It should be pointed out that English novel art, like other art forms, has inevitably experienced a development process from primitive to mature. In fact, every stage of its development was closely related to the social, historical, political, cultural and economic conditions of Britain at that time. In this regard, the development of English novel art is not an isolated or spontaneous literary phenomenon, but a blend of British social change and the prosperity of foreign cultures (especially European countries). Of course, the development and evolution of English novel art has its own laws and order. This kind of law and order can't be explained by abstract, subjective or metaphysical methods, but can only be revealed and verified through the investigation and study of the novels of past dynasties. However, before discussing the specific characteristics and aesthetic value of English novel art, it is necessary to make a brief overview of its historical overview and evolution.
As a recognized literary genre of narrative prose, English novels have a history of more than 400 years. Theoretically speaking, the day when English novels are formed is the time when their art comes out. Of course, it takes a process for the novel art to be accepted by writers, understood by readers and recognized by critics. But so far, western critics have different opinions about when the first British novel began and who wrote it. Some people say it is Samuel Richardson's epistolary novel Pamela (1689- 176 1), while others say it is daniel defoe. The adventure novel Robinson Crusoe (1660- 173 1) is also said to be john bunyan (1628- 169). In fact, by the end of the morning of 16 in the Renaissance, English novels had been thoroughly censored. John lyly at that time, 1554? -1606), Philip Sidney (1554- 1586), robert green (Robert Greene, 1558- 1592), thomas nashe (Thomas Nash,/kloc. Encouraged by the Renaissance, they boldly practiced and explored the novel, a new cultural genre, and began to create narrative works in elegant and gorgeous prose language, thus turning the first page in the history of English novels. Li Li's Youfu (1579), Sidney's Arcadia (1590), Green's Pandora's Ding of Time (1588), Nasir's Unfortunate Traveler (1594 They not only changed greatly in subject matter, but also were very different from the poems and plays at that time in form, structure and language. They have become a new literary genre with great development potential and are favored by readers. These works can be roughly divided into romance novels and realistic novels, which reflect the social life of Elizabethan era in all aspects. At that time, English prose narrative works seemed to acquire a brand-new gorgeous style, although it was not mature enough as narrative literature. However, "this kind of works will have a magical effect when they meet those who adapt to the unpredictable language and readers at that time, because it is not limited by rhythm." ② Obviously, the "scholar" at the end of 16 is the pioneer and founder of English novels. /kloc-the "novel craze" that arose in the British literary world at the end of 0/6 lasted only about 20 years, but the creative practice of The Scholar laid an important foundation for the development of English novel art.
/kloc-the 0/7th century was an eventful autumn in Britain, with political turmoil, social chaos and people living in poverty. The development of English novels has been greatly restrained. With the death of The Great Scholar, English novels, once all the rage, began to turn around and walk with difficulty. Writers who don't like or are not good at writing prose stories are keen on writing essays with didactic or metaphorical content. "They gave up narrative literature and then turned to writing a series of sermons, which shows that they are isolated and lack the ability to convey any dramatic effect." After more than half a century's silence, with the efforts of john bunyan, English novels have made a comeback. However, Bunyan seems to be a lonely long-distance runner in17th century English literature. Although his Pilgrim's Progress was quite influential at that time, it did not bring up a group of new novelists, nor did it make novels replace poetry. Nevertheless, Bunyan made a beneficial attempt to the novel art, skillfully using dreams to reflect reality, so that a seemingly purely fictional religious fable reflected a wide range of symbolic meanings. Although, before the embryonic period of English novels, Bunyan's artistic conception and his ability to control the text structure of novels showed some foresight, which had a positive impact on the overall rise of English novels. In addition, there are many so-called "personality characteristics" in English literature in the17th century. These works written in prose not only vividly depict all kinds of characters in the society at that time, but also analyze their personality characteristics in detail. "Close-up of people" is a unique literary genre in the low tide of the development of English novel art in the17th century. Its description technique is very clever and incisive, which often makes readers memorable. Although "personality characteristics" can't be classified as novels, it has a certain influence on the development of English novel art. Undoubtedly, Bunyan's novel creation and his contemporaries' "personality characteristics" have brought new challenges and opportunities to the struggling English novels.
