欧洲文化入门复习提纲(含答案)

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Questions for Revision:

1. What are the major elements in Western culture?

There are two main elements ——the Greco-Roman element and the Judeo-Christian element

2. What did Homer do? Why is he important in the history of Western literature?

⑴ He described the great Greek men who lived in the period 1200-1100B.C. and wars happening at that time.

⑵ As an author of epics（史诗）, he employed fine literary language to describe wars and men, even though they were dull. He stood in the peek of Greek literature and exerted a great influence on his followers.

3. Would you say that philosophy was highly developed in ancient Greece? Who were the

major philosophers?

⑴ No, I wouldn’t. Because those philosophical ideas were only idealism (理想主义) or simple

materialism（唯物主义） or metaphysics（形而上学）.

⑵ Socrates(苏格拉底), Plato（柏拉图） and Aristotle（亚里斯多德）.

4. Did Socrates write any book? How then do we know about him? What distinguished his

philosophy?

⑴ No, he didn’t.

⑵ we know Socrates chiefly through what Plato recorded of him in the famous Dialogues

written by Plato.

⑶ He considered that philosophy rested with（取决于） the dissect（仔细分析） of oneself and virtue was high worth of life. His method of argument, by questions and answers, has come to be known as the dialectical method.

5. Tell some of Plato’s ideas. Why do people call him an idealist?

⑴ Man have knowledge because of the existence of certain general “ideas”, like beauty, truth, goodness./ We should not look at the things which are not seen: for the things which are not seen eternal (永恒的).

(2) Because he emphasized the importance of “ideas” and believed that “thought” had created the world, so people call him an idealist.

6. In what important ways was Aristotle different from Plato? What are some of Aristotle’s

works that are still influential today?

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⑴ For one thing, Aristotle emphasized direct observation of nature and insisted that theory should follow fact. This is different from Plato’s reliance on subjective thingking.

Also, he thought “form”(= idea) and matter together made up concrete individual realities. Here, too, he differed from Plato who held that ideas had a higher reality than the physical world.

⑵Ethics(an introduction to moral philosophy), Politics, Poetics (a treatise on literary theory)and Rhetoric(dealing with the art of persuading an audience)

7. Give some examples to show the enormous influence of Greek culture on English

literature.

Some examples:

(1) A Freudian term “Oedipus Complex” of 19th century originating from a Greek tragedy in which king Oedipus unknowingly killed his father and married his mother.

(2) In the early part of the 19th century , in England alone, three young Romantic poets expressed their admiration of Greek culture in works which have themselves become classics: Byron’ s Isle of Greece, Shelley’ s Hellas and Prometheus Unbound and Keats’ s Ode on a Grecian Urn.

(3) In the 20th century, there are Homeric parallels in the Irishman James Joyce’s modernist masterpiece (杰作) Ulysses.

8. What did the Romans have in common with the Greeks? And what was the chief

difference between them?

(1)The Romans had a lot in common with the Greeks. Both peoples had traditions rooted in the monarchy and to servility（过分屈从的行为或态度）. Their religions were alike enough for most of their deities to be readily identified —Greek Zeus with Roman Jupiter, Greek Aphrodite with Roman Venus, and so on—and their myths to be fused. Their languages worked in similar ways and were ultimately related, both being members of the Indo-European language family which stretches from Bangladesh to Iceland.

(2) There was one big difference. The Romans built up a vast empire. The Greeks didn’t, excepted for the brief moment of Alexander’s conquests（征服）, which soon disintegrated（分裂）.

9. Give an example of the terse（简洁） style of Julius Caesar’s prose（散文）. An example: I came, I saw, I conquered（胜利） (models of succinct Latin).

10. What is the book for which Virgil has been famous throughout the centuries? In what

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ways in the book linked with the Greek past?

(1)The book was Aeneid（埃涅伊德）.

(2)The story was about Aeneas, one of the princes of Troy, who escaped from that burning city when it fell to the Greeks, to carry on the Trojan cause in a new place, Rome. He didn’t go alone, but, carrying his father on his shoulders and leading his little son by the hand, a family group of three generations moved together. Thus in this way the book is linked with the Greek past.

