Download Ⅲ.English Critical Realism

Realism and Dickens
裴蕾&王娟娟&段晶晶
●Critical Realism
●Dickens
●Other representatives
Ⅰ.Social Background
◆Industrial
Revolution (the second half of the 18C)
→ victory of the bourgeoisie over the aristocracy(贵族阶级)
◆The
development of capitalism
→ working class arose
◆Feudal
VS bourgeois classes for some time
√1930s’fundamental contradiction:
workers VS capitalists
Ⅰ.Social Background
◆A typical capitalist country
→aggravation(恶化) of contradictions at home
and abroad
→ parliamentary reform (1832)
→the Poor Law (1834)
→Chartism(人民宪章运动): working-class
movement (1836)
Ⅰ.Social Background
◆The People’s Charter (人民宪章 ), 1837
√workers’ political demands
◆The people’s parliament gathered,1837
◆European revolutionary events, 1940s’
√strengthened the English working-class movement
◆late 1940s’, decline of Chartism
◆social contradictions & poems
Thomas Hood (1799~1845)
Mrs Elizabeth Barret Browning
Ⅱ.Chartist Movement & Chartist Literature
◆Industrial Revolution
→ industrial workers, associations
→ 1834,establishment of the Grand National
Consolidated Trades Union，
aim: uniting the whole working class (a new stage)
◆The Chartist Movement
＊ late 1930s’, London→ industrial North
＊February1837,a petition by the London Workingman’s
Association
→six points later known as the People’s Charter:
Ⅱ.Chartist Movement & Chartist Literature
1) equal electoral districts
2) abolition of the property qualifications for M.P.s
3) universal manhood suffrage (选举权)
4) annual parliaments
5) vote by ballot（无记名投票表决）
6) the payment of M.P.s
Drafted into
＊Spring of 1838,the Six Points
→a
Parliamentary Bill → the Charter of the
Workers
＊rapid development of the Chartist Movement
showed
Ⅱ.Chartist Movement & Chartist Literature
English workers:
an independent political force
the industrial bourgeoisie →principal enemy
＊the Petition was rejected by Parliament in
1838 (1,280,000 signatures)
＊Chartism spread like wildfire after 1838
(economic crisis)
a second Petition (3,315,000=half the adult male
population of Great Britain), rejected in 1842
Ⅱ.Chartist Movement & Chartist Literature
＊the Trade Union Conference
√Proposed: the People’s Charter →law , strikes
→Strikes broke out in North
Troops by government
→ Chartism was suppressed for a time
→ Revived during crises of 1846 and of 1848 (level)
→ Lingered on till 1860
Result: Chartism failed
Significance: signified the first great political movement
of the proletariat in English history
Ⅱ.Chartist Movement & Chartist Literature
◆Chartist Literature
＊articles on political and economical issues
poems ,short stories and essays on literature
＊a new theme introduced into literature:
The struggle of the proletariat (无产阶级) for its rights
＊the Chartist writers
√ Remain true to traditions of English humanist and
democratic literature
√Portrayed the irreconcilable struggle( proletariat and
ruling class)
Ⅱ.Chartist Movement & Chartist Literature
√expressed firm faith in the ultimate victory of the suffering
people
Significance:
The Chartist poetry, heroic and revolutionary played an
important role in the development of English progressive
literature in connection with the working class movement.
Representatives:
Ernest Jones
Thomas Cooper
Willam James Linton
Ⅲ.English Critical Realism
＊English Critical realism
appeared (tense class struggle)
flourished (1940s’ and early 1950s’)
＊English critical realists
√a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the
ruling class
√profound sympathy for the common people
Ⅲ.English Critical Realism
＊works:
the upper classes VS
greed & hypocrisy
Humor (tinged with lyricism)
Positive characters
Fine qualities
the lower classes
honesty & good-heartedness
Satire
The bourgeois society
The seamy (evil) side
Ⅲ.English Critical Realism
＊Strength
Reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of
cash upon human nature (root: democracy&
humanism)
＊Weakness
√not realize the necessity of changing the
bourgeois society
√unable to find a solution to contradictions
√works not of revolution but of reformism
Ⅲ.English Critical Realism
＊Contribution: perfection of the novel
“the epic of the bourgeois society”
√Social and political events
√Fate of individuals
＊19c novelists:
A step further (compared with 18c)
√ Conflicts between individuals
√ The broad social conflicts above the fate of
individuals
Guess?
Striking force and truthfulness
Bourgeois civilization
Misery and suffering of poor
The greatest English realist
---- Charles Dickens
Representatives
• William Makepeace Thackeray
• Charles Dickens
William
Makepeace
Thackeray
(1811—1863)
威廉•梅克皮斯•萨克雷
William Makepeace Thackeray
His Life
born in India
5 years
sent to England
Cambridge
Indian Company official
cartoon drawing
satirical verses
edited a student paper
1830, without a degree
His Life
France
Germany
into politics
England
articles,
satirical sketches
The national standard
Italy
a bourgeois
radical newspaper
Vanity Fair
in 1847
peak
His Life
success in
Writing career
failure in
his life
1. tragic marriage
2. neglected by Mother
3. looked down upon
by his peers
4. heart troubles
died of heart attack in London on Christmas Eve in 1863
His Literary Works
– 1) The Book of Snobs 《势利者集》
– 2) Vanity Fair《名利场》
– 3) The History of Pendennis 《彭登
尼斯》
– 4) The Newcomes 《纽克姆一家》
– 5) The History of Henny Esmond
《亨利•埃斯蒙德》
– 6) The Virginians 《弗吉尼亚人》
Charles Dickens
狄更斯
(1812—1870)
Charles Dickens
Family Life
Father – John Dickens
Mother – Elizabeth Barrow
Father was a Navel clerk
Financially comfortable and
then poor
• Parents were sent to a Debtors
Prison
•
•
•
•
Dickens’ early years
• Family imprisoned for
debt
• Young Charles forced to
work in shoe factory:
• Warrens Blacking Factory
• Mostly self-educated –
irregular schooling
• In 1827, he took a job as
a legal clerk
• He then worked as a
reporter in courts and in
Parliament
His Death
• I never knew an author’s death to cause
such general mourning.
It is no exaggeration to say that this whole
country is stricken with grief.
London and the Times
 Charles
Dickens created 20 novels during
his life.
 Offered us a profound complete realistic
picture of the English society of mid-19th
century
3 period of
his literary
career
The Pickwick Papers
《匹克威克外传》
Oliver Twist
《雾都孤儿》
Nicholas Nickleby
《尼古拉斯·尼克贝》
The Old Curiocity Shop
《老古玩店》

