The heart of a scholar, the spirit of a scholar, and the hardships and hardships are just for the sorrow of the advance and retreat of this thousand-year line. I think the real literary masters are profound social thinkers and excellent psychologists. Their profound historical mission and sense of responsibility make them have a sacred duty to record social processes and enlighten national society.

The West occupies an important position in the process of historical civilization. The study of Western literature can be analyzed from two aspects. One is different literary creation periods, and the other is different literary schools. Of course, different periods correspond to different literary schools. Literature is the most vivid description and the most profound reflection of society. Therefore, when studying Western literature, it is natural to think in connection with the social background and historical stage at that time.

From the perspective of period, it can be simply summarized as ancient literature, medieval literature, Renaissance literature, and capitalist period literature.

Ancient literature mainly refers to the literary history before the 4th century. Focusing on ancient Greek and Roman literature, representative works include ancient Greek mythology and "Homer's Epic". The representative figure is Homer.

Homer is the legendary author of "Homer's Epic". It is said that he was a blind poet who was born somewhere on the west coast of Asia Minor. As for whether Homer really existed, some people raised doubts as early as the 3rd century BC, and there is still no conclusion yet.

In the ancient Greek period, in mainland Greece, especially along the coast of Asia Minor, many troubadours traveled between city-states to sing poems about ancient heroic deeds for people. Over time, these orally recited stories gradually formed the basic plots of the two epics "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey". After the 8th century BC, they were processed into text and became a full-length epic. Homer is the representative image of the poet who completed these two epics.

Medieval literature mainly refers to the literary history between the 5th and 13th centuries. The representative figure is the Italian poet Dante. The Italian poet Dante (1265-1321) is a great poet. Enbes called him "the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of the new era."

Dante was born into a declining aristocratic family. He loved reading poetry since he was a child. He once studied Latin and ancient literature as a disciple of a famous scholar. He especially admired Virgil, an important poet in ancient Rome. Think of Virgil as your spiritual guide. The epic poem "Aeneid" written by Virgil praises the great achievements of the Roman ancestors in founding the country and is considered to be the best work of epics created by literati.

The representative work "Divine Comedy". "The Divine Comedy" also expresses Dante's pursuit of human wisdom and ideals. Hell in the "Divine Comedy" is the actual situation in the real world, heaven is the ideal and hope of mankind, and purgatory is the suffering process that we humans must go through from reality to ideal. Dante hopes that people will understand sin, repent and reform, and understand The highest truth and reaching the most ideal state were very rare ideas at the time and showed the bud of a new cultural trend of thought.

The artistic techniques of "The Divine Comedy" also effectively set off the ideas to be expressed in the work. The whole poem is divided into three parts, each part has 33 stanzas and each section has three lines of poetry. The three poems all end with stars, all of which highlight the atmosphere: under the guidance of the stars, along with the steps of the poems, human beings are leading from hell to heaven, climbing and developing from humble to noble.

Renaissance literature mainly refers to the literary history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The representative figures are Cervantes and Shakespeare. Representative works are "Don Quixote" and "Hamlet".

On September 26, 1547, Spain's greatest novelist Cervantes was born in Algara de Henares, a small town near Madrid.

Cervantes' full name is Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Although his father was a poor wandering doctor, he had superb medical skills. This doctor who travels all year round is very experienced and deeply understands the importance of knowledge to a person. Therefore, when treating some wealthy people who have a collection of books, he would borrow many books to take home to his son. Cervantes, who was very smart in his youth, often surprised his father with his reading speed. In order to let his son read more books, he took his son with him when he went to see the doctor of those who were well-educated. , he treated others in the house and let his son read their books outside the door.

When Cervantes was thirteen or fourteen years old, he was famous in their small town for reading the most. A large amount of reading gave Cervantes the impulse and inspiration to create, and he slowly began to learn to write poetry. Soon the poems he wrote were circulated everywhere in their small town, so that when his father went alone to treat people, people would ask him: "Ah, where is our poet?"

