I. Introduction to Western Terminology
Classicism, romanticism, realism, modernism and postmodernism are commonly used concepts in western literary theory, which are generally used to summarize literary thoughts and divide the development stages of literary history or cultural history.
Human cognitive activities must grasp the cognitive object with the help of concepts. The concept is relatively stable, but the object is complex and changeable. There is an insurmountable gap between concept and object, and people constantly adjust the connotation of concept to adapt to diverse and changeable objects. Therefore, defining concepts such as classicism, romanticism, realism, modernism and post-modernism is often regarded as a rational adventure. The adventure produced many victims. Even Wellek, who pays great attention to meticulous thinking and empirical analysis, has been criticized for his "unified enthusiasm" in defining romanticism. Lillian Foest accused him of ignoring the complexity and diversity of romanticism: "It distorts the fact that European romanticism has different sides." (1) The existing and possible definitions of romanticism are not completely convincing. However, this does not mean that literary theory cannot explain the object with certain concepts, but only reminds people not to rigidly define and use these concepts. Concepts such as classicism frame some family similarities of different objects, from which some "dominant norms" are derived. If people don't essentialize concepts, but realize that concepts grasp the boundaries of objects and that some heterogeneity of multiple objects can't be captured by the identity of concepts, then the definition and use of these concepts in literary theory still have important value. On the other hand, the concept of thinking has the function of practice. The intervention of some key concepts may rewrite the history of literature in the past and shape the future of literature. Such events are not uncommon in the history of literature. In fact, the concepts of classicism, romanticism and realism came into being in the history of literature. After these concepts were confirmed, they were further involved in the development of literary history. At the same time, the large-scale debate caused by these concepts has also stipulated a new stage in the history of literature and restricted the future trend of literature. In this sense, the above concepts show strong theoretical motivation.
With the transformation of China literature from ancient times to modern times, the theoretical terms of western literature, such as realism, romanticism and modernism, have also replaced the technical terms commonly used in China's ancient literary theory and become the basic concepts of China's modern and contemporary literary theory. The large-scale introduction and use of these terms was originally during the May 4th New Literature Movement. As early as 1908, Lu Xun's On Moro Poetry explained the meaning of Moro School and Demon School. 19 18 Zhou Zuoren's history of European literature from Greek mythology to 18 century European literature. In the conclusion, Zhou Zuoren introduced three terms: classicism, romanticism and realism. He called the Renaissance and the literature of 17 and 18 centuries classicism, and "Renaissance, taking classical literature as a model and paying attention to emotion, can also be called the romantic era. 17,18th century, is the first classical era. From the beginning of 19 century, romanticism revived. " After decades, feelings have also declined, and the successor is called realism. "(2) Mao Dun's Classical Romanticism and Realism in Literature, published by 1919, introduced the European literary trend of thought from 18 to19, and clearly expressed the concepts of classicism, romanticism and realism. Very similar, they all use the concept of neo-romanticism or neo-romanticism to refer to1modernism in the late 9 th century and early 20 th century. The literary creation and critical practice of the Literature Research Society and the Creation Society make realism and romanticism the key words of China's modern literary theory. Due to the influence of political ideology, realism has gradually become a strong concept in modern literary theory. In 1950s, Mao Dun's Reading Occasionally at Night even reduced a literary history to a history of struggle between realism and anti-realism, and all anti-realism literature was idealistic and reactionary. Only realism is materialistic and progressive. The modernism debate in 1980s and the introduction of postmodernism in 1990s completely changed this exclusive realism.
People use these concepts to reinterpret the history of ancient Chinese literature. Many theorists believe that realism, represented by The Book of Songs, and romanticism, initiated by The Songs of the South, have become two major traditions of ancient China literature. However, as Qian Zhongshu said, "Compared with western poetry, China's old poems are generally not bold and unrestrained emotionally, do not nag, do not raise their voices so high, do not make their efforts so hard, and do not have such strong colors. It is romantic in China's poems, but it is still classical compared with western poems. " In China's poems, it is pleasant, but compared with western poems, it is still implicit. (3) Therefore, even if people no longer simply summarize China's ancient literature as a history of struggle between realism and anti-realism, the application scope of these concepts of romanticism and realism is still very limited.
