Background Information of The Neoclassical Period

     The period in English literature between the return of Stuarts to the English throne in 1660 and the full assertion of Romanticism which came with the publication of Lyrical Ballads(抒情歌谣集) by Wordsworth in 1798.

• 1. It’s a turbulent period:

• a. Great political and social events were the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660.

• b. the Great Plague （1665年流行于伦敦的鼠疫）of 1665 which took 70000 lives in London alone.

• c. the Great London Fire which destroyed a large part of the city, leaving two-thirds of the population homeless.

• d. the Glorious Revolution in which King James II was replaced by his protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William, duke of Orange, in 1689.

• There was constant strife between the monarch and the parliament, between the two big parties—the Tories and Whigs—over the control of the parliament and government, between opposing religious sects such as the Roman Catholicism, the Anglican Church （英国国教等于Church of England） and the Dissenters(异议者|不奉国教者|不同意者), between the ruling class and the laboring poor, etc. In short, it was an age full of conflicts and divergence (disagreement )of values.

• e. the constitutional monarchy(君主立宪制度) came into being as a compromise between the bourgeoisie（ [ˌbʊrʒwɑːˈziː] 资产阶级，中产阶级） and the aristocrats（[əˈrɪstəˌkræts] 贵族）.

• --- the monarch was deprived of ruling power,  Parliament had more say

• The Tory(保守托利党) and the Whig（自由辉格党）

2. Abroad: The eighteenth century saw the fast development of England as a nation, a vast expansion of British colonies in North America, India, the West Indies, and a continuous increase of colonial wealth and trade provided England with a market for which the small-scale hand production methods of the home industry were hardly adequate. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century, England had become the first powerful capitalist country in the world. The British bourgeois or middle class also grew rapidly. It was the major force of the Revolution and was mainly composed of city people.

3. literature character: the Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works. This tendency is known as neoclassicism(新古典主义). According to the neoclassicists, all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers.(Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, etc.)

They believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity. This belief led them to seek proportion, unity, harmony and grace in literary expressions, in an effort to delight, instruct and correct human beings, primarily as social animals. Thus a polite，urbane ( [ə:'bein] adj. 彬彬有礼的，温文尔雅的；都市化的), witty, and intellectual art developed.

我们所称的新古典主义时期是指介于1660年英国斯图亚特王朝复辟与以华滋华斯和科勒律治1798年合作出版的《抒情歌谣集》为创始标志的浪漫主义时期之间的英国文学时代。

英国社会在新古典主义时期充满了动荡与变革,其中1660年英皇查理二世复辟,1665年一场瘟疫,仅在伦敦就夺去了七万人的生命,而伦敦一场火灾摧毁了大片城区,三分之二的市民无家可归,1689年英国发生了"光荣革命",清教徒玛丽公主与她荷兰裔的丈夫奥兰治公爵威廉取代了英皇詹姆士二世登上王位,从此确立了君主立宪制正体。在这一时期,议会与专制君主不断斗争,而当时凌驾于议会与政府之上的两大党派,托利党与辉格党之间的矛盾也层出不穷,此外不同的宗教教派,辟如罗马天主教廷与英国国教及不信奉国教者,还有统治阶级与劳动人民之间,也都存在着尖锐的冲突。总之,这一时期是矛盾与价值观分歧的时期。

而18世纪,英国的国力又得到长足发展。在海外,英国殖民地扩展到北美、印度和西印度群岛,由此产生的不断增长的殖民地财富与贸易为英国开辟了广阔市场,原先那种小规模的家庭手工业生产方式便远远不够了。市场不仅需要英国产品,更需要英国标准化的产品。在国内,"圈地运动"使大片土地都集中到越来越少的大地主手中,成千上万的小农场主与雇农都被赶出家园,成为城市里的雇佣工人。英国工业革命因此得到了雄厚的基础一一本国劳动力从家庭中解放出来,以及从殖民地掠夺来的资本积累。到18世纪中期,英国已成为世界上第一个最强大的资本主义国家,号称"世界工厂",它的产品涌入全球各地的市场。

英国的十八世纪也同时是启蒙主义时代,或曰理性时代。启蒙运动是进步的知识分子运动,兴盛于法国,后席卷整个欧洲。这次是15、16世纪文艺复兴的延续与发展。运动的宗旨便是用当代哲学与艺术思想的晨光启迪整个世界。启蒙主义者赞颂理性、平等与科学。他们主张理性是任何人思想与行动的唯一缘由。他们相信一旦理性成为衡量人类行为与关系的尺度,所有的迷信、不公与压迫便都会让位给"永久的真理"、"永久的公正"及"天赋的平等"。为此,他们大力提倡秩序、理性及法律。

英国著名的启蒙主义文学家有约翰·德莱顿、亚历山大,蒲柏、约瑟夫·艾迪森与理查·斯蒂尔(这两位是现代散文的先驱〉、乔纳森·挪威夫特、丹尼尔·笛福、理查·B ·谢立丹、亨利·费尔丁和塞缪尔·约翰逊。

在文学领域,启蒙主义运动还使人们重新对古典时代的著作产生兴趣。这股思潮便是新古典主义。新古典主义者们认为所有文学作品都应效仿古希腊罗马的著作(如荷马、维吉尔、霍拉斯、奥维德等大家的作品)以及当时法国的经典著作,并且理想的艺术应基于秩序、逻辑、确切及情感控制的基础上,而文学作品的价值应视是否为人文主义服务来定。这就使该时期的作家在创作时寻求表达与措辞上的协调、统一、和谐与典雅,努力使作品喜闻乐见并富于教义。由此一种温文尔雅、充满灵性的知识阶层文学艺术发展起来。