英国文学选读要点Chapter 2（1--6）

英国文学选读要点Chapter 2（1--6）

The Neoclassical Period(1660-1798)新古典主义

1. In short, it was an age full of conflicts and divergence of values.总之，这一时期是矛盾与价值观分歧的时期。

2. The eighteenth-century England is also known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason.英国的十八世纪也同时是启蒙主义时代，或曰理性时代。

3. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas.运动的主旨便是用当代哲学与艺术思想的晨光启迪整个世界。

4. Enlighteners held that rationality or reason should be the only, the final cause of any human thought and activities. They called for a reference to order, reason and rules.启蒙者主张理性是任何人思想与行动的唯一缘由。他们大力提倡秩序，理性及法律。

5. As a matter of fact, literature at the time, heavily didactic and moralizing, became a very popular means of public education.其实，当时的文学作品种充满了说教与道德理念，就已经成为大众教育的良好工具。

6. Famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers like John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, the two pioneers of familiar essays, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Henry Fielding and Samuel Johnson.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.斯威夫特，丹尼尔.迪福，理查.B.谢立丹，亨利.费尔丁和塞缪尔.约翰逊。