11. What was the Hebrew’s major contribution to world civilization?

The history of the Hebrews was handed down orally from one generation to another in the form of folktales and stories, which were recorded later in the Old Testament, which still later became the first part of the Christian Bible. Thus the Hebrews made one of the greatest contributions to the world civilization.

12. Why do we say Judaism and Christianity are closely related?

Judaism and Christianity are closely related:

⑴it was the Jewish tradition which gave birth to Christianity;

⑵both originated in Palestine—the hub of migration and trade route, which led to exchange ideas over wide areas.

13. What are the Ten Commandments about?

The Ten Commandment are a set of rules Moses commands all Israel to obey in the name of God: ⑴Yahweh（耶和华） is the only God all Israel should worship;

⑵ Do not carve and serve any idol to worship;

⑶Do not take the name of God in vain;

⑷Keep the Sabbath day and labor in the other six days;

⑸Honor and respect one’s parents;

⑹Do not kill;

⑺Do not commit adultery;

⑻Do not steal;

⑼Do not bear false witness against people;

⑽Do not desire one’s neighbor’s wife, nor his house, nor his field, nor his servants, nor his livestock, nor anything else.

14. What writings make up the New Testament?

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The New Testament consists of 14 books. The four accounts, which were believed to have been written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, four of Jesus’ early followers, are the first part of the New Testament and tell of the birth, teaching, death and Resurrection of Jesus. Then come: the Acts of the Apostles, a history of the early Christian movement: the Epistles, or letters to the church groups around the Mediterranean; and lastly the book of Revelation, a visionary account of the final triumph of God’s purpose.

How did the relations between Christians and the Roman government change?

The early Christian were subject to persecutions by the Roman government. Jesus Christ was crucified by the Roman government. After Jesus died, his disciplines St. Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom under the Roman Emperor Nero about 65 A.D. Nero even burned Christians in his garden in 64 A.D. For 240 years after the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul, persecutions of Christians continued. The chief persecutions were under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Valerian and Diocletian. Despite these persecutions, Christians continued to spread steadily over the Mediterranean region. It began to draw men and women from all classes and the attitude of the Roman government toward Christianity began to change. By 305 Diocletian gave up his effort to destroy the young religion. When ConstantineⅠ won the throne from his rivals, he believed that God had helped him, and in 313 he issued the Edict of Milan which granted religious freedom to all and made Christianity legal. Under Constantine Christianity made great contribution of the empire. The emperors who followed ConstantineⅠ continued pro-Christian policies. In 392 A.D., Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the empire and outlawed all other religions. Now Christianity had changed from an object of oppression to a weapon in the hands of the ruling class to crush their opponents.

15. Why do we say the Bible has shaped Western culture more decisively than anything else

ever written?

Judeo-Christian tradition constitutes one of the two major components of European culture. The Bible which is virtually related to every phase of human life greatly influences people’s daily life, especially in the Middle Ages when almost everyone was a Christian; The Bible has great impact upon western literature. For a long period of time, the Latin Bible was accepted as the authority and Latin was official language of the Roman Catholic Church, so most Europe literature at that time was in Latin. Besides it is generally accepted that the English Bible and Shakespeare are two

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great reservoirs of Modern English. Furthermore, the use of Biblical themes has been a literary tradition. In fact few great English and American writers of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century can be read and appreciated with satisfaction without a sufficient knowledge of the Bible; The study of the Christian teaching especially the Bible has become an important branch of knowledge—scholasticism which has been prevalent for centuries; The Bible has also influenced western philosophies and science. Thus the Bible has shaped western culture more decisively than anything else ever written.

16. What happened in Western Europe after the decline of the Roman Empire?

After the Roman Empire lost its predominance, a great many Germanic Kingdoms began to grow into the nations know as England, France, Italy, and Germany in its place. These nations of Western Europe were in the scene of frequent wars and invasions. The political unity had given way to widespread destruction and confusion. Hunger and disease killed many lives and village fell into ruin and great areas of land lay waste. There was no central government to keep the order. The only organization that seemed to unite Europe was the Christian church. Christianity was almost the all and the one of Medieval lives in western Europe and took lead in politics, law, art, and learning for hundreds years.