Martin Chuzzlewit
《马丁·翟述伟》
Dombey and Son
《董贝父子 》
David Copperfield
《大卫·科波菲尔》
Bleak House
《荒凉山庄》
Hard Times
《艰难时代》
A Tale of Two Cities
《双城记》
Great Expectations
《远大前程》
David Copperfield
———Dickens' most autobiographical work.
 the
first person narrator
 Bildungsroman
David Copperfield
who is kind to others will be
paid with kindness and evil will not.
 ★Someone
★
Content makes happiness.
★
Money will not directly bring happiness.
Early period (1836-1845)

☆Gentle social criticism温和的社会讽刺

☆Fantastic optimism充满幻想的乐观精神

☆picaresque

☆Exaggeration 夸张的艺术手法

“流浪汉小说”的结构模式
The middle period (1846-1857)
 ◇ He criticise bourgeois and their morality

对资产者及其道德的辛辣批判
 ◇ Gentle moralism

温和的道德主义
 ◇ The plot and structure are more complete
unified

情节结构更为完整统一
 ◇ Humor and satire

幽默讽刺风格
The later period (1858-1870)
 ◆Humor and satire social criticism

广泛、尖锐的社会批判
 ◆Gentle reformism and strong humanitarian

温和的改良主义和强烈的人道主义
 ◆Exploration of man’s inner conflicts

尖锐的矛盾冲突主导情节设计
 ◆Symbolism 象征手法
Characteristics of the works
 the
wide spreading of critical realism
 the
spirit of democracy and humanism
 The
construction of plot is pretty
complicated. more than one minor clues
besides the main core of the story


Literary style： florid and poetic, with a strong comic
touch
Characters: ★based on people he knew.
★ memorable in English literature.
★ related to readers
Autobiographical elements
Episodic writing: in monthly or weekly instalments in
journals
Literary techniques: ▼'idealised' characters and highly
sentimental scenes
▼social realism
▼incredible coincidences