In 1566, the Cervantes family came to Madrid to settle. It didn't take long for Cervantes to become famous as a poet in Madrid with his overwhelming literary talent. After reading Cervantes's poems, Juan Lobes de Voyos, a well-known humanist scholar in Madrid at that time, visited him personally and enrolled the 19-year-old young man into his own school. Study here. In this school, Cervantes' knowledge was greatly enriched, and under the influence of Voyos's humanistic ideas, he wrote many beautiful poems, which were passed down for a while.

Suddenly one day, when Cervantes walked out of his house, he saw a luxurious carriage parked in front of the door. Being humorous by nature, he casually joked: "Are you inviting me to a palace banquet?" ?" Unexpectedly, the coachman said respectfully: "No, sir, it is the distinguished archbishop who invites you to come to him!" It turns out that the Spanish archbishop appreciates Cervantes's poems very much. From then on, Cervantes often visited the archbishop and received special appreciation from the archbishop.

In the winter of 1569, Cervantes, as an attendant of the Spanish Archbishop, followed the Archbishop to Rome, Italy. While accompanying the Archbishop to many famous cultural cities in Italy, Cervantes wrote many poems praising Italy. After the Archbishop of Rome, Julio Quaviva, saw these poems, he praised Cervantes so much that the Archbishop of Spain recommended Cervantes to him as an attendant. In Rome, Cervantes was admired by Archbishop Quaviva, but was jealous and framed by other attendants. Soon, with Quaviva's mediation, Cervantes joined the Spanish army in Italy in 1570 and became an ordinary soldier. At the time, this was indeed a good thing for Cervantes, because at that time, Spanish people generally believed that joining the army loyal to the royal family in Italy was a path to glory and wealth.

In the first half of the 16th century, Spain was at its peak. In 1571, when the famous naval battle of Rebondo broke out, Spain was still the leading military power in Europe. In May 1571, Venice and Rome formed an alliance and began a three-year war against the Islamic countries that were aggressively invading Europe. At that time, Spain was responsible for providing half of the cost of the Eastern Expedition and helping Venice open up the shipping lanes blocked by the Turkish navy in the east. Don Juan, the younger brother of the King of Spain, was appointed commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, commanding the combined fleets composed of Spain and Venice. On October 7, 1571, he launched an attack on the Turkish fleet stationed in Rebondo Bay.

Cervantes was on the battleship "Marquise" at the time, and he was suffering from a high fever. After the gunfire of the battle started, Cervantes rushed out of the cabin, ran to the captain and asked to join the battle. The captain and his companions asked him to go back to the cabin to rest, but he firmly stated that he would rather die fighting for the king than hide in the cabin as a fearful man. The captain had no choice but to give him 12 gunners and a large kayak, so that he could be ready to rush to the enemy ships approaching them at any time. Finally, Cervantes and 12 gunners rushed to the enemy ship. In the face-to-face fight, Cervantes' chest and left hand were injured, but he continued to fight until the combined fleet won. He was still covered in blood and running around the enemy ship brandishing his weapon. This naval battle left Cervantes' left hand disabled. In the United Fleet, people called him the one-armed hero "Rebondo".

In 1575, the 28-year-old Cervantes asked for leave to return home to visit relatives. Don Juan wrote personal letters recommending him to the king and Marquis de Cessa respectively. Cervantes took two letters and returned to his motherland on the sailing ship "Solar" on September 20. When they passed the coast of Marseille, France, they were suddenly attacked by three pirate ships of the Berber tribe. Although the crew of the "Sun" fought hard, the captain was eventually killed and everyone on board was kidnapped by pirates and taken to Algiers. Cervantes was tortured by the two letters of recommendation that could have given him a promising future. The pirates recognized him as a noble, demanded a huge ransom from him, and put shackles and handcuffs on him to prevent the "rich man" from escaping. Because the Cervantes family could not raise a huge ransom, Cervantes was imprisoned in Algiers for five years. It was not until 1580 that he was ransomed by priests.

