Chapter 92 Section 3 Victorian Period

When it comes to teaching the literature of the "Romantic Period" I can devote a great deal of my mind, but when it comes to the "Victorian Period" I have to devote all my brainpower.The realm of literature seems to have changed from Blake's "Song of Innocence) to "Song of Experience), and the song is passionate and unrestrained and back to calm and steady.The history of British literature has entered a period of rationality in which thought-controversial essays and novels are the mainstream forms. Queen Victoria reigned for sixty-four years.Since the middle of the eighteenth century.After the United Kingdom unveiled the prelude to the Industrial Revolution, its productivity increased greatly. In order to seek new markets, it colonized overseas on a large scale, creating an "empire on which the sun never sets" that they are quite proud of.National wealth increases.Faced with more complex life problems, humanistic speculation deepens, mutual doubts between science and religion, humane concern, improvement of artistic taste and tolerance of thought, etc. All the topics of the big era are stirring the culture of people of insight. view.Essayists of this period, such as Carlyle, Mill, Ruskin, Walter Pater and Wilde, etc., their representative works are almost full of brilliant intellectual debates full of mission, and their audiences are The middle class, the common concern is the country and even the soul of mankind.The 1930s was the climax of modernism. In the mainstream of free thought, the British and American literary circles mocked Victorian languages, criticizing them as hypocrisy for their respectability and rigid morality; but in the secondary world After the Great War, the world was devastated, and the sun of the British Empire was gradually setting. The British looked back at the Victorian age and reassessed it.Reborn respect and recognition.

When I was in my forties, I went to the United States to study amid various difficulties, and I did not choose the departments that are easy to get a degree, but directly studied literature, taking all heavy courses, because I have taught for many years, and I know that literary history and criticism are unique in Taiwan. However, when I was in college, this class was resumed due to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. The teacher only taught it until the seventeenth century, and I couldn’t find my way in the history of literature after that.Therefore, when studying at Indian University, try to take dynastic history and important core courses as much as possible.This is also the sincerity of my life.The "required reading list" of those courses is the beginning of my learning in the second half of my life, and cultivates the ability to select and read books in a systematic and in-depth manner.In addition to preparing lessons for teaching, he also developed his own interest in epic and utopian literature.From Moore's to the 19th century, English literature with various viewpoints and works of all kinds became a major branch of literature.I did some research on Putra's "Utopia" during this period.The title "Erehwon" is actually a reverse of "NOWhere", a satire inspired by the last two chapters of Soft's Gulliver's Travels.The Utopia located in the remote corner of New Zealand, a British colony, all laws and regulations, language and behavior are all new creations, which satirizes the Darwinian theory that was hotly debated at the time.Many novel ideas.Such as the punishment of disease, the world of the unborn, life and death, what is the beginning and what is the end, etc., are all excellent discussions. H.G. Wells was very influential.

In the development and evolution of the long literary history, the change of poetic style is the most obvious.In the Victorian period, it was revered as "Guild Tennyson has been the Poet Laureate for nearly half a century. We can see the rise and fall of the so-called "fame". Tennyson, ridiculed by the modernists, whose reputation fluctuates to reflect the tastes of different times, is the most accomplished British One of the most famous poets, the coverage of the subject matter. The superb writing, both at that time and later generations, can be worthy of the title of poet laureate. Because the writing time lasted for half a century, and his contemplation of life was broader than that of Keats, whom he admired , "Oxford History of English Literature" thinks that he is comparable to the Latin poet Vergil. Vergil's new poem "Agnad" has more human care than Homer's epic. Point out the changes in poetic style and the characteristics of the era of literary criticism. However, those with deeper personal inner feelings, such as Tennyson's "Lotus Eater", "Tithanus" and other articles, are drawn from epics and myths, with modern people's thinking Ideas, well-thought-out verses, chanting new situations, not only reconstructed the legendary story, but also added the charm of the legend. The elegy (in memory of Hiram) written by him in the past, twenty years before and after , repeatedly questioning life and death, mourning and belief. "The Pastoral of King Arthur", a series of twelve narrative poems, using the past to explain the present. Exploring the cultural significance of the inner and outer world. Modernism at the beginning of the twentieth century and modernism at the end of the century Although postmodernist poets can ridicule him as being slow for not showing off his wit, they cannot surpass the poetic art he has achieved through decades of persistence.

Browning, who was a contemporary of Tennyson, was famous for his dramatic narrative poems; the protagonist in "Arrival at the Black Castle" blew the horn when he finally arrived at the Black Tower after going through physical and mental hardships, and the knight's journey in the poem seemed like a mysterious nightmare.Full of dark charm.Some people say it is the courage not to admit defeat; some people say it is the despair of insisting on self-exile, but in the long poem of 204 lines, all kinds of dark and terrifying images are gathered, and I am still shocked after reading it.A famous line from Arnold's "Daxiatu Temple Poetry":

"Wandering between two worlds, the old world is gone, and the new powerless is born", which reveals the poet's worries.In all troubled times, these lines weigh heavily on the reader.Their era is already an era that I can imagine.The characters of the time, the hopes and fears, all the arguments.It is close to the time when my father was born, grew up, and received education. In a few decades, reciting words to me is not only knowledge in books, but also can be used to question the actual life of today's existence.Between the passing of knowledge from generation to generation, the admirable predecessors are like rings made of pure gold. They are not just names, but people who can be seen and talked about.Ever since I was in college, I have often wondered what would happen if Shelley and Keats lived another fifty years? Could they still maintain their innocence and enthusiasm?

In the twentieth century, Hardy, the first important writer, takes us into a world that is intimately familiar.He is famous for his novels, but after middle age, he began to write poetry.Hardy's poems are rarely elegant and unrestrained "fairies", they are always light and slightly astringent, very close to my actual life.After people reach middle age, dreams gradually Every time I read "She Hears the Storm", I am moved differently.In the midst of illness and even major and minor operations, the situation in the poem "Call Me": "Among the fallen leaves, I followed the cabin and heard the young woman's voice calling me." The power of that voice actually helped I endured the pain, and turned my mind to the universe and the time of reincarnation.

Must-reads after Hardy are Hausman, Yeats, Eliot and more important poets and novelists.Time is getting closer and closer to the time we live in; space is no longer separated because of travel.I use the greatest rationality to make the progress of teaching reach Ted smoothly.Hughes's almost bizarre, ferocious "new" poems.I tried not to hurry, but I also tried to leave as little as possible, so as not to become one of the top ten hates of serious students in the future. I have been teaching this class in Taiwan for nearly twenty years, the best time of my life.Today, about one out of four people in the world use English, and the understanding of the history of British literature is the road leading to a deeper understanding of Western culture.In 2000, the Norton edition of "Anthology of British Literature" released the seventh edition of the new book, and the length increased to 2,963 pages.The editorial team expanded the scope of English literature from the original British, Scottish, and Irish to include more famous literary figures of the twentieth century who wrote in English, and created a new chapter called "The Rise and Fall of the British Empire".Achebe in Nigeria, Keci in South Africa, Naipaul in Trinidad, and even Rushdie from India who wrote "Devil's Psalms" are all included, which is almost a small history of world literature.The development of modern history is also quite clearly presented here.

Before leaving National Taiwan University, I read a report "Hardy and Hausman's Viewpoint on Destiny" at a colleague seminar, which explored modern poetry from another perspective, and ended my career of "telling" poetry from an academic point of view. .Maybe it's because I read so many good poems too early, my vision is getting higher and higher, and I know that I don't have enough talent, so I dare not write poems.Other than that, I think there is another world.