literature
3.4 Restoration literature
3.5 Augustan literature
4 18th century
5 Romanticism
6 Victorian literature
7 Modernism
8 Post-modern literature
9 Views of English literature
10 See also
11 External links
Old English
Main article: Anglo-Saxon literature
The first works in English, written in Old English, appeared in the early Middle Ages (the oldest surviving text is Cædmon's Hymn). The oral tradition was very strong in early British culture and most literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems were thus very popular and many, including Beowulf, have survived to the present day in the rich corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature that closely resemble today's Norwegian or, better yet, Icelandic. Much Anglo-Saxon verse in the extant manuscripts is probably a "milder" adaptation of the earlier Viking and German war poems from the continent. When such poetry was brought to England it was still being handed down orally from one generation to another, and the constant presence of alliterative verse, or consonant rhyme (today's newspaper headlines and marketing abundantly use this technique such as in Big is Better) helped the Anglo-Saxon peoples remember it. Such rhyme is a feature of Germanic languages and is opposed to vocalic or end-rhyme of Romance languages. But the first written literature dates to the early Christian monasteries founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury and his disciples and it is reasonable to believe that it was somehow adapted to suit to needs of Christian readers. Even without their crudest lines, Viking war poems still smell of blood feuds and their consonant rhymes sound like the smashing of swords under the gloomy northern sky: there is always a sense of imminent danger in the narratives. Sooner or later, all things must come to an end, as Beowulf eventually dies at the hands of the monsters he spends the tale fighting. The feelings of Beowulf that nothing lasts, that youth and joy will turn to death and sorrow entered Christianity and were to dominate the future landscape of English fiction.
Renaissance literature
Main article: English Renaissance
Following the introction of a printing press into England by William Caxton in 1476, vernacular literature flourished. The Reformation inspired the proction of vernacular liturgy which led to the Book of Common Prayer, a lasting influence on literary English language. The poetry, drama, and prose proced under both Queen Elizabeth I and King James I constitute what is today labelled as Early modern (or Renaissance).
Early Modern period
Further information: Early Modern English and Early Modern Britain
Elizabethan Era
Main article: Elizabethan literature
The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the field of drama. The Italian Renaissance had rediscovered the ancient Greek and Roman theatre, and this was instrumental in the development of the new drama, which was then beginning to evolve apart from the old mystery and miracle plays of the Middle Ages. The Italians were particularly inspired by Seneca (a major tragic playwright and philosopher, the tutor of Nero) and Plautus (its comic cliché, especially that of the boasting soldier had a powerful influence on the Renaissance and after). However, the Italian tragedies embraced a principle contrary to Seneca's ethics: showing blood and violence on the stage. In Seneca's plays such scenes were only acted by the characters. But the English playwrights were intrigued by Italian model: a conspicuous community of Italian actors had settled in London and Giovanni Florio had brought much of the Italian language and culture to England. It is also true that the Elizabethan Era was a very violent age and that the high incidence of political assassinations in Renaissance Italy (embodied by Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince) did little to calm fears of popish plots. As a result, representing that kind of violence on the stage was probably more cathartic for the Elizabethan spectator. Following earlier Elizabethan plays such as Gorboc by Sackville & Norton and The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd that was to provide much material for Hamlet, William Shakespeare stands out in this period as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare was not a man of letters by profession, and probably had only some grammar school ecation. He was neither a lawyer, nor an aristocrat as the "university wits" that had monopolised the English stage when he started writing. But he was very gifted and incredibly versatile, and he surpassed "professionals" as Robert Greene who mocked this "shake-scene" of low origins. Though most dramas met with great success, it is in his later years (marked by the early reign of James I) that he wrote what have been considered his greatest plays: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest, a tragicomedy that inscribes within the main drama a brilliant pageant to the new king. This 'play within a play' takes the form of a masque, an interlude with music and dance coloured by the novel special effects of the new indoor theatres. Critics have shown that this masterpiece, which can be considered a dramatic work in its own right, was written for James's court, if not for the monarch himself. The magic arts of Prospero, on which depend the outcome of the plot, hint at the fine relationship between art and nature in poetry. Significantly for those times (the arrival of the first colonists in America), The Tempest is (though not apparently) set on a Bermudan island, as research on the Bermuda Pamphlets (1609) has shown, linking Shakespeare to the Virginia Company itself. The "News from the New World", as Frank Kermode points out, were already out and Shakespeare's interest in this respect is remarkable. Shakespeare also popularized the English sonnet which made significant changes to Petrarch's model.
