Struggling To Swim Across

Chateaubriand, the founder of romanticism, and his compositions had extensive and comprehensive influence over French society and Romantic Movement. In China, though there was no lack of brilliant comment in the previous research, Chateaubriand's literal position and effects were not rightly evaluated for a long time, due to the former ideology and misunderstanding of Marx's classical criticism on Chateaubriand. By holding the material as much as possible, the author pored over his main representative works in order to comprehensively and objectively know and value this great French writer and his literal works, under the critical historical rule of Marxism and the principle of ethics, with the traditional critical approach of"To know a person, to know his world".Chapter 1 is an introduction, reviewing the previous research on Chateaubriand at home and abroad and briefly presenting some representative overviews. Based on the text, the author re-interprets Marx's classical comment and considers that Chateaubriand's compositions symbolizes the transition of literature from the eighteenth century to the nineteenth century. He is the grandfather of romanticism in France. Also as the most transient persons, his life was full of paradoxes. In art, he created a new literal trend, but the new form just covered up old contents. In politics, he vacillated between reformation and reservation, so he took up a post in Napoleon's government, but also puffed up the Holly Alliance. Chateaubriand was attached to the old-fashioned social order, but looking forward to freedom of new arising bourgeoisie. Chateaubriand's paradox was deeply rooted in the social condition of that time, just the conflict between the extreme individualist and the troublous social reality. The conflict reflected the ethos of France from 1789 to 1830, the social ethos and artistic ethos of the Lost Generation in the end of century from Enlightenment to Romanticism.In Chapter 2, the author analyzes outside factors of Chateaubriand's literal works. The author points out that the reasons of his great influence are deeply involved in society, history and his family. Melancholy became his main characteristic for his childhood environment and his position as a youngest son in a feudal family. Because of his personal experience, collapse of his belief and social unrest in the Great Revolution time, he felt nihility about the world, and to escape and surpass the nihility became the source of his inner pain. These conflicts between ideal and reality, history and existence, new and old civilization cultivated the environment for the creation of Rene, a typical figure of"the infant of the century". Rene is not only"the deeply significant autobiography"of Chateaubriand, but also the poetic autobiography of the whole generation of that time. Chateaubriand's uneasy soul is reflected in the topic of"perplexed spirit"that is very confused. This spirit makes a response to a troublous time and also the paradox and requirement of a generation that almost finds no way out.In Chapter 3 the author discusses the inner relationship between Chateaubriand's unique doctrine of religion and his composition. The writer was looking for a brand-new social system, but he could not find the way to make it peaceful again, so he switched to supernatural forces before he knew it. In his great book Livre de Poche, he formed his special view: With the birth of Christianity, love is created; the birth of love means promotion of reason and development of human being. And he insisted that the more progressive the human civilization is, the more the vagueness of feeling is added. The Vagueneso is just unity of oppositeness of"worldly love and religious love; good mixture of love and panic", which constitutes the spirit of Chateaubriand: both to compliment the God and to blaspheme against the God in Livre de Poche. Chateaubriand initiated his unique aesthetics and composing theory: The genuine artistic effects should be from the topic of feeling not from rationality. The sense of art is from nature, from the genuine touch and aesthetic feeling of natural scenic view. If a composition lacks such a feeling, it will do no good even with perfect writing skills. Atala is the preach of his thought. In the Christianity that he himself created, a mixture of infields and Christianity, there are full of praise to natural religion, great esteem to feeling and protest to asceticism.Based on the former analysis, Chapter 4 makes an objective and accurate evaluation on Chateaubriand's position in literal history and the significance of his works. The author thinks that his works is of special significance of his time and records social transform in the French Great Revolution time and people's mental outlook of that time. He makes a great accomplishment in artistic composition and starts the romantic trend. In his writing, natural scenic view possesses the beauty of loneliness and jungle. He diagnoses the mental distress of the nineteenth century with the representative of Rene and clearly ensures the symptoms of the Century Illness, then creating the typical character as a milestone. Until now, Chateaubriand's works are the model of language when French people learn grammar, and are widely read as the proof of the development of French spirit and bring new enlightenment to all the readers.