18th century is an era in which English novels have risen in an all-round way and the art of novels has made great progress. Daniel defoe, who enjoys the title of "the father of English realistic novels", vividly demonstrated the entrepreneurial consciousness and adventurous spirit of British capitalism in its novel Robinson Crusoe, and successfully created an ideal hero image of the middle and small bourgeoisie at that time. "Defoe's philosophy and17th century British empiricists are very consistent. He showed all kinds of individualistic things more completely than previous writers. His works uniquely show the connection between various forms of individualism and the rise of novels. This connection was clearly and completely demonstrated in his first novel Robinson Crusoe. " (4) Defoe's other novels not only involve a series of realistic problems, but also show realistic artistic characteristics. Most of his characters are the embodiment of the British petty bourgeoisie during the primitive accumulation of capitalism. Remarkably, Defoe successfully adopted the technique of "autobiographical memoir" in Robinson Crusoe to express the hero's adventure experience. This writing technique is not only a challenge to the popular confessional autobiography in Britain at that time, but also a transcendence of the previous novel form, so it has certain positive significance for the development of English novel art.
In the English literary world of18th century, "the second novel based on the old oak cabinet is an epistolary novel, and the author seems to be an editor who has received many letters for some reason." ⑤ As early as 1683, British woman writer aphra (1640- 1689) wrote the first English epistolary novel A Love Letter between a Noble and His Sister. However, it is undoubtedly Samuel Richardson who really developed epistolary novel into a literary style and made it widely circulated. His three epistolary novels Pamela (1740), Clarissa (1748) and Grandison (1754) were almost household names at that time. The appearance of epistolary novels promotes the development of English novel art, which not only further enriches the narrative form of novels, but also changes the role of authors. Moreover, epistolary novels have narrowed the distance between the characters and the readers, and truly demonstrated the psychological activities and emotional changes of the characters, giving people an unprecedented sense of immediacy and realism. As a British critic pointed out: "People think that this novel form has two potential functions, namely, impressive immediacy and exploration of psychological reality and even stream of consciousness." There is no doubt that Richardson's creative practice is of great significance in the history of British novel art, leaving a huge imagination space for writers who later devoted themselves to novel experiment and innovation.
/kloc-in the 0/8th century, English realistic novels developed rapidly. At that time, most libraries in Britain collected all kinds of literary works, but novels were usually regarded as the main collection objects. Undoubtedly, this has led to a significant increase in the number of people reading novels published in this century. ⑦ jonathan swift (jonathan swift, 1667- 1745), henry fielding (henry fielding, 1707- 1745), laurence sterne,1713-/kloc. As a literary style that vividly and comprehensively reflects social life, novel has played an active role in the daily life of the British people, and its status and influence surpassed that of poetry and drama for the first time. At the same time, the British novel art is becoming more and more mature. " Our use of the term "novel" was not really established until the end of 18. "8 Swift creatively created Gulliver's Travels (1726), which is hilarious but thought-provoking, criticizes current events, mocks reality, and initiates the satirical art of English novels. Fielding's series of novels, which reflect social life, not only reflect his skillful ability to plan the layout of articles, but also reflect his clever use of traditional epic art. Fielding not only imitates the narrative techniques of classical epics, but also deliberately changes the seriousness and tragic color of epics, adding comedy elements to novels from time to time, thus making his novels a so-called "comedy epic in prose". No wonder "Richardson and Fielding both consider themselves advocates of a new literary style, and both regard their works as a break from the old legendary novels." Pet-name ruby laurence sterne, who is usually called a sentimental writer, is undoubtedly the most outstanding innovator of English novels in18th century. When English novels are like a tender green seedling, Stern seems to be not satisfied with the existing novel mode. He did not hesitate to make a major reform in the form of novels. In Tristram Shandy (1759- 1767), he broke the frame structure of the traditional novel for the first time, abandoned the creation method in the order of clock time, and described the inner world of the master with a brand-new novel text. It goes without saying that Stern's literary experiments have added new vitality to the art of English novels and further developed the novel forms in the direction of diversification and flexibility. It is worth mentioning that Jane Austen, an outstanding female writer, emerged in the British literary world in the18th century. Her novels are not inferior to any contemporary male writers in quality. She is not only good at using satirical and humorous dialogues to express the theme, but also skillfully uses a small number of characters and limited geographical background to show a broad picture of life. There are some things in Jane Austen's art that have eternal value. Attending: Generally speaking, most novelists in the18th century absorbed creative materials from the real society in Britain, showed vivid life pictures and created vivid characters. Through their bold exploration and practice, English novels are not only more dynamic, but also increasingly mature in art.