Second, classicism and romanticism in a broad sense.
We will discuss these concepts in the sense of literary history and discourse convention. In the sense of literary history, they are used to refer to the mainstream trend of thought in a certain historical stage; In the sense of discourse conventions, they are used to summarize certain aesthetic tendencies and artistic norms.
From the definitions of Goethe, Brunaj, Heine, Schelling, Standahr, Lucas and St. Petersburg, people usually discuss the meanings of classicism and romanticism in a relative way: classicism is healthy, elegant and gentle, only describes limited things, draws lessons from the past, belongs to the past era, and directly states ideas; Romanticism is just the opposite. Romanticism is morbid, breaking rules, implying infinite things, despising the past, and then conveying ideas implicitly and symbolically. Although their evaluation of the two is different, even completely opposite, these understandings show that classicism and romanticism are two terms for comparison. This dichotomy "is obviously similar to other contrasts that existed in18th century, such as: ancient people and modern people; Man-made poems and popular folk poems; Shakespeare's natural poems that are not restricted by the legal system and the tragedy of French classicism. " (4) In a broad sense, this aesthetic dispute generally exists in the history of literature. On the one hand, it holds classical ideas, and encyclopedias generally summarize this aesthetic tendency as follows: "It is characterized by moderate ideas, balanced and stable composition, pursuit of formal harmony and implicit narrative; It advocates imitating ancient writers, abandoning the expression of absolutely rare things, controlling emotions and imagination, and obeying the unique rules of various writing genres. " (5) On the other hand, they tend to be romantic, putting creative imagination in the first place, preferring emotional expression, genius imagination, personal originality, subjective feelings about nature and yearning for strange and mysterious things.
These two tendencies reflect two opposite trends of human aesthetic taste: one tends to be stable, harmonious and rational, and tends to sum up long-term and reliable artistic laws from ancient experience and history; On the other hand, they tend to create and experiment themselves, break through historical conventions with strength and create artistic norms from themselves. An excellent artist should have the characteristics of classicism, such as moderation, balance and implication, and use his emotions and imagination appropriately. However, if the classical norms are as powerful as an authoritative code, restricting and supervising each individual's literary writing, then the norms summarized from the classical tradition will become insurmountable dogmas. These dogmas even have the right to judge literary genre, narrative style, means and aesthetic taste. Literature living in the great shadow of classical laws is bound to be mediocre, rigid and even conservative, and it may be just an ideological component of the established order in a certain historical stage. The permanent legislation of classicism has closed the development space of literature in the future, which can not express and interpret people's existing experience at present, thus leading to the boredom and resistance of human aesthetic psychology to seek novelty and change. As Stendhal said: "The literature provided by classicism is the greatest pleasure of their ancestors ... It claims that Sophocles and euripides are still imitated today, and this imitation will not make the French in the19th century yawn. This is classicism. " (6) The over-regulated classicism is bound to meet the strong challenge of romanticism, so the romantic movement has the significance of aesthetic revolution. Anti-standardization and even de-standardization are the confrontation and contest between the writer's personal creativity and normative binding force. The role of resisting classical norms is played by what Bloom called a powerful satanic poet. In the history of literature, some characters are warmly remembered: they stand out because of their successful resistance to norms; They broke through the powerful classical norms and created their own laws and regulations. The works created by these writers are not necessarily profound and great, but they often have important turning points. The history of literature needs these creative writers who refuse to stick to the rules, especially at the stage when the old customs and order are too strong.
Thirdly, classicism and romanticism in the history of literature.
