英美文学选读课.pptx

Lecture Nine Lecture Nine Thomas GrayThomas GrayTeacher:Wang XingweiThe Pre-RomanticismThomas Gray(1716-1771)Life Unhappy childhoodLeft Cambridge without a degreeThe friendship with Horace WalpoleProfessor of History and Modern Language at CambridgeLifelived at the time when Enlightenment Movement was coming to its endthe sentimental literature was flourishingThe Sentimental LiteratureSamuel Richardson:Pamela Laurence Sterne:A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy Gray:“Elegy”Thomas Young:“The Night”Cowper:“The Task:Gray as a leader of the Sentimental literature his life experience happened to make him the forerunner of this new literary trendhis masterpiece“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”once and for all established his fame as the leader the sentimental poetry started a new school in poetry called“the Graveyard School”.Other works of GrayAn illustration to Grays poem Ode on the Spring“Ode on the Spring”(1742)“Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”(1747)“Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat”(1748)the Graveyard School poetry“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”A result of eight years careful composition and polishingThe reflection on death,the sorrows of life,and the mysteries of human life with a touch of his personal melancholyHe reveals his sympathy for the poor and the unknown but mocks the great ones who despise the poor