English-prose.doc

起源
人物及作品：Montaigne’s “Essais”(1580) 法国蒙田的随笔集
特点：conversational tone，intimate approach

Renaissance period (immature)幼年期
人物：Bacon
作品：collection of brief prose writings.(1597)
时期特点：（1）quotations, examples, and figures of speech
（2）Bacon’s are almost purely expositive and with moral purpose

Revolution period（mature）成熟期
背景：（1）The 17th century was a period of revolution and restoration, the time of turmoil.
（2）Much of the prose was devoted to political and religious controversies.
人物：John Dryden（always placed himself on the winning side）
作品：“An Essay of Dramatic Poesy”（establishing his position as the leading critic of the day）
特点：clarified，precise, concise，flexible

The Enlightenment period (highest achievement)鼎盛期
背景：In England, 18th century marked the beginning of the modern era.
人物及作品：Addison “The Spectator”
Steele “The Tatler”
Swift pamphlets on Ireland (He is a master satirist, and his irony is deadly.)
Samuel Johnson “Dictionary” (marked the end of English writers’ reliance on the patronage of noblemen for support)
意义：(1) The English essay had completely established itself as a literary genre.
(2) Using it as a form of character sketching and story-telling.

The 19th century (the popularity and diversity)
背景：（1）periodicals（期刊）increased
（2）modern magazines sprang up （they were instrumental to the rapid development of essays）
人物：Lamb, Hazlitt, Hunt, De Quincy
意义：（1）They made the informal essay a pliable vehicle for expressing the writer’s own personality.
（2）They brought the familiar essay( informal essay/personal essay) into English literature.

Informal Essay
定义：
1. The informal essay is written mainly for enjoyment.
2. A good informal essay has a relaxed style but retains a strong structure.
3. The informal essay tends to be more personal than the formal.
4. The informal essay is personal, intimate, relaxed, conversational, and frequently humorous.
代表人物：
Jonathan Swift, Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, Thomas De Quincey, Mark Twain, James Thurber, E. B. White.

Formal Essay
特点：
dogmatic, impersonal, systematic, and expository.
代表人物：
Joseph Addison, Samuel Johnson, Matthew Arnold, John Stuart Mill, J. H. Newman, Walter Pater, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau.
发展：
In the latter half of the 20th century, the formal essay has become more diversified in subject and less stately in tone and language, and the sharp division between the two forms has tended to disappear.

The Development of American Essay
The Earliest Period
1. most closely connected with current affairs (political affairs )
2. Thomas Jefferson “The Declaration of Independence”
3. Thomas Paine “Common Sense” “The American Crisis”

The Significant Period
1. the New England Transcendentalism (American Renaissance; separation from the influence of British tradition)
2. Ralph Waldo Emerson “Nature” “American Scholar” Thoreau “Walden” (Life in the woods)

The Modern Period
1. diversified in style and topics

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Life：
1. born in Dublin, Ireland
2. graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1686 and then went to England to try his luck
3. secretary to Sir William Temple, a diplomat and a writer
4. In 1695 was ordained任命为牧师 in the Church of Ireland (Anglican英国国教会), Dublin.
5. In 1710 Swift tried to open a political career among Whigs but changed his party and took over the Tory journal The Examiner.
6. With the accession of George I, the Tories lost political power. Swift withdrew to Ireland.
7. had remarked to the poet Edward Young when they were gazing at the withered crown of a tree: "I shall be like that tree, I shall die from the top.”
8. became insane in his last years

Works：
1. The Battle of the Books (1697) exploring the merits of the ancients and the moderns in literature.
2. The Tale of a Tub (1704) a religious satire.
3. Gulliver's Travels (1726) Gulliver In Lilliput

A Modest Proposal (1729)
Content:
The narrator with grotesque怪异的 logic recommends that Irish poverty can be solved by the breeding up their infants as food for the rich. Swift defended ordinary Irish people against England's economic oppression. It is a savage indictment控告 both of the exploitive剥削的 English and of the exploited Irish.
Importance:
1. The foremost prose satirist in English language.
2. Swift spoke for the country as a whole.
3. Swift lived in an Ireland which was a colony, politically, militarily, and economically dependent upon England.
4. Swift was enraged at the passivity of the Irish people.
5. "A Modest Proposal," is at once a disgusted parody of Swift's own serious proposals
6. The entire story is told from an ironic point of view.
Swiftian Style
1. the use of irony
2. Simple, clear, and vigorous.
3. His satire is masked by an outward gravity庄严
4. an apparent calmness conceals his bitter irony.态度冷峻，文笔辛辣
5. Use of exact figures
6. He said, “Proper words in proper places, makes the true definition of a style”.

Irony and sarcasm and satire
Irony：The speakers’ meaning is far from the usual meaning of the words
Sarcasm：When the irony is found, in a somewhat sour statement tinged with mockery
Satire：Systematic use of irony or sarcasm

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
Life & Career
1. English poet, essayist, critic, lexicographer
2. Johnson's literary reputation is partly dependent on James Boswell's (1740-1795) biography The Life of Samuel Johnson.
3. born in Lichfeld

A Dictionary of the English Language
Background
1. In 1741, some booksellers asked Johnson to compile a dictionary on the English language. It took him eight years to finish this enormous work and in 1755 his “Dictionary” was published.
2. Lord Chesterfield refused to support Johnson while he was at work on his dictionary; the only assistance he had given him was £10.
3. When Chesterfield knew the Dictionary was near completion he flattered himself it would be dedicated to him. Johnson was disgusted at this presumption, and wrote this famous letter.
Importance
1. This letter was the writer’s declaration of independence, signifying the opening of a new era in the development of literature
2. This letter was the writer’s declaration of independence, signifying the opening of a new era in the development of literature
Style
1. The use of parallelism三联排比的结构被两次运用
2. The use of irony and sarcasm
3. The use of hyperbole
4. The ornate, rhythmical florid language语言华丽，节奏感强 (Long sentences, periodic sentences(end-weight sentences), big words 长句连篇， 圆周句，拉丁式的大词)
Periodic sentences
1. Presenting modifiers or details first, leaving the main statement to the end.
2. As in a periodic sentence the main statement is held in suspense until the end, it has the effect of gradually building up the intensity of a statement to sort of a climax.
3. Delay is the secret weapon of the periodic sentence
The loose sentence
1. This sentence is a basic statement with a string of details added to it.
2. In loose sentences, the main subject and verb are at the beginning, and modifying participial phrases and subordinate clauses follow.
P85 Chart

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