However, after the freed Cervantes returned to Madrid, he soon fell into a difficult life. Because his glorious military exploits five years ago have long been forgotten, the hope he received from those two letters of recommendation has long since vanished. His family was also heavily in debt because of his redemption, and he himself could not find a job that could support him because of his disabled left hand. He had no choice but to pick up the pen he had abandoned for many years and start writing novels.

Cervantes, who had bad luck, has been struggling in poverty and has been imprisoned several times for various reasons, but each time he can quickly prove his innocence. In prison, Cervantes learned extensively about the lives of people at the lower levels of society, came into contact with all kinds of people, and wrote the "Collection of Admonitions Novels" based on this content. His masterpiece "Don Quixote" was conceived and created in a prison in Seville.

In January 1605, the first part of "Don Quixote" was published, and 10 years later, the second part was published. At this time, Cervantes was 68 years old. "Don Quixote" became a rage in Spain as soon as it was published. It is said that Philip III of Spain saw a student laughing wildly while reading a book on the balcony of the palace, and said: "This student must be reading "Don Quixote", otherwise he must be a madman." He sent someone to ask, and sure enough, that student was reading a book and laughing wildly. Students are reading "Don Quixote".

Although this masterpiece enjoys a high reputation among readers and soon spread all over the world, the author Cervantes did not change his life predicament.

In 1615, the Spanish archbishop visited the French ambassador for a royal marriage. Several of the ambassador’s attachés asked him about Cervantes. The archbishop said: “He is old and a The soldier, a small country squire, was very poor.

The attaché of the French ambassador was surprised: "Why doesn't Spain support such a talent with money from the national treasury?" "The Spanish Archbishop said: "If he was forced to write because of poverty, then I hope God will never let him be rich in his life, because he himself was poor, but he enriched all people. "

As the archbishop said, "Don Quixote" created by Cervantes, who suffered from poverty all his life, has become the most precious treasure of people all over the world. Since the birth of this masterpiece, almost all It has been translated into all languages ??in the world. So far, its circulation in the West is second only to the Bible

Literature during the capitalist period. We know that the West had entered capitalism at the end of the 14th century. In the embryonic stage, the real development of morality was in the 17th century. At this time, the great changes in the social structure produced many social contradictions. The people were in a miserable situation, and the world-minded writers profoundly revealed the shortcomings of society in this period. Calling people to find a way out. The literary works of this period had a profound impact on historical changes. During the turbulent years of social change, a large number of outstanding literary and artistic works were produced.

17th century literature produced classic literature. , French literature is the most prosperous, and Molière is the most famous.

Molière is the most important writer of French classical literature in the 17th century and the founder of classical comedy. He occupies an important place in the history of European drama. Very important position.

Molière's real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, and he was born in a wealthy family on January 15, 1622. He once enjoyed an aristocratic education, but soon gave up. He had hereditary power and was engaged in drama. He founded the "Guangyao Theater" and ran it poorly. He was once accused of being in debt and imprisoned. Later, he ran away from home and wandered for ten years in spite of the social atmosphere that despised acting and the opposition of his family. Over the years. As he accumulated a wealth of life materials, he wrote and performed a series of very influential comedies. Finally, Molière returned to Paris as the leader of the troupe, and he has been creating and performing in Paris since then. >

Molière lived during the Renaissance when the bourgeoisie was on the rise and feudal rule was declining. He sympathized with the working people and exposed the stupid and decadent nobles, the deceitful monks, the idle landlords, and the fake erudition. There are also "talented" people who made their fortune through exploitation and strived to be "elegant", and loan sharks who are greedy for profit and are eager to make money... He sketched the ugly image of the exploiting class from all sides, but he has not yet noticed the workers who are taking shape. Therefore, the positive characters in his works are often the servants, tenants, and craftsmen of those being ridiculed. These people always use clever means to make the other party visible on the spot, so that the exploiters can be criticized in the cries of the audience.