/kloc-in the 20th century, English novels entered a prosperous era, and their artistic forms and creative techniques were further consolidated and developed. 1at the beginning of the 9th century, with the romantic literary trend sweeping across the European continent, a number of excellent historical novels and adventure novels appeared in British literary circles, with Walter Scott (177 1- 1832) as the representative. He wrote more than 30 novels in his life and created various characters. It shows a magnificent historical picture. Although Scott's contribution to the artistic innovation of novels is very limited, and he is regarded as an outdated "historical figure" by many scholars today, his eloquent historical novels and legendary works have become a literary landscape that cannot be ignored in the British literary world, and to some extent, they have improved the status of English novels and made them more worthy of respect and admiration.
/kloc-Since the middle of the 9th century, with the joint efforts of outstanding writers such as Charles Dickens (18 12- 1870), English novels have shown a scene of spatial prosperity. According to historical records, from 1837 to 1900, about 60,000 adult or adolescent novels were published in Britain. Maybe 7,000 Victorian people have reason to call themselves novelists. Of course, few people have made achievements in art and go down in history. Dickens and Thackeray (William M Thackeray,181-1863) showed high attainments in the plot arrangement and language art of the novel, which made the novel more readable and interesting. Charlotte bronte (1816-1855; Emily bronte (18 19- 1848) is original in depicting characters, while George Eliot (18 19- 1880) vividly depicts the psychological reality of characters. /kloc-The second half of the 9th century was a period when British colonial rule turned from prosperity to decline. It was also a period when British society was full of contradictions, political turmoil, moral degeneration, serious contradictions between the rich and the poor, and intensified labor disputes. These are naturally reflected in the novel. Dickens and his contemporaries, as well as Thomas Hardy (1840- 1928), with a strong sense of social responsibility and realism as the creative principle, mercilessly exposed all kinds of drawbacks and evils of British society. This is half a century of critical realism. It should be pointed out that the realistic novels of19th century not only have strong realism in subject matter, but also show a tendency of popularization in characterization. Generally speaking, the realistic novels of19th century follow the principle of rationalism in time and space, pay attention to interest and readability in story plot, and pay attention to precise tailoring and tightness in form and structure, which is rigorous and reasonable. In this regard, the realistic novels of19th century not only represent the essence of English novel art since the end of16th century, but also are the crystallization of the collective wisdom of novelists of all ages. Marx once spoke highly of Dickens and other realistic writers: "They remind the world of the truth of politics and society with clear and touching descriptions, more than all politicians, theorists and moralists combined." ⑾
The 20th century witnessed the greatest changes in English novel art and the fastest development of creative skills. With the rapid development of world economy, science and technology and culture and the further intensification of various contradictions in capitalist society, a shocking literary earthquake has taken place in the whole western literary world. At the beginning of the 20th century, herbert george wells (1866- 1946), John Galsworthy (1867- 1933) and Bennett tried their best to imitate the pattern of traditional novels and the new reality, so they showed increasingly complex modern experience and rapidly changing society. Obviously, English novels were struggling at that time, and it was imperative to reform the form and update the art. Some avant-garde and innovative young writers seemed to realize the difficulties and tests faced by English novels and tried to seize the opportunity that could lead to a major breakthrough in English novels. Early realist writers such as Henry James (1843- 19 16) and Joseph Conrad (1857- 1924) have made gratifying achievements in the process of pursuing novel artistic innovation. They introduced a series of new novels to the world, which impressed the Victorian art predecessors and inspired some young writers who advocated modernism. On the eve of World War I, modernism swept across Britain, almost subverting its inherent cultural foundation, and making the whole literary tradition suffer unprecedented suspicion and impact. At that time, the British people always heard new terms such as cubism, African sculpture, new drama, post-impressionist painting and Vienna psychology. Virginia Woolf, a famous novelist of stream of consciousness (1882- 194 1) once wrote: "Around19 12, human nature changed ... all human beings. When interpersonal relationships changed and religions and codes of conduct resounded throughout the Edwardian era, English novels responded positively to modern experience and consciousness and adjusted themselves accordingly. Just like many realistic writers who stick to tradition are at a loss in the face of chaotic and complicated reality, James Joyce (1882- 194 1) and D.H. Lawrence (1885- 1930). They bravely faced the challenge, seized the opportunity in time, and actively devoted themselves to the innovation and artistic transformation of novel forms, which made a qualitative change in English novels.
