The Romantic Elements in Thomas Grays The Bard开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义

Thomas Gray was an important poet of British new classicism and the representative of The Graveyard School, but people ignore his role in the development of Romanticism. However, most of the domestic and foreign works and theses remain only in the general proposition of Thomas Gray''''s role in stimulating production of the romanticism , but a few analysis and study his works in detail. In this paper, take Thomas Gray#8217;s excellent Pindaric Ode--The Bard as an example, to study the poet''''s romantic writing style, in-depth analysis of the romantic elements in this work, and the embodiment of pre-Romanticism, to further explore the causes of the romantic elements in The Bard and a critical account of Romantic elements in The Bard. The purpose of this paper is to enrich the research status of Thomas Gray and get a closer understanding of The Bard.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

In analyzing the romantic elements in The Bard, can be compared with the common characteristics of Romanticism and find the similarities, and then analyzes the reasons of the formation.

3. 国内外研究现状

Romanticism was one of the basic creation methods of art, along with the realism, the two were two main ideologies of literary art. As creation method, romanticism emphasized on starting from subjective inner world in reflecting the objective reality, and expressed enthusiastic pursue in ideal world. Romanticism often used enthusiastic and open language, grand imagination and exaggerate manners to conduct images. The creation trend of romanticism came into being for quite a long time, at the period of mankind literary art oral creation, some works brought romantic factors and features with different degrees, however, at this moment, romanticism did not form ideological trend. Romanticism belong to idealism, and it opposite to rationality. Romanticism focused on personal affection express, and its form was free and open. Although the works of Thomas Gray before the advent of romanticism, the poems reflects a lot of romantic elements.Thomas Gray was an important poet of British new classicism and the representative of The Graveyard School. He was born in London, and most of his life, he worked on teaching and researching jobs in Cambridge University. His life was indeed stable and healthy. Gray did not write so many poetry, only ten of his poetry were famous to the world. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard in 1750 was the most famous poem of Gray. This poem created for eight years. At the beginning, this poem was for grieving over her friend Richard#8217; s death. Taking an overall view of this poem, its contents obviously surpassed the grieving over certain character, but to express deep sympathy on the people from the bottom of the society through describing a country graveyard, Gray felt regret for these people who had no chance to show their talents and abilities; meanwhile, it also reflect his despise and satire at authority and vanity in mankind, the condemn of luxury and arrogant life in the big characters. This poem was full of democracy ideologies of Gray. Because of poverty, the farmers could not operate their talents and become literary writer or politician. On the other side, on farmers, there were no arrogance and ambition, luxury and indulgence, they did poor and had no knowledge, however, they had morality and conscience, and they were the bodies of nature. Such ideology and sadness tone which was full of the poem, made his poem become classic work of sentimentalism in the late 18th century, he was called as the Graveyard School poet. However, people often study the characteristics of sentimentalism, but ignores the links between sentimentalism and romanticism. R. R. Agrawal suggests that the medievalists or the early romantics like Gray revived medieval romanticism, while Lang Qinfang argues that #8220;The Bard#8221; had consciously defined the position of the poet in the lyric tradition. The poet approached Pindar afresh, and the sensation became increasingly self-conscious and self-determination. #8220;The Bard#8221; complements and complicates this version of the history of literature by making a dramatic character chant his wood-notes in Pindar#8217; s strain. From this invention it was a concise and wonderful step to create the spooky #8220;charm#8221; epodes of #8220;The Bard#8221; , converted from classical Norse to the four-beat verse of Old English poetry. The allegiance to Pindar#8217; s form, though, shows that, however deeply Gray had delved into the poetry of his British ancestors and their Northern kin, he was clear that the only tradition a modern, educated poet could adopt with integrity was Graeco-Roman. #8220;The Bard#8221; is at once an exploration into the relation between art and politics,it enacts and furnishes a powerful, coherent comment on the scheme. Gray used the form of the strict Pindaric not only to express his view that native versification had been as sophisticated technically as Pindar#8217; s, but also to announce a hope that 'classical' and 'native' unite to create a new kind of poem. He was a expert, it might be the sublime pomp of the Pindaric ode-what quickened and brought it to fruition, what lingered after it down the centuries. He probed for the quintessential, delighting to report-to bring home---the special virtues of each kind. The subject of his search was indirectly novelty. His line of Ode shines and shines with this distillation. As Maclean has shown, #8220;The Bard#8221;does adhere to the #8220;neoclassical recipe#8221; for the Great Ode. But it makes something new at the same time by creating a really impressive dramatic figure. In parallel, Patricia Meyer Spacks suggests that the bard figures took new seriousness and began to express the immediacy of the approach and face-to-face contact between oral performers and listeners, particularly when set against the virtual, distanced relationship between author and reader increasingly engendered by print circulation. The bard was at the center of separation of oral culture and printing culture that occurred in England in the mid-eighteenth century and the subsequent imaginative reevaluation. Joseph W. Donohue Jr. argues that through the work of The Bard written by Thomas Gray, it can see the Bard, possessed of the instruments of prophecy and of political oratory-- 'Prophet''''s fire' and the bardic lyre, it curses the conqueror return from Snowdon before dramatically jumping from the mountain to an unpleasant death. In his tragic and heroic demise, melodramatic blend of idealized bravery and intense sorrow proved immensely influential on the development of what we have termed Celtic Romantic poetry. The Bard as an outsider to society, whether by social circumstance or by his craft. Many people believe that Gray used the Bard to experiment with printed voice. On one side, Gray#8217; s poem language was dedicated and excellent, which conformed to requests of the new classicism on grand and beautiful poem words; on the other side, his poem reflected the romantic desire for nature and the harmonious relation between men. According to literary critic James Mulholland 'Gray uses complex formal and editorial strategies to suggest the sense of vocal presence associated with oral performance.' Gray had fancied himself #8220; quite the Bard#8221; in composing the second of his two great Pindaric Odes --- The Bard. Whatever self-allegiance or bad mood that endured after a confused reception, he must have known that he had earned his laurels, and was securely #8220;among the English poets#8221; .