The sonnet was introced into English by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century. Poems intended to be set to music as songs, such as by Thomas Campion, became popular as printed literature was disseminated more widely in households. See English Madrigal School. Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre include Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont. Had Marlowe (1564-1593) not been stabbed at twenty-nine in a tavern brawl, says Anthony Burgess, he might have rivalled, if not equalled Shakespeare himself for his poetic gifts. Remarkably, he was born only a few weeks before Shakespeare and must have known him well. Marlowe's subject matter, though, is different: it focuses more on the moral drama of the renaissance man than any other thing. Marlowe was fascinated and terrified by the new frontiers opened by modern science. Drawing on German lore, he introced Dr. Faustus to England, a scientist and magician who is obsessed by the thirst of knowledge and the desire to push man's technological power to its limits. He acquires supernatural gifts that even allow him to go back in time and wed Helen of Troy, but at the end of his twenty-four years' covenant with the devil he has to surrender his soul to him. His dark heroes may have something of Marlowe himself, whose untimely death remains a mystery. He was known for being an atheist, leading a lawless life, keeping many mistresses, consorting with ruffians: living the 'high life' of London's underworld. But many suspect that this might have been a cover-up for his activities as a secret agent for Elizabeth I, hinting that the 'accidental stabbing' might have been a premeditated assassination by the enemies of The Crown. Beaumont and Fletcher are less-known, but it is almost sure that they helped Shakespeare write some of his best dramas, and were quite popular at the time. It is also at this time that the city comedy genre develops. In the later 16th century English poetry was characterised by elaboration of language and extensive allusion to classical myths. The most important poets of this era include Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. Elizabeth herself, a proct of Renaissance humanism, proced occasional poems such as On Monsieur’s Departure.
Canons of Renaissance poetry
Jacobean literature
After Shakespeare's death, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson was the leading literary figure of the Jacobean era (The reign of James I). However, Jonson's aesthetics hark back to the Middle Ages rather than to the Tudor Era: his characters embody the theory of humours. According to this contemporary medical theory, behavioral differences result from a prevalence of one of the body's four "humours" (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) over the other three; these humours correspond with the four elements of the universe: air, water, fire, and earth. This leads Jonson to exemplify such differences to the point of creating types, or clichés.
Jonson is a master of style, and a brilliant satirist. His Volpone shows how a group of scammers are fooled by a top con-artist, vice being punished by vice, virtue meting out its reward.
Others who followed Jonson's style include Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote the brilliant comedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, a mockery of the rising middle class and especially of those nouveaux riches who pretend to dictate literary taste without knowing much literature at all. In the story, a couple of grocers wrangle with professional actors to have their illiterate son play a leading role in a drama. He becomes a knight-errant wearing, appropriately, a burning pestle on his shield. Seeking to win a princess' heart, the young man is ridiculed much in the way Don Quixote was. One of Beaumont and Fletcher's chief merits was that of realising how feudalism and chivalry had turned into snobbery and make-believe and that new social classes were on the rise.
Another popular style of theatre ring Jacobean times was the revenge play, popularized by John Webster and Thomas Kyd. George Chapman wrote a couple of subtle revenge tragedies, but must be remembered chiefly on account of his famous translation of Homer, one that had a profound influence on all future English literature, even inspiring John Keats to write one of his best sonnets.
The King James Bible, one of the most massive translation projects in the history of English up to this time, was started in 1604 and completed in 1611. It represents the culmination of a tradition of Bible translation into English that began with the work of William Tyndale. It became the standard Bible of the Church of England, and some consider it one of the greatest literary works of all time. This project was headed by James I himself, who supervised the work of forty-seven scholars. Although many other translations into English have been made, some of which are widely considered more accurate, many aesthetically prefer the King James Bible, whose meter is made to mimic the original Hebrew verse.