After the First World War, English novels once ran rapidly on the road of modernization, and their artistic forms also appeared dazzling. 1922, Joyce's stream-of-consciousness novel Ulysses came out, which pushed the British novel innovation movement to a climax. Many western critics believe that Ulysses not only contains almost all the trendy techniques, but also represents the highest achievement of British modernist novel art. Like Joyce, Woolf is also committed to the experiment and innovation of novel form, and has made bold attempts in how to deal with the framework and time of modern novels and how to express the consciousness of characters, thus becoming another important representative of British stream-of-consciousness novels. Lawrence is another important psychological novelist after Henry James. Although his writing style is completely different from Joyce and Woolf's, his unique aesthetic consciousness, exploration of human sexual experience and dark kingdom's soul and his perceptual style make him a distinctive modernist novelist. It goes without saying that the all-round rise of English modernist novels not only adds an extremely brilliant page in the history of world literature, but also greatly enriches the artistic expression forms of English novels and effectively promotes the development of novel art.
Modernist novel art fully shows modernist writers' strong sense of reform and great creative potential, and also embodies the characteristics of modernization and diversification of novels. It represents a new aesthetic consciousness and values, and reflects an anti-traditional psychology of seeking change. In terms of subject matter, modernist novels focus on reminding the spiritual world of characters and reflecting their loneliness, alienation and even morbid psychology. Formally, modernist novels fully embody the characteristics of diversity and flexibility. Modernist writers downplay the plot of the novel and stop trying to tell a fascinating story, but pursue perfect and harmonious "schema" and intriguing deep structure in their works. In this "schema", the orderly time, space, causality and logical principles no longer exist, but are replaced by erratic consciousness, complicated images and fragmented life scenes. Technically, modernist novels pursue originality. Modernists are keen to express the ever-changing spiritual world and chaotic real life with deviant artistic techniques, such as perspective transformation, inner monologue, free association, time-space jump, montage, dreams and hallucinations, seemingly chaotic surface structure and obscure narrative techniques. All these constitute an important symbol of artistic innovation of modernist novels. In a word, modernist novel art is not only a deviant art, but also an art full of vitality and expressiveness, which is not only unprecedented in the history of English novel art, but also unparalleled. It broadens the development space of English novels, promotes the modernization and diversification of novel texts, and makes this literary style more mature and perfect.
Remarkably, after the British modernist novels reached their peak in the 1920s, they turned from prosperity to decline and began to ebb, while the realistic novels that had been neglected for many years made a comeback and became the mainstream of the British literary world again. The 1930 s and 1950 s were a period of comprehensive revival of realistic novels. Obviously, this resurgence has its profound social reasons and special historical background. The 1930s and 1950s were a period of crisis and turmoil. The economic crisis and social unrest in 1930s, World War II and shuddering in 1940s, and social contradictions and spiritual crisis in 1950s are not only the external reasons for the resurgence of realistic novels, but also fully displayed in these novels. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of realistic novels in this period: one is a social satire novel, and the other is a series of novels or "Jianghu novels" composed of multiple volumes. It should be pointed out that the realistic novels in 1930s-1950s are more mature in art and more perfect in form than the works of John Galsworthy and other writers at the beginning of this century. Although the realistic writers in this period did not pay attention to the reform of novel art and the innovation of creative skills like modernist writers, they were very willing to use some crucial modernist skills to reflect the theme. This not only achieved good artistic effect, but also found a way for realism and modernism novels to learn from each other, thus enriching and perfecting the novel art. It is worth noting that satirists such as Aldous Huxley (1894- 1963) invariably inherited and carried forward the tradition of satirical literature initiated by jonathan swift, a great writer in the 8th century. Their novels depict the social turmoil and the spiritual crisis of intellectuals in Britain during the two world wars with cynicism and even black humor. Another novel style popular in the British literary world in 1930s-1950s is "Long River Novel" written by Anthony Powell (1905-) and other writers. It is different from traditional historical novels or John Galsworthy's novels. Although it is composed of many novels, it often describes one story rather than multiple stories; What it implies is not the change of a family or region, but the experience and emotional life of a central figure. Generally speaking, the modernist novels in 1930s-1950s are not only the inevitable product of this era, but also occupy a place in the history of English novel art. ..