17. What were the cultural characteristics of the period from 500 to 1000?

Above all, the cultural characters of this period were the heritage and achievement of Roman culture and the emergence of Hebrew and Gothic culture.

18. What was the relationship between lord and vassal（奴隶）?

Lords granted parts of their lands known as fiefs（封地） to vassals. In return, the vassals promised to fight for the lords.

19. Into what three groups were people divided under feudalism?

Under feudalism, people of their Western Europe were mainly divided into three classes: clergy, lords, and peasants.

20. What was the difference between a serf and a free man?

A serf had no land and no freedom. He was bond to the land where he had been born. A free man was a peasant who usually was a worker who made the ploughs, shod the horses, and made harnesses for oxen and horses.

21. What is the importance of the using of vernacular languages in Medieval literature?

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In the Middle Ages, some “national epics” were written in vernacular language—the language of various national states that came into being at that period, and some monks advocated translating the Bible in vernacular. Literary works were no longer all written in Latin. It was the starting point of a gradual transition of European literature from Latin culture that was the combination of a variety od national characteristics.

22. Why is the Medieval Age also known as “the age of darkness”?

During the Medieval times there was no central government to keep the order. The only organization that seemed to unite Europe was the Christian church. It continued to gain widespread power and influence. In the Late Middle Ages, almost everyone in western Europe was a Christian and a member of the Christian Church. Christianity took the lead in politics, law, art, and learning for hundreds of years. It shaped people’s lives. That is why the Middle Ages is also known as “the age of darkness”.

23. What made Italy the birthplace of the Renaissance?

Because of its geographical position, foreign trade developed early in Italy. This brought Italy into contact with other cultures and gave rise to urban economy and helped Italy accumulate wealth which was an essential factor for the flowering of art and literature.

For two centuries beginning from the late 15th century, Florence was the golden city which gave birth to a whole generation of poets, scholars, artists and sculptors. There was in Florence a revival of interest in classical learning and rising of humanist ideas. And to spread the new ideas, libraries and academies were founded. In the 15th century printing was invented and helped to spread humanist ideas.

24. What are the main elements of humanism? How are these elements reflected in art and

literature during the Italian Renaissance?

Humanist is the essence of Renaissance. Humanists in renaissance believed that human beings had rights to pursue wealth and pleasure and they admires the beauty of human body. This belief ran counter to the medieval ascetical idea of poverty and stoicism, and shifted man’s interest from Christianity to humanity, from religion to philosophy, from heaven to earth, from the beauty of God to the beauty of human in all its joy, senses and feeling.

The philosophy of humanism is reflected in the art and literature during the Italian Renaissance in the literature works of Boccaccio and Petrarch and in the art of Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello,

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Giorgione, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian, etc. In their works they did not stress death and other world but call on man to live and work for the present.

25. Why do we look upon Petrarch as the father of modern poetry?

Petrarch was a prominent figure of his time, a great figure in Italian literature and one of the great humanists during the Renaissance. He has written numerous lyrics, sonnets and canzonets. Petrarch rejected medieval country conventions and sang for true love and earthly happiness in his sonnets. Later sonnets became a very important literary form of poetry in Europe and a lot of poets, such as Shakespeare, Spencer, and Mrs. Browning, were indebted to him. Thus we look upon him as the father of modern poetry

26. How did Italian Renaissance art and architecture break away from medieval tradition? The Italian Renaissance art and architecture radically broke away from the medieval methods of representing the visible world. Compared with the latter, the former has the following distinct features:

⑴Art broke away from the domination of church and artist who used to be craftsmen commissioned by the church became a separate strata doing noble and creative works;

⑵Themes of painting and architecture changed from purely celestial realm focusing on the stories of the Bible, of God and Mary to an appreciation of all aspects of nature and man;

⑶The artists studied the ruins of Roman and Greek temples and put many of the principles of ancient civilization into their works;

⑷Artists introduced in their works scientific theories of anatomy and perspective.

27. In what way was Da Vince important during the Renaissance?

Leonado da Vinci was a man of many talents, a Renaissance man in the true sense of the word. He was a painter, a sculptor, an architect, a musician, an engineer, and a scientist all in one.

