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История литературы / 34. Naturalism as a trend

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In the English literature the dominant realistic movement that began in the middle of the 19th century reached well into the 20th century, although some novelists have turned to naturalism. Naturalism can be viewed from different perspectives. Naturalism is different from realism in social aspects. Naturalistic writers: Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), William Archer (1856-1924), G.B. Shaw (1856-1950), Emile Zola (1840-1902), Hippolyte Taine (1828-1893), Thomas Hardy (1840-1924). John Galsworthy (1867 – 1933) The Forsyte Saga (1906-1921) – The Man of Property (1906), Indian summer of a Forsyte (1918), In Chancery (1920), Awakening (1920), To Let (1921). A Modern Comedy (1922), “The White Monkey” (1924), “Swan Song” (1928), Passersby (1927). J.G. was awarded a Nobel prize in lit. in 1932 “for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga”. G.’s characters are fully articulated human beings. They are far from being caricatures. In the preface to FS G. shows the development of the human-being animal on the background of property. This background is true, no matter what epoch you are speaking about. Here experience is not enough. You really need scientific approach to explain why people behave in this way. Here the writers become less emotional. They resort to factual details summing the situation up, inventing themselves laws and principles. This trend is called naturalism. In drama N. started with Shaw. He was that very playwright who helped to metamorphose realism into naturalism. N. tends to be quite scientific and very much concerned with degraded levels of human existence. In Europe this trend appeared earlier than in England (Emile Zola foregrounded N. in lit.). N. attempts to treat human-beings as biological creatures (instincts) rather than personalities of free will. It means that the writers investigate human instincts (Galsworthy – possessive instinct). Practically in all naturalistic novels the author does not judge the characters or comment on their actions. The writer just inserts the character into a crucial situation and then pretends to stand back with the perceivety of the scientist who only observes the experiment. Naturalistic writers tried to insert smth documentary into lit. Technically, N. involves conscious suppression of poetic element. The prose style is flat, objective and quite bare of imagery. It includes factual details and explanations and lacks highly poetic metaphors. In the majority of cases naturalistic writers seems to be detached from their narrative. But even they share some elements of romanticism. Freedom of will disappears in the naturalist philosophy. They believe that human life is controlled by heredity and social environment. The peculiarity of English N. is that it is not far removed from realism, due to the fact that English writers and playwrights are more devoted to the art of poetry and fiction rather than some philosophical doctrine. The key notion in the FS should be property. It is both a key word and a pivot that shows us how the world is organized. Practically all the characters in the FS measure the world in terms of material possession. The best word to characterize the F is suggested by G himself. It is tenacity. Though G satirizes the F-s he is no betrayer to the upper middle class he himself belongs to. Probably that`s why all the characters are still represented as human beings. The attitude to F-s and to upper middle class in general is formulated in the preface and in the 1st chapter. Even if you read these 2 pieces you`ll get the basic features of his conception. In these 2 pieces G tries to define what the F-s in the long run are. They are users. They didn`t create a single thing, they only use even the works of art. There are some characters in the novel who do not belong to the clan of the F-s. All the readers expect them to be the opposition to the clan. G really added these characters to create a certain balance. But even these characters finally turn to be users as well. One of them is Philip Bossiny. He appears in the very 1st chapter in the man of property. He is an architect and at 1st you expect him to be creative and form this very opposition to the F-s. But it turns out that B is not paid by F-s, he cannot create anything. The conclusion is that he is also a user and he becomes a parasite upon parasites. Bossiny was not enough to balance the clan of the F-s. that`s why G added Irene. She doesn`t belong to the clan directly. She is a wife of the man of property – Soames F. But unfortunately Irene is also not a very effectual character. She is just a shadow though she is introduced into the novel to represent beauty but her beauty is a beauty of a statue, not a human being. The `st chapter represents the whole clan of the F-s. It`s G-s best piece and best satire. All the peculiarities of his manner of writing are summed up in this chapter. 1st and foremost it`s his ability to use salient features – the feature that makes the character prominent, the writer returns to it from time to time. Soames – sniff, Jolyon – up-right position. Moreover, G usually gives a sketch of the character at 1st. Then, in the flow of narrative, he adds tissue to the character. One more peculiarity – represented speech + the usage of aposiopesis (break in the narrative) to involve the reader and to make the reader think for themselves, to intrigue. In the rest part of the novel and in the other books of the saga the F-s are already represented in another light. In the majority of cases G becomes F-friendly, but despite this he depicts the man of property – Soames F who remains the main character in all the books of the saga. He is really the best representative of the clan and in the sense of suffering from property as well. The story of S is the very simple uncontrollable tragedy of being unlovable without skin think enough to be thoroughly conscious of the fact.