Since the second half of the 20th century, English novels have shown a trend of inclusive and diversified development in artistic form. In the English literary world, realism and modernism (including postmodernism) compete with each other, one after another, but they overlap from time to time. When realistic writers such as graham greene (1904- 199 1) tried to reflect the contradictions and disadvantages of contemporary British society under the new historical conditions, samuel beckett (1906- 1989) inherited the modernist cause initiated by writers such as Joyce. Beckett successfully launched a series of "absurd novels" with the characteristics of "anti-fiction", which made important contributions to the development of postmodern novel art. Since the 1960s, novels with post-modernist artistic tendency have appeared in British literary circles, and their representative writers are Lawrence Durer (19 12- 1990), john fowles (1926-) and B.S. Johnson (Bryan). Most of these writers try to create a novel world by adopting a new language system and make their novels an independent reflective text. They often despise causality and oppose the unity of logical principles and artistic forms, but emphasize the disorder and confusion of text structure and the uncertainty of meaning. In a sense, their novels reflect not epistemology or reflection theory, but the philosophical concept of ontology, and also reflect a cultural view and artistic view used by some contemporary writers to question and try to explain the ontological situation of human beings, including literature.
What is striking is that a group of talented and energetic young writers have appeared in contemporary British literary world. They are eager to make progress, learn from others, be unconventional, be brave in innovation and be extremely active. Although it has not yet gone down in history, it has been impressive. In the era when the British novel art is constantly moving towards modernization and diversification, contemporary British writers are making bold efforts to explore and practice, and are determined to contribute to the sustainable development of the British novel art in the 2 1 century. However, in the contemporary British literary world, many intellectuals argue endlessly about the novel art and text mode after postmodernism. They are eager to know what will happen to English novels in the new century. At the same time, many writers in the era of "paperless communication" scribbled on the internet and made new literary fast food at will or even foolishly to satisfy the appetite of thousands of fashionable and energetic "new human beings". Of course, there are also some avant-garde writers who try to create "online novels" with long-term stable value before the disappearance of the information age. Obviously, this phenomenon of multipolar linkage and pluralistic coexistence will become the basic trend of the development of British novel art in the 2 1 century.
Looking at the development of English novel art, it is not difficult to find that it is always changing, and it responds to the social reality and readers' interests in various historical periods in a timely manner. Over the past 400 years, with the continuous development of science and technology and social life, English novels have undergone remarkable changes from internal structure to external form, and their art has been optimized and sublimated again and again. The art of English novels embodies great vitality. It developed from the infancy of the Renaissance, experienced the baptism or impact of literary waves in various historical periods, and entered the new century and the new millennium with firm and confident steps. Today, the British novel art has developed to a highly mature and quite perfect stage, which is quite different from the embryonic form 400 years ago. In a sense, the change and development of English novel art is more striking and admirable than that of poetry or drama. Although it started late, it can not only keep up with the development of history and society, but also reflect the strong flavor of the times and vividly reflect the turmoil and changes of British society. Looking at the development history of English novel art, we can easily find the following four characteristics:
First of all, the British novel art has shown an independent trend of self-confidence and complacency on its development path of more than 400 years. Since the end of 16, it has not only experienced the evolution from embryonic form, rise, maturity, prosperity, innovation to pluralism, but also fully demonstrated its British characteristics, British characteristics, times characteristics and writer's specialty. Although literature and art have no national boundaries and are inevitably influenced by neighboring countries and foreign cultural trends, with the continuous strengthening of British colonial rule and the acceleration of English internationalization, British novelists have gradually become more confident and complacent. Since18th century, English novels have got rid of the influence of various literary styles of European neighbors, showing an independent, leading and accelerated evolution trend. As a western critic said: "the French conqueror completely failed in one thing;" In the Middle Ages, they failed to make short prose stories, which were already very popular in France, take root in English soil. "It goes without saying that English novels are not only the inevitable product of their own social evolution, but also reflect their own development laws and artistic characteristics. And this kind of law and characteristic is hard to find in the novel history of other countries. In all fairness, it is difficult to find novelists like Defoe, Richardson, Stern, Swift, Dickens, James, Lawrence, Joyce, Woolf and Beckett, and it is also difficult to see Robinson Crusoe, Pamela, Biography of Shandy, Gulliver's Travels, Bleak House and Portrait of a Lady. These writers and works not only have obvious British characteristics, but also reflect the unique novel art. Obviously, the social reality, living atmosphere, cultural atmosphere and language characteristics of various historical periods in Britain have had an important impact on the independent trend of their novel art.
Second, English novels are colorful in style and rich in artistic categories. As an artistic tool to reflect life, English novels have experienced a development process from low to high, from primitive to mature, and the styles of their works are increasing day by day.