As an artist, he was very important. He has left to the world famous works such as Last Supper and Mona Lisa. Then his excellent use of contrast between light and darkness showed him as an excellent painter. Most important of all, da Vinci had profound understanding of art. In his 5000 notebooks, he put down his observations of life and his sketch drawing. In his painting he stressed the expression of emotional states. His understandings of art exerted great influence upon painters of his own generation and generations to follow.

He was also very important in the science of medicine. During his life he dissected more than

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thirty corpses and was a great anatomist in Italy. He placed art in the service of anatomy as a science based on extensive research.

28. Why did England come later than other countries during the Renaissance? In what way

was English Renaissance different from that of other countries? Who were the major figures and what were their contributions?

Because of the War of Roses within the country and its weak and unimportant position in world trade, Renaissance came later in England than other European countries. Compared with the Renaissance in other countries, the Renaissance in England has the following features:

⑴It came later; but when it did come, it was to produce some towering figures in English literature and the world literature;

⑵The Renaissance in England found its finest expression in drama, crowned by Shakespeare; ⑶The Renaissance in England enjoyed a period of political and religious stability under the reign of Elizabeth Ⅰ.

The major figures of this period were William Shakespeare, Edmund Spencer, Sir Thomas more, Francis Bacon, and etc. Shakespeare has contributed to the world a legacy of literature heritage by turning out so many outstanding plays and poems. He was one of the two reservoirs of modern English language. Thomas More has written Utopia and depicted in this work an ideal non-Christian state where everybody lives a simple life and shares the goods in common. He contributed to the western tradition of envisioning an ideal state. Spencer has influenced many English poets.

29. What were some of the scientific advances during the Renaissance?

During the Renaissance, many sciences has made great progress.

Firstly, it was an age of geographical discoveries: Columbus has discovered the New World in 1492; Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1487; da Gama discovered the route to India round the Cape of Good Hope in 1497; Amerigo discovered and explored the mouth of the Amazon and accepted South America as a new continent.

Secondly, Copernicus believed that the earth and other planets orbit about the sun and that earth is not at the center of the universe. Here began the modern astronomy.

Thirdly, both da Vinci and Vesalius were good at anatomy. Vesalius wrote Fabrica and was regarded as the founder of modern medicine.

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Fourthly, printing was invented in Italy.

Finally, Dante, Machiavelli, and Vosari have contributed a great deal to political science and historiography. Machiavelli was called “Father of political science” in the west.

30. What were the major differences between Locke’s concept of “social contract” and

Hobbes’s?

⑴ bbes’s concept of “social contract” is as follows. To escape anarchy, men enter into a social contrast, by which they submit to the sovereign. In return, men attain peace and security. In his theory, the powers of the sovereign must be absolute, and it is only by the centralization of authority in one person that the evil can be avoided. And the sovereign is not a party himself to the social contract. The subjects of the sovereign cannot either change the form of the government or repudiate the authority of the sovereign. As to the form of government, Hobbes preferred monarchy.

⑵ cke tried to show the rational foundation of political society and government. He emphasized that the social contract must be understood as involving the individual’s consent to submit to the will of the majority and that the will of the majority must prevail. For him, absolute monarchy was contrary to the original social contract and dangerous to liberty. For him, the ruler of government is one partner of the social contract.

⑶ though both Hobbes and Locke used the term “social contract”, they differ fundamentally. First, Hobbes argued that men enter into a social contract to escape the state of war, for, in his view, men are enemies and at war with each other. Locke argued that men are equal and that individuals surrender their rights to one man, the sovereign whose power is absolute. Locke argued that the individuals surrender their rights to the community as a whole. According to him, by majority vote a representative is chosen, but his power is not absolute. If he fails to implement the people’s will, the people have the right to overthrow him.

31. What is the theme of John Milton’s Paradise Lost?

The theme of Milton’s Paradise Lost is the fall of men: man’s disobedience and the loss thereupon of the Paradise, with its prime cause-Satan. In this epic poem, the evil, rebellious, courageous, heroic and tragic Satan is the most successfully portrayed character and is different from the traditional image.