However, talking about classicism and romanticism in such a broad way may be questioned. After romanticism, realism, modernism and postmodernism all mark the new trend of literature by opposing the norms of the former. Are all great original writers romantic? Stendhal once asserted that "all great writers are romantics of their time" (7); Foster took Wordsworth, a romantic poet, and Flaubert, a realistic writer as examples to prove some similarities between romance and reality (8); Modernism is also considered as a variant of romanticism in the 20th century. Or find the consistency between postmodernism and romanticism: both are fierce criticisms of modernity. Similarly, people can find some facts about the classicism that has always existed. When the ghosts of classicism and romanticism wander around, their true colors may have become blurred and difficult to distinguish. Only by looking back at the history of literature can we find the exact position of their bodies.
Dominique Secrii Tan once said: "Classicism represents a cyclic attempt to make people's emotional life orderly." (9) He carefully combed the development history of classicism: the Italian Renaissance, Britain before the restoration of monarchy, France during the Renaissance, French classicism, Augustus classicism and German classicism. For the convenience of narration, we simplify it into four periods: (1) Greek and Roman period: Aristotle's imitation theory, the doctrine of the mean, the purification theory and the specific restrictions on the form of tragedy are the origins of classical theory. Horace's poetic art has established a set of classic formulas centered on "appropriateness" and "entertaining". (2)/kloc-The Renaissance in Europe in the 6th century revived the classical literature and art in Greece and Rome, thus breaking through the imprisonment of human nature in medieval culture. What should be distinguished is that the Renaissance's admiration for classical culture is different from the general classicism, and the purpose of retro is innovation rather than imitation. The perceptual color, innovative character and interest in new things in literary and artistic creation are similar to the artistic spirit of early Greece, but contrary to the classical concept of following norms. However, the theory of literature and art in the Renaissance was closely related to classicism, and most of his works were comments and developments on Aristotle's Poetics, which had a great influence on classicism in17th century. Mintuno's On Poets and Poetic Art regards the unity of imitation and plot as the eternal truth of poetic art; Castel Vikulo translated and annotated Poetics, and his annotations more clearly and completely expressed Aristotle's whole principles about time, place and action. Guarini's Outline of Mixed Drama Poems of Tragedy and Joy expounds the concept of moderate aesthetic feeling. Through the mixing of tragedy and comedy, the audience will not fall into the excessive sadness of tragedy or the excessive licentious effect of comedy. These discourses constitute an interpretation of the principles of classicism. (3) 17 and18th centuries are the periods when classicism went from climax to decline. From 1960s to 1980s, French classicism prevailed. Gao Naiyi, Racine, Moliere and La Fontaine provided a large number of classic texts for classicism, and boileau's The Art of Poetry systematically and deeply explored the artistic norms of classicism for the first time. The large-scale development of works and theories constituted a classicism movement, which spread to Britain and Germany in the18th century with the spread of boileau's theory. Dryden, Pope and Johnson in England are the most important classical writers in Augustus period. They pursue some models of French classicism, such as preciseness, balance, coordination, integrity and moderation. On the other hand, after getting tired of baroque sentimentality in the second half of the17th century, the Germans turned to learn from the ancient model and the classical practice of France and Britain. Gott Schet, based on the historical constancy of human nature, thinks that literature should imitate the example created by classical writers; Lessing popularized winkelmann's summary of Greek artistic spirit: sublime simplicity and quiet greatness; Later Goethe opposed morbid romanticism with "healthy classicism". Their exploration made classicism more perfect. ④ Modern classicism, represented by Eliot, Auden and Ye Zhi. Oppose romanticism and advocate the strict, accurate and concise aesthetics of classicism. Eliot's Tradition and Personal Talent is a classical literary theory of modern classicism, and it is still dealing with the proposition of the relationship between knowledge and genius put forward by Horace, the originator of classicism, in The Art of Poetry.
