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Appreciation of European and American literature is hard to find.
Appreciation of European and American literature

Ancient Greek literature is one of the sources of European literature, and the thought of "man" contained in it has had a far-reaching influence on later European literature through ancient Roman literature. The first is Greek mythology, which is a symbolic expression of primitive people's free will and primitive desire. In mythology, God's will is man's will, God's lust is man's lust, and God is man himself. Secondly, Homer's epic is based on the Trojan War, which shows the ancient Greeks' persistent pursuit of individual life value and full affirmation of the significance of secular life. Thirdly, Greek drama produced three great tragic writers: Aeschylus, Sophocles and euripides. During the tragic period, the self-consciousness of ancient Greeks rose to a new height, and the exploration of human nature in literature entered a new stage. Finally, Virgil and Luke in ancient Rome, of which Luke was an excellent writer of early Christian literature.

The literature in the Middle Ages was dominated by Dante, who was called "the last poet in the Middle Ages and the first poet in modern times" by Engels. His masterpieces are Divine Comedy and Purgatory.

Renaissance is a period of great transformation of European culture, and people's understanding of the universe, society and self has taken a big step forward. During this period, the ancient Greek and Roman origins of European culture and Hebrew Christian origins formed a greater conflict and integration than in the Hellenistic period, which brought about a major change in the humanistic concept in literature. The guiding ideology of the Renaissance is humanism and people-oriented, which conflicts with the cultural core of Christianity and is the focus of the conflict between ancient Greek and Roman culture and Hebrew Christian culture. It is in this sense that the Renaissance is a period of cultural transformation, which adjusted the once extreme relationship between man and God, thus realizing the awakening and liberation of "man". Rabelais, Cervantes and Shakespeare appeared in this period. In Cervantes' Don Quixote, Don Quixote's pursuit of consciousness expresses the awakening people's strong desire to find back the repressed freedom nature and personality strength in the Middle Ages. On the other hand, Shakespeare was a master of European culture and art during the Renaissance. His understanding of human beings is far deeper than that of previous humanist writers. His tragedy shows the confusion and confusion of Europeans in the late Renaissance, and more clearly reflects the conflict and integration between ancient Greek and Roman culture and Hebrew Christian culture.

/kloc-Europe in the 0/7th century paid attention to reason and order, and this spirit of the times was embodied in the mainstream literature of this period, that is, classical literature, which also brought about the evolution of humanistic concepts in literature. On the one hand, the Renaissance brought human liberation and social progress; On the other hand, the one-sided pursuit of individual freedom has also become an important reason for the decline of people's moral level and social chaos. Classical literature also came into being. The famous writers of this period are Milton and Moliere. Paradise regained and hypocrite are outstanding representatives of classical literature.

/kloc-the enlightenment literature in the 0/8th century, as a classical literature, emphasized the rational spirit, but the "rationality" of the enlightenment literature not only affirmed Descartes' rational spirit, but also emphasized the social law of equality and freedom between people from the height of natural laws, and affirmed the natural rationality of people's self-emotion. Rousseau is a typical example of advocating personal freedom and emotional freedom in enlightenment literature. He believes that human nature is good and beautiful, but the civilization created by human beings is the breeding ground of human evil. His confession shows that it is man himself, not God, who is truly worthy of worship. His New Heloise is a sad song about the tragic fate of freedom and a warm call for human nature. At the same time, Voltaire's Honest Man and Goethe's epic Faust also reflect this theme.

/kloc-in the 0/9th century, romanticism and realism, the two most important ideological trends in the history of western literature, rose one after another, which promoted the development of literature in various countries.

/kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, under the influence of 1789 French Revolution, Europe set off the climax of the democratic movement and the national liberation movement, and romanticism became a powerful literary trend. Romantic literature pays attention to expressing subjective ideals and personal feelings, and writers attach importance to folk literature and national traditions since the Middle Ages. Germany is the first country where romanticism rose. In English literature, Byron and Shelley are a new generation of romantic poets, while ode to the west wind and Pride and Prejudice prepare for the great development of realistic novels in the19th century. In France, the novellas Adala and René by chateaubriand, an early romantic writer, pioneered French romantic literature. Victor hugo's Preface to Cromwell is a romantic declaration. The success of the drama El Nani marks the victory of romanticism over classicism, and the novel Notre Dame de Paris is the most important representative work of French romantic literature.