Besides Shakespeare, whose figure towers over the early 1600s, the major poets of the early 17th century included John Donne and the other Metaphysical poets. Influenced by continental Baroque, and taking as his subject matter both Christian mysticism and eroticism, metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or "unpoetic" figures, such as a compass or a mosquito, to reach surprise effects. For example, in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", one of Donne's Songs and Sonnets, the points of a compass represent two lovers, the woman who is home, waiting, being the centre, the farther point being her lover sailing away from her. But the larger the distance, the more the hands of the compass lean to each other: separation makes love grow fonder. The paradox or the oxymoron is a constant in this poetry whose fears and anxieties also speak of a world of spiritual certainties shaken by the modern discoveries of geography and science, one that is no longer the centre of the universe. Apart from the metaphysical poetry of Donne, the 17th century is also celebrated for its Baroque poetry. Baroque poetry served the same ends as the art of the period; the Baroque style is lofty, sweeping, epic, and religious. Many of these poets have an overtly Catholic sensibility (namely Richard Crashaw) and wrote poetry for the Catholic counter-Reformation in order to establish a feeling of supremacy and mysticism that would ideally persuade newly emerging Protestant groups back toward Catholicism.
Caroline and Cromwellian literature
The turbulent years of the mid-17th century, ring the reign of Charles I and the subsequent Commonwealth and Protectorate, saw a flourishing of political literature in English. Pamphlets written by sympathisers of every faction in the English civil war ran from vicious personal attacks and polemics, through many forms of propaganda, to high-minded schemes to reform the nation. Of the latter type, Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes would prove to be one of the most important works of British political philosophy. Hobbes's writings are some of the few political works from the era which are still regularly published while John Bramhall, who was Hobbes's chief critic, is largely forgotten. The period also saw a flourishing of news books, the precursors to the British newspaper, with journalists such as Henry Muddiman, Marchamont Needham, and John Birkenhead representing the views and activities of the contending parties. The frequent arrests of authors and the suppression of their works, with the consequence of foreign or underground printing, led to the proposal of a licensing system. The Areopagitica, a political pamphlet by John Milton, was written in opposition to licensing and is regarded as one of the most eloquent defenses of press freedom ever written.
Specifically in the reign of Charles I (1625 – 42), English Renaissance theatre experienced its concluding efflorescence. The last works of Ben Jonson appeared on stage and in print, along with the final generation of major voices in the drama of the age: John Ford, Philip Massinger, James Shirley, and Richard Brome. With the closure of the theatres at the start of the English Civil War in 1642, drama was suppressed for a generation, to resume only in the altered society of the English Restoration in 1660.
Other forms of literature written ring this period are usually ascribed political subtexts, or their authors are grouped along political lines. The cavalier poets, active mainly before the civil war, owed much to the earlier school of metaphysical poets. The forced retirement of royalist officials after the execution of Charles I was a good thing in the case of Izaak Walton, as it gave him time to work on his book The Compleat Angler. Published in , the book, ostensibly a guide to fishing, is much more: a meditation on life, leisure, and contentment. The two most important poets of Oliver Cromwell's England were Andrew Marvell and John Milton, with both procing works praising the new government; such as Marvell's An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland. Despite their republican beliefs they escaped punishment upon the Restoration of Charles II, after which Milton wrote some of his greatest poetical works (with any possible political message hidden under allegory). Thomas Browne was another writer of the period; a learned man with an extensive library, he wrote prolifically on science, religion, medicine and the esoteric.
Restoration literature
Main article: Restoration Literature
Restoration literature includes both Paradise Lost and the Earl of Rochester's Sodom, the high spirited sexual comedy of The Country Wife and the moral wisdom of Pilgrim's Progress. It saw Locke's Treatises on Government, the founding of the Royal Society, the experiments of Robert Boyle and the holy meditations of Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theatres from Jeremy Collier, the pioneering of literary criticism from Dryden, and the first newspapers. The official break in literary culture caused by censorship and radically moralist standards under Cromwell's Puritan regime created a gap in literary tradition, allowing a seemingly fresh start for all forms of literature after the Restoration. During the Interregnum, the royalist forces attached to the court of Charles I went into exile with the twenty-year old Charles II. The nobility who travelled with Charles II were therefore lodged for over a decade in the midst of the continent's literary scene. Charles spent his time attending plays in France, and he developed a taste for Spanish plays. Those nobles living in Holland began to learn about mercantile exchange as well as the tolerant, rationalist prose debates that circulated in that officially tolerant nation.
The largest and most important poetic form of the era was satire. In general, publication of satire was done anonymously. There were great dangers in being associated with a satire. On the one hand, defamation law was a wide net, and it was difficult for a satirist to avoid prosecution if he were proven to have written a piece that seemed to criticize a noble. On the other hand, wealthy indivials would respond to satire as often as not by having the suspected poet physically attacked by ruffians. John Dryden was set upon for being merely suspected of having written the Satire on Mankind. A consequence of this anonymity is that a great many poems, some of them of merit, are unpublished and largely unknown.
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