Romanticism is a concept opposite to classicism, and its birth is an event since modern times. From the perspective of semantic history, this term originated from the legend of knights in the Middle Ages. In the era of classicism, "romance" is usually a derogatory term, which is used to criticize things that are unconstrained, absurd and violate classical norms. The semantic change of the word "Romanticism" from derogatory to commendatory occurred in the process of romantic movement from gestation to prosperity. Lillian Foest said: "The foundation of the Romantic Movement lies in a series of interrelated and increasingly influential ideological trends in the18th century: the decline of the neoclassical system caused the inquiry of the Enlightenment, which inevitably led to the emergence of new ideological trends in the second half of the18th century." (10) In the first half of the 8th century, French classicism spread to Britain, Germany and other countries. However, under the strong impact of Enlightenment skepticism, its influence gradually declined. As early as 1739, Hume's theory of human nature declared that reason was the slave of sensibility, which directly challenged the principle of classical rationalism. In the introduction of History of English Poetry 65438-0744, T Wharton defended the knight legend different from classicism and Tasso's Gothic literature. From 65438 to 0747, Richardson published Clarissa, a popular emotional work that quickly swept across Europe. This phenomenon shows that people are tired of rational, gentle and boring classicism. Subsequently, Sting's Sentimental Journey, Rousseau's Thoughts of a New Love and Goethe's Young Werther became popular, and a new emotional model took shape. At the end of 18, the word "romanticism" became more and more extensive: it not only refers to medieval literature, Arriosto and Tasso, but also includes Shakespeare, Cervantes and Calderon, among which those literatures which are different from the ancient traditional norms followed by classicism are placed. At the beginning of19th century, inspired by Schiller's classification of simple and sentimental literary types, schlegel brothers theoretically explained the typological concept of romanticism as opposed to classicism. After that, through the theoretical explanation and creative practice of a large number of romantics such as Novalis, Tick, Heine, madame de stael, Stendhal, Wordsworth and Coleridge, the neo-romantic paradigm completely replaced the classical literature convention. According to R. Wellek, there is a "unity of theory, philosophy and style" or a "dominant norm" in this romantic movement sweeping Europe. Wellek summarized it into three scales: "imagination from the perspective of poetry, nature as the object of world outlook, and symbols and myths that constitute the style of poetry." (1 1) Zhu Guangqian also thinks that there is a unified romantic style. In his view, romanticism, as a genre movement, has three obvious characteristics: subjectivity, which is the most essential and prominent feature; "Returning to the Middle Ages" means returning to the tradition of folk literature in the Middle Ages; Return to nature. (12) The unity of romanticism was formed in the confrontation with classicism.
Fourthly, the paradigm shift from classicism to romanticism
From the historical development of literature, classicism and romanticism are two controversial relative concepts. Therefore, it is an appropriate way to explore the specific connotation of the two in mutual comparison. The transition from classicism to romanticism means the replacement of literary paradigm and discourse convention. This substitution is reflected in the following interrelated aspects: First, from imitation to expression. Abrams made an in-depth and interesting explanation of this fundamental turning point: "From imitation to expression, from mirror to fountain, to lamp, to other related metaphors, this change is not an isolated phenomenon, but an integral part of the corresponding change in general epistemology." (13) The mirror reflects and imitates the outside world. Since Plato compared literature to a mirror or shadow and Aristotle's rigorous rational exposition, literary theory has always turned to this metaphor to explain the essence of literature and the imitation relationship between mind and nature. From the masters of the Renaissance to the classicists of 17, 18 centuries, and even the later realist writers, they are eager to use it skillfully. Classical literary theory is based on this epistemology. Ben Jonson, Johnson and others all like the old concept that "the replica of life, the mirror of custom, the reflection of truth". Moreover, classicism firmly believes that natural things have universal and eternal laws, and ancient writers have successfully written the nature of characters and nature, thus producing a literary model that conforms to rational principles and can stand the test of history. Only by learning to imitate these paradigms can future writers achieve truth and beauty. Labruyere imitated Diofrasta in Greece and wrote On Character. At the beginning, he declared: "Everything has been said, and we can only learn from the most skilled people in ancient and modern times." In their view, rules and paradigms, including theme, style, genre, form and language, were created by ancient Greek and Roman masters, and what later generations of literature can do is to follow and imitate these great paradigms perfectly. Drawing nutrition from tradition is the foundation of creation. The classicism of "following closely", "fondling" and "thinking day and night" only learned some rigid types. Except some excellent classical writers, such as Gao Naiyi, Moliere, La Fontaine, Dryden and Pope. They can always seek some freedom within the limits of classicism and maintain the tension and balance between freedom and statute. Most classicists are trapped in the conservative mode of mud ancient times and do nothing.
