Samuel Johnson’s Literary Criticism in Life of Pope开题报告

 2022-08-01 20:38:07

1. 研究目的与意义

Samuel Johnson, the premier English literary figure of the mid and late eighteenth century, was a writer of exceptional range: a poet, a lexicographer, a translator, a journalist and essayist, a travel writer, a biographer, an editor, and a critic.

Among his The Lives of the Poets, The Life of Pope is at once the longest and best. His moving, unsentimental account of Pope’s life is sensitive to his physical sufferings and yet unwilling to accept them as an excuse. His riposte to Pope’s detractors, such as the poet Joseph Wharton, is vigorous and memorable: “It is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked, whether Pope was a poet? Otherwise than by asking, in return, if Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found?”

While in China, there are a few researches about Milton and Pope, not to mention Samuel Johnson’s literary criticism about Pope. Hence this thesis will talk about the great poet in the 17th century, Pope, and find out how Johnson criticized Pope’s works and illustrate the reasons from the perspective of Johnson himself, Pope, and the social background.

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2. 研究内容和预期目标

This thesis will focus on The Life of Pope written by Samuel Johnson. Although Samuel Johnson''s literary criticism has been studied before, The Life of Pope is only an auxiliary proof of the point. In China, few scholars take The Life of Pope as an independent subject to explore its aesthetic tendency and value orientation. Hence the study of Samuel Johnson''s literary criticism in The Life of Pope is isolated and scattered. It is necessary to make a deeper study of Samuel Johnson''s literary criticism in The Life of Pope.

The first part will introduce the significance of the research. The second part is mainly about the literature review including introduction of backgrounds and previous studies of related topic. The third and the fourth part are the main parts of the thesis, which will be divided into two aspects. One is how Johnson criticized Pope’s works, and the other is the reason. And last part is to make a summary of this thesis.

3. 国内外研究现状

So far, lots of great achievements have been made by scholars in the studies of Samuel Johnson’s literary criticism in the Life of Pope, especially abroad.

Benjamin Boyce (2019) said that among The Lives of English Poets, The Life of Pope is the best because it was finished when Johnson was old. Johnson wrote the Pope easily and expansively, drawing materials from a well-stocked memory and a fully matured set of critical principles. Besides, Jean Hagstrum(1739) was the first to call attention to an early statement in Johnson''s Life of Boerhaave, 'which shows theoretical comprehension and approval of the scientific method.' Jack Lynch (2002) pointed that Johnson’s scold toward Pope in his late years in the Life of Pope showed his attitudes toward fake therefore took us to the heart of his attitudes toward the nature of belief, and even of truth itself. James Boswell (1776) agreed with this opinion and said Johnson’s poetical spark is extinguished by his disregard for truth. Others scholars supported this argument. Robert Potter (1789) said that Johnson, the man of sense, is logical and always pursuing truth compared with Warton on the basis of identifying fundamental differences in the two critics’ appreciation of Pope. For example, Johnson rejects Warton''s suggestion that Pope should have given the pastorals an American setting as for Johnson, it lacks truth.When it comes to the reason of Johnson’ s pursue of truth, Arthur Murphy (1787) concurs: 'Johnson always talked as if he was talking upon oath.” Johnson''s resentment at fraud comes from his realization that having our mental towers tumble will eventually discourage our attempts to rebuild, or even to build them in the first place (Paul Maas ,1958). John W. Wright (2019) explored Johnson''s literary criticism in the Life of Pope from the perspective of methodology, he thought that Johnson''s methodology in the literary criticism shares with Newton''s the view that experimental scientific certainty about basic truth is impossible, and it shares with Plato''s account the belief that the first condition of sound inquiry is certainty about the relationship between the intelligible and unintelligible elements of received or new opinions. Consequently he, too, emphasizes the priority of analysis and he distinguished often and carefully between literary interpretations or evaluations based on analyzed principles and those deriving from a variety of ad hoc postulates. According to Sun Yongbin (2016), on the one hand, Johnson eulogized the poets for their perseverance, diligence and eagerness for a happy life, and praised their filial piety, benevolence and friendliness On the other hand also enumerates their various weaknesses and laughable, as well as some unwise antics, describes their pain, poverty, friendship betrayal and fear of death, etc. . He provides readers with life lessons as well as role models. It corresponds with what Johnson said by himself - “My purpose was only to have allotted to every Poet an Advertisement . . . containing a few dates and a general character; but I have been led beyond my intention, I hope, by the honest desire of giving useful pleasure”. Eliot (1957) commented that Johnson’s aim is to reach a wide audience with pleasing instruction, so his style of utterance is more personal and deliberately provocative than what we find in modern literary biography.

In this thesis, the author will focus on Johnson’s literary criticism in his The Life of Pope. She is going to analyze that how Johnson criticized and praised Pope’s work and then dig roots of the reasons.

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4. 计划与进度安排

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review

2.1. Background of The Life of Pope

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5. 参考文献

Benjamin, B. (1954). Samuel Johnson''s Criticism of Pope in the Life of Pope. The Review of English Studies, 5(17), 37-46.

Claudia, L.(1994).Samuel Johnson''s Moral Psychology and Locke''s 'Of Power'. Johnson Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 24(3), 563-582.

David, W. (1987). Crosscurrents in Literary Criticism, 1750-1790: Samuel Johnson and Joseph Warton. South Central Review, 4(1), 24-42.

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