A Study Of Matthew Arnold's Literature And Culture Criticism

Matthew Arnold(1822-1888)is a famous critic and poet of British Victoria era.He has made great achievements in his poems,literary criticism,cultural criticism,religious criticism and other fields.Despite that the greater influence of his criticism has masked the light of his poems,Arnold is still a poet cannot be ignored.His poems reflect the anxiety and confusion caused by the defect of faith in Victoria era.Among his great works,Dover Beach and Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse are still soul-touching and on people's lips.As a critic,Arnold had always been the focus of attention and controversy in the field of criticism.In the preface to Poems which is published in 1853,Arnold put forward his ideas in classical poetry.In his opinion,poetry should follow the principle of happiness;to express the most outstanding actions of human race,for these actions cannot be limited by space and time,what people at that time should do is to grasp the spirit of these actions.The anthology also established the identity of Arnold as a literary critic.In a series of subsequent articles,Arnold perfected his literary ideas that the content and form of poetry should be high truth and seriousness.He also stressed the need to pay attention to the overall impression when one is translating Homer.The most important thing is to express the nobility when one is translating Homer.One should get rid of both historic and personal estimate.He also raised a theory named “Touchstone”.In general,he claims that poetry should advocate classics.Culture and Anarchy published in 1869 is a turning point of his work from poems to cultural criticism.Arnold's long-period and depth into primary education and his all-along concerns about the social reality,made him discovered the social problems which are covered by the booming development in Victoria era.He witnessed the blind confidence and individualism of British people which led to an ignorance of overall humanity development;the lack of elegance and politeness of nobles;philistinism of the mid-class;the rudeness and lack of education of the bottom people.In Arnold's opinion,the root cause of these problems is people's lacking of pursuit of the right reason.Culture is the only way to achieve this right reason,so we need to disinterestedly pursuit the sweetness and light,see things as they are.Arnold had great hope on nation;he deemed that under the premise of advocating culture,nation represents the power of the best self.Because of his stress that the inner change of a nation rely on those minority elite people in all fields,Arnold was often labeled as "elitist",but he knew himself that what he truly proposed in his culture view is the common perfection of human beings.By combing the relationship between literature and morality as well as the relationship between literature and science,it was found that Arnold is a critic who connected the past and the future.He inherited the tradition of classicism,corrected the tendency of excessive emotion of Romanticism.He expanded the meaning of morality,categorized all the issues about “how to live” as moral issues,thus he stated “literature is a criticism of life”.He emphasized that literature should pay attention to the issues of life in broad sense,and the standard of a great writers his/her ability to deal with life efficiently and effectively.Meanwhile He was influenced by Romanticism,He pointed out that the criticism of life should be in harmony with poetic truth and poetic beauty;His ethical standards are high,he tended to criticize authors and their poet from the perspective of ethics.The emphasis on the moral value of the work also has a great influence on the later generations.In the discussion of the relationship between literature and Science,Arnold extended the relationship between literature and science to the field of Education;he paid more attention to the reality than that in the romantic era.He advocated classic education,for he treated classical literature as the most perfect form of knowledge while natural science is only a tool which if emphasized one-sided,cannot lead one to comprehensiveness and perfection.After Arnold,especially Babbitt and Leavis,many intellectuals have discussed the relationship between literature and Science,it is easily found the shadow of Arnold in their defense of literature.These discussions are found valuable nowadays.On Arnold's position and influence in the history of literature,we can do the following summary:First of all,religion began to decline as a result of the rapid development of Science and technology in 19 thCentury.People had no sustenance to obtain their soul,crisis of faith can be found in whole society.Among the representative of the traditional intellectuals,Matthew Arnold believed that classical literature and culture represent the best human knowledge and ideas,they can replace the position of religion,thus lead people to achieve perfection He advocated people to strengthen the pursuit of authority and perfect reason through education.University and other institutions can help people fully develop their culture and human nature.He emphasized the equality of education,and he is a practitioner of this concept.At a poem lecture in Oxford University,he was given lecture in English for the first time,this action directly promoted the establishment of English literature as a subject in the University.Second,he is against systematic and abstract criticism.On the issue of poetry evaluation,he put forward the theory of "Touchstone",and advocated using the most perfect verses as the standard of judging Poetry;In Arnold's criticism,he does not generalize the concept of class classification,criticism function,culture concept,but use analogy and other methods to discuss the specific issue.it is not only derived from his personal habits,but also a reason of his in-heritage of British empiricism tradition.This kind of criticism also has an influence on Lewis and Eliot etc.Under the social background of scientism and utilitarianism,Arnold advocated that literature is the criticism of life,and it should be widely connected with reality.This,on the one hand,corrected the tendency of excessive emotion of Romanticism.On the other hand it helped literature find a position in the new era.Facing the impact of Scientism,Arnold advocated the importance of classical literature and culture in education and life,he realized that scientific knowledge is only a tool,while classic knowledge always the key to real inspiration and comfort of heart.Arnold is not a conservative intellectual.He always paid attention to social reality,and noticed the need for social change.He was against the attitude of radicals and was for maintaining tradition.Only to ensure the full development of human spirit,such changes can be led to right path,Classical literature and culture will play a key role in the process of change.Arnold's proposition has aroused great repercussions in later generations,Babbitt,Eliot etc.,are all his supporters of the classical tendency,and of course,there were quite a few opponents.After Arnold's thought was brought into China,Xueheng found their resonance in his thought.In the unrest era of the early 20 th century Xueheng advocates to change under the premise of maintaining tradition.Of course this proposal was opposed and criticized at that time?Now the academia set off the upsurge of revaluation of Xueheng,It can be treated as a self-examination after a hundred years of development and change.World economy,politics,culture development are changing rapidly in 21 st century.Countries and nations are seeking their own development path.Author thinks that Arnold's thought is also very enlightening in nowadays for our developing.Classical literature and culture can help us remain in the right track.