The change of spiritual metaphor from mirror to lamp occurred in18th century to19th century. If we want to trace the early use of the metaphor "lamp", we must trace it back to the Greek and Roman period. Plato is a complicated figure. On the one hand, he launched an eternal war between philosophy and poetry, rationality and sensibility, and drove the perceptual poet out of utopia. On the other hand, Plato insisted that only by rising from the perceptual ladder can we finally get a glimpse of the brilliance of the idea, thus giving the crazy poet possessed by the gods a special significance of intuitively understanding the transcendental truth. His solar metaphor directly inspired Plotinus's theory of solar radiation and fountain overflow. In their view, it is not a mirror-like mind that can share and feel the brilliance of ideas, but an inspired mind that can radiate light from itself. Like Platonists, romantics since18th century often compare soul and poetry to the overflow of radiant spring. The metaphor of "lamp" replaces the metaphor of "mirror", which marks the establishment of the concept of literary expression. That is to say, romantics no longer regard creation as an imitation, but as the light of the soul shining outside the world. Wordsworth's "Poetry is a natural expression of strong emotions" is a classic expression of this expression. Expressionism regards literature as the product of subjective expression and creative behavior, which strongly subverts the rigid imitation convention of classicism and opens the floodgate of emotion and imagination for literature.
Second, from rationality to sensibility. The philosophical basis of classicism is Descartes rationalism. Descartes believes that the essence of knowledge is absolutely unified. Only when all rich and heterogeneous phenomena are reduced to a single principle that can be clearly and accurately described can the ideal of universal knowledge be realized. These universal principles of knowledge and rationality in turn become the rules guiding people's psychological activities, and literature and art, as a psychological activity, must also obey the provisions of these laws. Just as there are universal, stable and accurate natural laws, there must be types and laws that imitate nature in literature and art. In order to ensure the unity, stability and reliability of knowledge, Descartes refused to feel and imagine. In his view, feelings are changeable and chaotic, and imagination is the root of human spiritual activities being deceived. Therefore, as Cassirer said, "Descartes pointed out the way for aesthetics once and for all in the 17 and 18 centuries." (14) It is this rationalism that is the philosophical and knowledge basis of classical literary theory, and Boino has since embarked on the road of Descartes. He tried to find universal and eternal laws from the characteristics of various poetic styles and dramas, and summed up universal and eternal types such as romance, meanness, honesty and absurdity from diverse human nature. And equate these rational laws and types with nature, truth and beauty. In The Art of Poetry, Boino wrote: "First of all, you must love reason: May all your articles always gain value and light only by reason." (15) Under the rule of rational principle, classicism does not appreciate or tolerate all "irrational magic", "unreasonable extremes" and whimsy. Many classic works describe the story of how rational ideas finally overcome secular desires under the mediation of a wise man, and how the world is destroyed under the domination of irrational desires. This directly exposes the ideological characteristics of classicism: classicism, as a cultural trend of thought in a specific historical stage, is essentially the product of political compromise between the emerging bourgeoisie and the feudal aristocracy.
