Realism is a literary type that uses realistic images and forms to express social reality and life experience through typical artistic generalization, while romanticism is a literary type that uses passionate artistic images to express ideal pursuit, subjective feelings and certain social psychology. They all had a far-reaching influence on the development of literature.
Realism is one of the basic creative methods of literature and art, which first appeared in the theoretical works of German playwright Schiller in the18th century. However, as a special literary term, realism was not put forward by French painter Courbet and writer Shavrelli until 1950s.
The first metaphor mentioned by abrams is to compare literature to a "mirror" to highlight the essential features of realism, which is an imitation of real life. Therefore, generally speaking, any work that can fully express the typical characteristics of real life with images is called realistic work.
As far as Western Europe is concerned, realism is a literary trend of thought and creative method formed in a specific historical period from the Renaissance to the19th century, and it is also a literary phenomenon that appeared when the bourgeoisie in Western Europe stepped onto the historical stage and established political rule. Balzac is the most outstanding representative writer, and his Human Comedy is a profound and standardized realistic literature. In addition, representative writers include Stendhal, Dickens, Thackeray and Nicola Nikolai Gogol.
Like realism, romanticism, as a form of literary expression, has been formed in the literary development of all nationalities in the world. Romantic spirit, which is characterized by expressing fantasy and emotion, is an important source of literature. Therefore, abrams compared this second metaphor to a "lamp" that illuminates life and enlightens the soul, so as to highlight that the essence of romanticism is expression and lyricism.
Romanticism, as a literary trend of thought, emerged in the European bourgeois revolution era at the end of 18 and the beginning of 2009, reflecting the ideology of the emerging bourgeoisie. Representative writers are Byron and Shelley, who not only wrote magnificent poems, but also strongly supported the national liberation movement in modern Europe with practical actions and inspiring works.
II. Themes and themes
Objectivity is the inherent law of realistic literature. Realistic literary view is a representative theory that has lasted for more than two thousand years. It requires the writer to carefully observe the phenomenon of life when grasping life, emphasizing that the writer does not impose his will on life, but expresses life according to the inherent logical area of real life itself. Therefore, realism has the characteristics of reappearing the original appearance of life on the surface, which is true.
But truth does not mean that realistic writers only record life phenomena and do not intervene at all.
Contrary to realism, romanticism emphasizes the creativity of imagination and regards nature as human nature. By emphasizing nature, romanticism requires literature to express true feelings, and regards the lyricism of poetry as the release of human enthusiasm and vitality. Following the principle of idealism, as long as an ideal and hopeful life can be expressed, the image created by literature will not hesitate to run counter to life itself. In this way, the created artistic world is not a "mirror world" that simulates reality, but an imaginary mirror world.
Think of me as your harp, like a forest;
Although my leaves have fallen, what does it matter!
Music inspired by your huge ensemble
Will be dyed by the Woods and my late autumn:
Although sad and sweet. Oh, I hope you can give it to me.
Violent spirit! Brave, let us become one!
Please blow my dead thoughts to the world,
Let it give birth to new life like dead leaves!
Oh, please listen to this incantation poem.
Just take my words, like ashes and sparks.
Spread from the still burning fire to the world!
Let the horn of prophecy pass through my lips
Wake up the sleeping earth! West wind,
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
-Byron's ode to the west wind
In this poem, the poet wrote the image of the west wind with beautiful and energetic imagination. This magnificent poem strongly shocked people's passion, showed the image of the west wind in front of people, and longed to sweep away the old world and create a new one.
Winter is coming, west wind, can spring be far behind? It always comes from our mouths. Here, the west wind has become a symbol, which is an ubiquitous cosmic spirit, a west wind spirit that breaks the old world and pursues a new world. The poet used the west wind as a metaphor to express his belief in life and his determination to declare war on the old world.
Third, writing skills.
Realism is realism, pursuing the effect of reproducing real life and making the virtual art world like real life. In order to pursue the authenticity and realism of artistic expression, realism pays special attention to realistic sketch and detail description, because it is easy to make people feel that something really happened.
Look at the following example:
One day, it was a very cold afternoon. I had lunch and sat drinking tea. I thought someone came in outside, so I looked back. I was very surprised when I saw it. I stood up and went to meet it.