/kloc-in the middle of the 0/9th century, European and American literature was dominated by realism. The writer strives to describe the reality truly, has a strong critical spirit when reflecting the reality, pays attention to shaping typical characters in typical environments, and takes bourgeois humanism and democracy as the ideological basis of his creation. French literature developed greatly during this period. Stendhal's masterpiece Red and Black marks the beginning of French realistic literature, while Balzac's Human Comedy and Flaubert's Madame Bovary have both become masterpieces. In Britain, Dickens is an outstanding representative of English realistic literature. William thackeray's Vanity Fair, Charlotte Brontexq's Jane Eyre and emily bronte's Wuthering Heights also marked the development of19th century literature. Of course, another noteworthy phenomenon of western European literature in the middle of the19th century is the appearance of early proletarian literature, and "chartist literature" is the earliest proletarian literature in the history of world literature. /kloc-Russian realistic literature in the 0/9th century reached the advanced level in Europe. Representative writers are Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Tolstoy. /kloc-American literature in the 0/9th century includes Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Melville's Moby Dick, and walt whitman is the most outstanding representative of American romantic literature in the 0/kloc-9th century. His main works include the collection of poems, Leaves of Grass.

/kloc-In the late 9th century, European and American literature, realism continued to develop, naturalism prevailed, aestheticism, symbolism and other new literary schools appeared one after another, and proletarian literature also developed further. Naturalism leads natural science to the field of literature, requiring writers to be calm, objective, without emotion, and not to make social and moral comments on what they write and people. The main theorist is Zola, who thinks that people and animals are essentially the same. Biological laws determine people's psychology, personality and actions. At this time, Emile Zola was an advocate of naturalistic literature in French literary world, and her works included Nana and Hotel. The works of Mo Bosang, the king of short stories, are also very eye-catching. In Britain, Bernard Shaw is an important English realistic writer. Kara Matsov, brother of Russian Dostoevsky; Lev tolstoy's Anna karenin and Resurrection are also representative works of this period. And Mark Twain in America; Jack London is also famous.

In the 20th century, realistic literature appeared. The famous ones are Gorky's Mother, sholokhov's The Silent Don, Bernard Shaw's Madame Warren's Career and Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.

In the late 20th century, modernist literature came into being. Modernist literature is fiercely anti-traditional, but after abandoning the creative principles of traditional literature, it tries to establish its own rules and examples. Postmodernism in World War II pushed the radical rebellion of early modernism to the extreme. The important schools of modernism are: existential literature, which is formed on the basis of existential philosophy, and French Jean-Paul Sartre and albert camus are the most important representative writers of existential literature; Absurd plays reveal the absurdity of the world, people's situation and people's own living conditions. French Eugene Uniscu and samuel beckett are the main representatives of the absurd drama. The representative figure of the new novel is sallot, whose collection of essays "Doubt Times" is regarded as the manifesto of the new novel. Black humor is a literary genre that was mainly popular in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Deeply influenced by existentialism in thought. Black humor writers mostly pay attention to reality. Joseph heller and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. are representative writers of black humor. Magic realism in 1930s and 1940s achieved a wonderful combination of elegance and popularity with its profound meaning, extraordinary artistic attainments, distinctive national color and extensive mass. Garcia Marquez of Colombia is the most important representative writer of magical realism.

"The richness of European and American literature is just like the simplicity of China literature." This is the greatest experience. I think that although China's literature has gone through so many times and there are so many masterpieces handed down from generation to generation, it may be because the character of China people is very simple, so in the long history of China literature, literary works are very simple. However, European and American literature is different. From ancient Greece and Rome to western European countries such as Britain, France and Spain, to Russia and the United States, from ancient Greek literature, medieval literature and Renaissance literature, to classical literature, enlightenment literature and romanticism, to realism, naturalism and modernism literature, European and American literature has absorbed the essence of people's thoughts in so many countries. Therefore, European and American literature can really be said to be colorful.

Frankly speaking, I have been reading European and American literature since junior high school. However, one of the reasons why I am infatuated with the immortal writers in the western world, such as Virgil, Dante and rabelais, comes from my despair of the outdated classical poetry in this era and the mediocre modern and contemporary literature in China. In fact, I miss that poetic era very much, but those days when white clothes beat snow are gone forever. So, I gave up China's contemporary literature. But after studying the history of European and American literature, I think maybe literature is a natural reaction of human beings to modern life outside.

Although many people say that contemporary literature is full of fiction and lacks imagination, I don't think this is a reflection of today's life. Perhaps, the reality is grim: powerful materialism and rampant utilitarianism. To put it bluntly, this era is extremely mediocre, and the superficial prosperity of society cannot cover up the extreme poverty and weakness of the times. However, what I want to say is that the era we live in may not be great, but it cannot be said that all the literature produced in this era is dross. These are the products of the times, and they must have their value and significance. The cold plum on the cliff and the flowers in the greenhouse have their own connotations. Even if I don't like the latter, I have to admit that the latter is more real than the former in expressing today's society. It's not up to me to decide what works can last forever. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, erosion and corruption were serious, and there were so many colorful words circulating. Now, a collection of flowers contains these poems that were once spurned, so that people can relive the romance of that era.

Therefore, I think that no matter what era, great or not, people living in this era should create literature. Describe the social lifestyle and express your thoughts and feelings. Therefore, every era has its literary works handed down. And those works that correctly describe the social appearance at that time or express the author's true feelings are all great literary works.