4. 计划与进度安排

Introduction1. The Romantic Elements in Thomas Gray#8217;s The Bard1.1 Placing the Bard Against Authority -- Individualism1.2 Using Romantic Writing Skills -- Imagination, Symbols etc.1.3 Yearning for Ideal World -- Idealism1.4 Attaching importance to folklore2. The Causes of Pre-Romanticism in Thomas Gray#8217;s The Bard2.1 Pursue Freedom2.2 Influences From the Graveyard School2.3 Personal Experiences2.4 the Revival of Celtic Culture3. A Critical Account of Romantic Elements in The Bard3.1 Positive Changes -- Subjective, Inspired future generations3.2 Negative Changes -- Obscurity, Imagery ridiculousConclusion

5. 参考文献

郎琴芳. 英国浪漫主义诗歌赏析, 安徽大学出版社, 2012.赵国柱. '从梦境到现实--谈托马斯#183;格雷《墓园挽歌》对西方传统牧歌的解构.' 天津外国语大学学报, Vol. 17, No. 4, 2010, pp. 57-62.Agrawal, R. R. The Medieval Revival and its Influence on the Romantic Movement, Abhinav Publications, 1990.Balfour, and Ian. Rhetoric Of Romantic Prophecy, Stanford University Press, 2002.Bergstrom, C. #8220;Form and the Pleasures of Interpretation: Reading William Collin#8217;s Persian Eclogues. #8221; ANQ, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 235-245.Bronson, B. H. #8220;The Pre-Romantic or Post-Augustan Mode#8221; ELH, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1953, pp. 15-28.Donohue, Joseph W. Dramatic Character in the English Romantic Age. Princeton University Press, 2015.Jones, W. P. #8220;Johnson and Gray: A Study in Literary Antagonism. #8221; Modern Philology, Vol. 56, No. 4, 1959, pp. 243-253.Kalter, Barrett. #8220;DIY Gothic: Thomas Gray and Medieval Revival. #8221; ELH, Vol. 70, No. 4, 2003, pp. 989-1019.Long, William J. English literature: Its History and Significance for the Life of the English, Kessinger Publishing, 2010.Macurdy, G. H. #8220;The Classical Element in Gray#8217;s Poetry. #8221; The Classical Weekly, Vol. 4, No. 8, 1910, pp. 58-62.Oates, M. I. #8220;Jonson, Congreve, and Gray: Pindaric Essays in Literary History. #8221; Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 387-406.Schug, Charles. #8220;The Romantic Form of Mary Shelley''''s Frankenstein. #8221; Studies in English Literature, Vol. 17, No. 4, 1977, pp. 607-619. Snyder, E. D. #8220;Thomas Gray#8217;s Interest in Celtic.#8221; Modern Philology, Vol. 11, No. 4, 1914, pp. 550-579. Spacks, Patricia Meyer. #8220;Statement and Artifice in Thomas Gray. #8221; Studies in English Literature, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1965, pp. 519-533.