In 1659, Moliere created "The Crying Lady", which bitterly satirized the arty bourgeoisie and criticized the decadence and boredom of the so-called "elegant" life in aristocratic society. As a result, it offended the aristocratic forces and was banned. But Molière was not intimidated, and wrote and performed "The School of Husbands" and "The School of Wives" consecutively, which was accused of being "obscene" and "defaming religion" because of its promotion of new ideas and the need to break through the prison of feudal ideas. ", and was banned from performing again. Molière fought back and wrote two polemical short plays, "Criticism of "The School of Madame"" and "Improvisation at Versailles". In 1664, Molière wrote his masterpiece "The Hypocrite", in 1668 In 2006, he created another masterpiece "The Scrooge".

Molière was a master of comedy, but his death was a tragedy. In order to maintain the troupe's expenses, he had to participate in performances despite being sick. In 1673, after performing the last scene of "No Disease", Molière coughed up blood and fell down, and died that night at the age of 51. Due to the church's obstruction, his funeral was deserted.

Molière left nearly thirty comedies to future generations, and more than twenty kinds of works have been translated and published in my country. Molière was not only an outstanding playwright and director, but also a highly accomplished actor. He spent his entire life promoting the advancement of drama and exposing the darkness of society in a comic form. Goethe's evaluation of him was: "He is a loner, his comedy is close to tragedy, and his plays are so clever that no one has the guts to imitate him."

The literature of the 18th century produced Enlightenment literature, with German literature being the most prosperous and Goethe the most famous.

Goethe is the most important representative of German classical literature and one of the most outstanding writers in the history of world literature. His life has gone through three stages in the history of German literature: Sturm und Drang, classicism and romanticism. He is one of the few longevity writers in German history. Goethe's prominent position in the history of world literature goes without saying. Except for Marx and Engels, who were particularly fond of his works, one of the only two literary works that Lenin carried with him when he was in exile was "Faust." Philosopher Schelling said: "When Goethe was alive, Germany was not lonely or impoverished. Although it was weak and broken, it was still spiritually great, rich and strong."

< p>Goethe was born in Frankfurt on the Main River in 1749. His father, Johann Kaspar Goethe, was a royal counselor and a doctor of law, and his mother was the daughter of Textol, the mayor of Frankfurt at the time. Goethe showed amazing understanding in his childhood. When he was 8 years old, he translated the Latin exercises for the senior year of liberal arts middle school into German and began to learn French, English, Italian and Hebrew.

When he was 10 years old, he read extensively the works of Aesop, Homer and others, and when he was 11 years old, he also read the masterpieces of Racine and Molière. In August 1765, at his father's insistence, Goethe went to Leipzig to study law against his will to study classical literature. In April 1770, he went to Strasbourg to continue his studies. Goethe's writing career began at the age of 10. In the autumn of 1774, the publication of "The Sorrows of Young Werther" made him famous. In November 1775, Goethe came to Weimar, and the following year he entered the court of the Principality of Weimar to participate in politics, and began his nearly 10-year official career. He served as privy counselor, military governor, presided over the tax office, etc. In September 1786, he began a several-year trip to Italy, which provided him with rich nourishment for his future writing.

In 1794, Goethe and Schiller met, ushering in the heyday of German classical literature "characterized by the friendship between Goethe and Schiller". In 10 years, they helped each other creatively and each wrote their masterpieces. With the help of Schiller, Goethe created his masterpiece "Faust". The 10-year relationship and cooperation between the two literary giants pushed German classical literature to its peak, and made Weimar, a small park city, the cultural center of Germany and Europe at that time.

As a representative figure of the German "Sturm und Drang" movement, Goethe called for freedom and praised resistance in a series of his works. After "The Sorrows of Young Werther" was published, it immediately caused a sensation all over Germany and Europe. It showed the spiritual anguish of the awakened citizen class intellectuals in the feudal social environment at that time. The novel's fierce resistance to feudal morality and hierarchical concepts, as well as its strong demand for individual liberation and the development of "genius", echoed the inner voice of the awakened generation of intellectuals at that time, so progressive people applauded it. This epistolary novel has made many people unable to put it down. Even Napoleon, who spent his entire life as a soldier, carried it with him and read it seven times. Engels said that it is by no means "an ordinary sentimental love novel", but "establishes one of the greatest critical achievements".