32. What are some of the characteristics of Baroque art?

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Baroque art, flourished first in Italy, and then spread to Spain, Portugal, France in south Europe and to Flander and the Netherland in the North. It was characterized by dramatic intensity and sentimental appeal with a lot of emphasis on light and color. The representatives were Bernini, Michelangelo Caravaggio, Borromini, Rubens, Velazquez, Rembrandt, etc.

In architecture, it referred to architecture of the period with its proliferation of ornament. Later the term “baroque” was applied to paintings and music. In music, the new art represented a transformation of its elements into a swelling, emotional style.

33. Who was the most well-known writer in the 17th century French literature? Say something

about one of his major works.

⑴ Corneille, Racine and Moliere were the most well-known writers in the 17th century French literature.

⑵ Corneille’s masterpiece was Le Cid which shows the intense conflict between love and duty. One of the representative tragedies of Racine is Phaedra which tells the story of the overwhelming passion of Phaedra for her stepson. The theme of the play is the conflict of passion with reason. Tartuffe is one of Moliere’s best known comedies. In this play, he exposes religious hypocrisy.

34. When and where did the Enlightenment take place?

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement originating in France, which attracted widespread support among the ruling and intellectual classes of Europe and North America in the second half of the 18th century.

35. Why is the Enlightenment also called “the Age of Reason”?

The Enlightenment characterizes the efforts by certain European writers to use critical reason to free minds from prejudice, unexamined authority and oppression by Church or State. Therefore it is called the Age of Reason.

36. Illustrate the historical context in which the Enlightenment took place. P233

⑴ The Amercian War of Independence of 1776

⑵ The French Revolution in 1789

⑶ The Industrial Revolution

37. What were Locke and Newton’s influence on the Enlightenment?

Locke and Newton were the two most important forerunners of the Enlightenment in the 17th

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century. Locke’s materialist theory attributed the origin if ideas to sensations inscribed on the blank slate of mind. Newton’s theory of gravitation further demonstrated to the world that the universe was governed by laws that could be understood by human mind. Their theories fostered the belief in natural law and universal order and established confidence in human reason.

38. Who wrote The Spirit of the Laws?

Montesquieu wrote The Spirit of the laws.

39. In which book did Montesquieu discuss the separation of powers?

Both Montesquieu and Rousseau touched upon the separation of powers, Montesquieu in his The Spirit of the Laws and Rousseau in his The Social Contract.

40. What is Diderot famous for?

Diderot is the best known as the editor of the Encyclopédie.

41. Was Pope a famous prose writer? Which movement of art and literature was he known to

represent?

Pope was not a famous prose writer but a great poet. He represented the rationalistic neoclassical movement in literature and has often been called the spokesman in verse of the Age of Reason.

42. Who is the author of Gulliver’s Travels? What is the story about?

Jonathan Swift is the author of Gulliver’s Travels. It is a social and political prose satire, in the form of a book of travels. It tells the four voyages by Gulliver, an honest, blunt English ship’s captain, to Lilliput (a land of Pygmies), Brobdingnag (a land of giants), the flying island of Laputa, and finally to the land of the Houyhnhnms , a race of supremely intelligent horses, who are served by the Yahoos, reasonless and conscienceless beasts in the shape of men.

43. Which book was Defoe chiefly known for?

Defoe was chiefly known for his novel Robinson Crusoe.

44. What was Fielding’s major contribution to English literature? Name some of his novels. Henry Fielding’s major contribution to English literature was his creation and development of modern novel—a new art from which is realistic, comic, unsentimental, showing contemporary life and manners. He was also the first person to approach the genre with a fully worked-out theory of the novel .

⑴The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and his Friend, Mr. Abraham Adams ⑵The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great

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⑶The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

45. Are Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther novels? Who wrote them?

Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther were both written by Geothe. Faust is a tragedy chiefly in verse. The Sorrows of Young Werther is an epistolary novel.

46. Which play by Schiller is widely known in China?

Schiller’s play Cabal and Love is widely known in China.

47. What are the effects of Darwinism? P373

⑴ on Biolgy:…..

⑵ on Theology:…..

⑶ on Social Science:……

48. Give the full titles of Kant’s three most important critiques.

Kant’s three most important critiques are: Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, and Critique of Judgment.

49. Talk about the glorious flowering of Romantic poetry in England. P290

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