Romanticism is the reaction of classicism, which initiated a revolutionary movement to liberate sensibility. This movement made the subjective categories such as emotion, imagination, genius, originality and freedom occupy the main position of literary theory for the first time. Romanticism first established the emotional essence of literature, and literature is the expression and pouring out of emotions, which became the most distinctive slogan of the romantic movement. Moreover, the emotions they want to express are completely different from the normal state under classical public reason, with strong personality and self-color. Keats claimed that none of the poems he wrote in his life had the shadow of public ideology; Shelley compared the poet to a nightingale, who lives in the dark and soothes her loneliness with beautiful songs. Wordsworth insists that his feelings are his backer and pillar; Byron repeatedly stressed that "poetry is the expression of passion, and it is passion itself." This passion is sometimes even a chaotic irrational impulse, as a schlegel said: "Romantic poetry expresses a secret desire for chaos. It endlessly pursues the birth of novel and magical things, and it is hidden in the mother's womb of orderly creation. " (16) Starting from the emotional essence, the classical view of literary history based on the assumption that the human mind is eternal, that is, the concept that classical art has reached perfection has been completely broken. Because for the real aesthetic vitality, the intensity and sensitivity of human feelings are not reduced, but increasing day by day, so the perfection of art is infinite. Thus, romanticism established the concept of development and change in the history of literature and the concept of recreating art as a human model. The word "creation" was first widely used in the Middle Ages. People deduced the concept of literary creation from the myth of God's creation, which doomed that the concept of creation in the Middle Ages could only be confined to the scope of Christian theology, and human creation was only an imitation of God. In the era of romanticism, people's desire and confidence in creating new literature is an affirmation and publicity of the main strength of human beings. Keats clearly said: "the genius of poetry must find its own way out in a person;" Its maturity depends not on laws and concepts, but on its own feelings and vigilance. Everything that is created must be created by itself. " (17) This kind of self-creation relies more on imagination that is not dominated by time and space, so romanticism uses the internal rules of imagination to surpass the external given rules of classicism, thus giving imagination a supreme position in creative activities. Shelley even directly defined poetry as "the expression of imagination", thinking that imagination is higher than reasoning in the two activities of human mind. Reasoning only examines the relationship between one thought and another, and imagination can produce new ideas by acting on these ideological materials with its own brilliance.
Third, from mechanical holism to organic holism. The integrity of art is the aesthetic ideal pursued by both classicism and romanticism, but their understanding is obviously different. At first, Aristotle and others in Greece compared their works with creatures and summed up the law of "wholeness" of beautiful things. Aristotle believes that any living body is an inseparable unity, and the whole exists before the parts. However, when he entered the analysis of literature and other beautiful things, the organic nature of life fell off, leaving only the size of the volume and the appropriateness of each part of the organization. The so-called appropriateness refers to the integrity of the thing itself, and also refers to its size and length suitable for human perception. A very small or very large thing, even a living organism, cannot be perceived and cannot see its integrity, so it cannot be called beauty. The same is true of works. The length, size and arrangement of works must serve the whole. This holistic law is reasonable, but it is too mechanical and standardized to require tragic works not to be too long or too short, and the plot must be holistic, with a beginning and an end. During the Renaissance, Sindo and castel Vecchio also summarized the unification of time and place, thus forming a set of mechanical classical "three unification" ceremonies. Romanticism also advocates the integrity of art, but they always regard this integrity as the organic nature of life. It grows naturally, not artificially. As Shelley said, the process of creating great works is like a baby growing up in the womb. This metaphor for life, especially for plants, is everywhere in romantic literary theory, which forms an organic whole aesthetics with the metaphor of plants as geniuses and works. Kant once defined "genius" as "natural talent" and emphasized its natural endowment. He can create beautiful artistic models through the action of nature. As early as 1759, Yang's On Original Works broke through the barriers of classicism, put forward the view that genius exists outside the law and is natural, respected originality, and compared original works to plants that naturally grow from roots. Carlisle simply said: it is a complete tree, sap and liquid circulate back and forth, and every smallest leaf communicates with the lowest root whisker and with every largest and smallest part of the whole tree. (18) Therefore, the artistic integrity of romanticism is completely different from that of classicism. It is not mechanical, artificial and conventional, but organic, natural and rhythmic.
Due to the lasting influence of romanticism theory in modern ideological trend, people began to question the practice of closing it in a specific position that has become history. From Lukacs' early theory to Frankfurt School's new perceptual aesthetics, from Nietzsche's revaluation to Heidegger's poetic philosophy and Derrida's deconstruction theory, and even from Whitman's Song of Charged Body to Ginsburg's Howl, people have heard the echo of romanticism, which shows that romanticism is not over. The transformation of literary paradigm from classicism to romanticism is actually an integral part of the modern turning point of human life structure and internal structure. In this sense, as a complex literary discourse form of modernity, romanticism is both historical and realistic.