Goethe's poetic drama "Fatus", which took him 58 years to complete, is the summary of his rich thoughts and the crystallization of artistic exploration in his life. It is comparable to Homer's epic and Shakespeare's drama. 's great poem. When Goethe finally completed the book in 1831, he wrote in his diary: "The main work has been completed" and "I can regard the rest of my life as a pure gift. Whether I do or will do now It doesn’t matter anymore. ""Faust" creates an image of a person who is constantly exploring the true meaning of life and making progress. Even when the protagonist Dr. Faust was a hundred years old and blind, he still believed that life should "open up life and freedom every day, and only then can we enjoy freedom and life." This reflects the pursuit of truth and self-improvement during the rise of the bourgeoisie. The spirit is also a reflection of the excellent traditions of the German nation.

Goethe's love life was rich and tortuous, full of romanticism. In 1775, he was engaged to 16-year-old Lily Swanman in Frankfurt, which made him spend "the most exciting and happiest time in his life." However, due to the opposition of his parents, the two failed to get married. In October 1806, after many love setbacks, Goethe married Christine. His wife died before him 10 years later. Goethe experienced another legendary love in his later years - falling in love with 19-year-old Levitsov at the age of 74. The opposition of public opinion caused his last love to fail. The last 20 years of Goethe's life were relatively peaceful, and he devoted himself to creative writing and natural science research. This literary great passed away on March 22, 1832, after completing the second part of his masterpiece Faust.

Goethe left a rich legacy for human civilization. In addition to his immortal literary works, he also conducted important research in aesthetics, philosophy, history, geography, biology, physics and astronomy. Achievements or discoveries. He discovered the human intermaxillary bone and made contributions to anatomy; his "Color Science" challenged Newton's mechanical view; the theory of biological evolution he proposed was nearly a hundred years earlier than Darwin.

Nineteenth-century literature produced romanticism and critical realism literary schools. Representative figures of Romanticism include Britain's Victor Hugo, France's Victor Hugo, and Russia's Pushkin. Representative figures of critical realism literature include France's Balzac, Britain's Dickens, and Russia's Gogol and Turgenev. France's Flaubert, Britain's Hardy, Nordic Ibsen, and America's Mark. Twain. The Russian Tolstoy. Chekhov.

Byron (1788～1824) British poet. Born into a dilapidated aristocratic family in London, he inherited the title of baronet at the age of 10. He studied at Harrow School and Cambridge University and was deeply influenced by Enlightenmentism. After coming of age, it coincided with the vigorous rise of national and national revolutionary movements in various European countries. His progressive ideas of opposing autocratic oppression and supporting people's revolution brought him close to the British workers' movement, and he became a fighter for democratic freedom and national liberation in the European revolutionary movements in the early 19th century. Byron began writing poetry when he was a student. After the publication of his second collection of poems, "Moments of Leisure" (1807), he was attacked by the Edinburgh Review. The poet responded with a poem in "English Poet and Scottish Critic" (1809), which was Revealing his remarkable talent and sarcastic edge. "The Travels of Childe Harold" (Chapter 1 and 2) published in 1812 is his famous work.

In 1816, Byron was ostracized by the upper class because of his private life, and moved to Italy in anger. In Italy, he wrote Chapters 3 and 4 of "The Travels of Childe Harold" (1816 and 1818). This long lyrical narrative poem and the unfinished masterpiece "Don Juan" are his most famous masterpieces.

Byron also wrote a series of long narrative poems, such as "The Infidel" (1813), "The Corsair" (1814) and 7 verse dramas, such as "Manfred" (1817), " Cain" (1821), and many lyric and satirical poems, such as "Visions of Judgment" (1822).

At the beginning of 1823, the anti-Turkish struggle in Greece was on the rise. Byron put down the "Don Juan" he was writing and resolutely went to Greece to participate in the armed struggle of Greek patriots for freedom and independence. He died on April 19, 1824. In the Greek Army. His poetry has a great influence in Europe and China.