This is leap soil. Although I knew it at first sight, it was not a leap in my memory. His figure has doubled. The previous purple round face has turned gray-yellow, adding deep wrinkles; Like his father, his eyes are red and swollen, I know that. People who farm by the sea blow the sea breeze all day, which is generally the case. He wore a worn felt hat on his head and only a thin cotton-padded coat on his body, shivering all over. Holding a paper bag and a long pipe in my hand, it is not the red and round hand I remember, but a thick, stupid and cracked hand like pine bark.
-Lu Xun's hometown
Lu Xun made a detailed description of the appearance of Runtu, and the image of a humble farmer jumped from the paper. But obviously, the effect of this life reappearance is summarized by art, and Balzac also said that it is necessary to study the various reasons of these social phenomena and find out the meaning hidden under countless numbers, * * and events. It shows that realism in the expression form of realistic literature is not a simple copy of real life, but.
Romanticism, as a basic creative method, reflects life according to hope, which is subjective, good at expressing the passionate pursuit of the ideal world, and often uses passionate language, magnificent imagination and exaggerated techniques to shape images.
Ode to the west wind is full of heroic momentum, fantastic imagination, open realm and strong revolutionary romanticism. The strange and vivid wings imagined by the poet, decadent dead leaves, crazy women's hair, black rain and the world at night all deeply shocked people's hearts.
Fourth, characterization.
Luacs pointed out: "Typical is the main category and standard of realistic literature." Typical includes typical characters and typical personalities. Typical in Greek means mold, which means typical. Just as the same mold can cast many similar things, it also reflects the characteristics of a kind of people through an image. It can be seen that the original intention of the word "mold" is to emphasize the generality and universality of images, which coincides with the view that realism is a "representative theory"
Engels once defined "realism" as: "In addition to the truth of details, we must truly reproduce the typical characters in the typical environment." Typical characters are shaped by realistic narrative literature, which shows some characters with social and historical implications and high aesthetic value in the expression of overall personality. The universality of life or human nature shown in eastern and western characters is human sociality, which is the profound influence of social relations and social environment on life and human nature. This shows that the typical.
But romantic characters are mainly heroes and strange people. And look at the fifty-ninth journey to the west:
The Great Sage brushed aside the clouds and went back to the East Road. Suddenly he pressed the cloud head and stood under the red brick wall. When Pig saw this, he was overjoyed and said, "Master, brother is here! Coming! " Sanzang went out with Friar Sand, an old man in our village, and then went to that house together. He leaned the banana fan beside him and said, "Old officer, is this fan ok?" The old man said, "Exactly, exactly!" The Tang Priest rejoiced and said, "The sage's merits are boundless. It is very difficult to seek this treasure." "Don't talk about it," Monkey said. Who are you, Iron Fan Fairy? That guy turned out to be Niu's wife and Hong Haier's mother. Her name is rogue, also known as Princess Iron Fan. I found a fan outside the cave. He told me a feud and cut me a few swords. I scared him with a stick, and he slapped me and floated straight to Little Sumi Mountain. Fortunately, I met Ji Ling Bodhisattva and gave me a Ding Fengdan, which showed me the way back to Cuiyun Mountain. Fly into the cave. That guy was begging for tea, but I got under the tea foam and into his stomach. He was in pain and kept begging me to be an uncle and spare his life. He was willing to lend me the fan, so I spared him and took the fan and returned it to him after crossing the Flame Mountain. " Hearing this, Sanzang was filled with tears of gratitude, and the disciples thanked the old man.
It has created an omnipotent image of the Monkey King, and rescued people from the quagmire.
Basic characteristics of verbs (abbreviation of verb)
Through the above analysis, we can know that the connotation of realism is an imitation of real life, so "reproduction" has become the essential feature of realism.
Abrams said, "Expressiveness is one of the most commonly used terms in romanticism". Expressiveness defines the basic characteristics of romantic literature types, which makes romantic literature have distinct characteristics in theme selection, theme refinement and artistic expression.
In literary and artistic creation, realism and romanticism are two major ideological trends, each with its own merits.