Hugo, (1802～1885) "Notre Dame de Paris" and "Les Misérables"

He was the leader of the positive romantic literary movement in the early 19th century and an outstanding bourgeois in the history of French literature. Democratic writer. The dominant ideas throughout his life activities and creations were humanitarianism, opposition to violence, and the use of love to control "evil". His creative period lasted for more than 60 years, and his works include 26 volumes of poetry, 20 volumes of novels, 12 volumes of scripts, and 21 volumes of philosophy. His treatises, totaling 79 volumes, have added a very brilliant cultural heritage to the treasure trove of French literature and human culture. His representative works are: "Notre Dame de Paris", "Les Misérables" and other novels.

Hugo experienced almost all major events in France in the 19th century. He admired the early French romantic writer Chateaubriand since he was a child. In 1827, he published the verse play "Cromwell" and "Preface" (1827). The "Preface" is called the manifesto of the French Romantic drama movement and is Hugo's extremely important literary treatise. In 1830, he wrote the first romantic play "Elnani" based on the theory in the preface. Its performance marked the victory of romanticism over classicism.

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1831) is Hugo's first large-scale romantic novel. It uses bizarre and contrasting techniques to tell a story that took place in France in the 15th century: Claude, the vice-president of Notre Dame de Paris, was sanctimonious and vicious, loving first and then hating, and persecuting the Gypsy girl Esmeralda. The ugly but kind-hearted bell ringer Quasimodo sacrifices his life to save the girl.

The novel exposes the hypocrisy of religion, declares the bankruptcy of asceticism, praises the kindness, friendship and self-sacrifice of the lower working people, and reflects Hugo's humanitarian thoughts.

"Les Misérables" best represents Hugo's ideological and artistic style. With his outstanding artistic charm, he showed the cruel reality of capitalist society enslaving working people and forcing girls into prostitution. However, the writer firmly believes that only moral influence is the cure for social disasters. Although the novel does not lack elements of realism, it is still a masterpiece of romanticism in terms of the creation of characters, description of the environment, and the use of symbols and contrasts.

"Notre Dame de Paris" and "Les Misérables" have been made into movies many times and have been widely circulated around the world and become classics.

Pushkin (1799～1837)

An outstanding representative of Russian romantic literature, the founder of realist literature, and the founder of modern standard Russian. His works are a literary reflection of the rising national consciousness in Russia and the aristocratic revolutionary movement.

Pushkin’s lyrical poems have an unprecedented breadth of content in the history of Russian poetry, including political lyric poems "To Chadayev" (1818), "Ode to Freedom" (1817), and "To the Prisoner of Siberia" ( 1827), etc., there are also a large number of love poems and pastoral poems, such as "I Remember That Wonderful Moment" (1825) and "I Visit Again" (1835). Pushkin created 12 long narrative poems in his life, the most important of which are "Ruslan and Lyudmila", "Captives of the Caucasus" (1822), "The Bronze Horseman" (1833), etc. Pushkin wrote few plays, the most important of which was the historical drama "Boris Godunov" (1825). In addition, he also created the poetic novel "Eugene Onegin" (1831), the prose novel "Bergin's Novels" (1831)

and the story about Pugachev's White Mountains In the uprising novel "The Captain's Daughter" (1836), Pushkin raised the major issues of the times in his work: the relationship between the autocratic system and the people, the life path of the aristocracy, and the peasant issue; and created a model with a high general significance. Image: "Superfluous Man", "Money Knight", "Little Man", leader of the peasant movement. The raising of these questions and the creation of literary images have greatly promoted the advancement of Russian social thought, are conducive to awakening the people, and are conducive to the development of the Russian liberation movement.

Pushkin's excellent works have achieved a high degree of unity in content and form. His lyric poems are rich in content, deep in emotion, flexible in form, exquisite in structure and beautiful in rhythm. His prose and novels have concentrated plots, strict structures, and vivid and concise descriptions.

Pushkin's creations had an important impact on the development of Russian realist literature and world literature. Gorky called it "the beginning of all beginnings."