European Sentimentalism In Eighteenth Century And The Origin Of Literary Modernity

With the rapid rise of capitalism in the middle and late 18th century, the social life of the major European countries, such as Britain, France and Germany, was flourishing and the literature gained a great space of development. In the late 18th century, the overall social and cultural environment was shaped by many aspects, such as scientific research on the sensory experience, philosophical and ethical emphasis of moral emotions> the rise of the bourgeoisie and the enhancement of social mobility, the progress of the concept of marriage and family, the awakening of feminist consciousness, and the deep penetration of Wesleyan, Pietism and other faith experience-based Christian beliefs. In this social and cultural context, respects for the noble moral feelings, emphasis on compassion and empathy, enthusiasm to express the sentiment became the main features of the vigorous rising Sentimentalism throughout Europe, which promoted the becoming of literary modernity.The strong esteem of "compassion" and "benevolence" in literature formed the main tone of British sentimentalism, while the rebellion against neoclassical aesthetics and the critique of rational absolutism were the prominent background of the French sentimentalism. The secularized Pietist movement provided fertile soil for the development of the German ideological trend of thought. Although this trend had its own characteristics in different countries because of their different national cultural traits, the literature of sensibility, which took on the function of moral education and religious faith through the aesthetic form, showed the commons of the development of literary modernity.Sentimentalism also led to the popularization of the major literary genres. Novels of sensibility emerged, and formed their specific types of characters and plot modes, in order to meet the public interest. Concerning more about the love and marriage of ordinary people, social problems, sentimental dramas focused on the situation which could produce a strong emotional impact, bridged the traditional tragedy and comedy. Under the influence of this trend, the popularized theme, the prose-style of structure, and the pursuit of daily language in the poems also become the main features of poetry. For the reader, the popularized writing of love story drained the emotional desire of the public through daydream, and the entertainment function gradually emerged besides the function of moral education. On the one hand, for writers, the popularity of these works has greatly improved their economic status, and even produced some successful professional writers; on the other hand, the relations between literariness and commercial aims also became one focus of controversy among writers.In the field of poetics, the exploration of aesthetic sympathy drove literary critic into the concern of sentiment and the inner origin of aesthetic sentiment. This was an important step for aesthetic modernity. Critics proved the original status of sentimental expression through the studies of the origin of literature and arts. The concern of sentimental effects in literary works broke through the standards of aesthetic taste, which promoted the studies on the categories, such as sublime, beautiful, picturesque in the newly rising aesthetics. It is a prominent feature of sentimental literature that writers shifted the focus on external events to the description of the characters’inner world. This shift caused some special features in the narrative of sentimental novels, like fragmentization and conversation. In the century of newly rising novels, the two narrative features made sense in the innovation of narrative.In the social background of preliminarily emerging modernity, literature of sensibility produced many self-images with universal significance. Fundamentally speaking, the principle of modernity was the self confirmation of subjectivity or the freedom of the subject. The shaping of self in the sentimental literature was the process of constructing so-called modern subject.The review of this trend in the 18th century showed that it did not make the spirit indulge into the sorrowful and passive emotion, but revealed the moral origins with true feeling and tears, which to some extent had been forgotten, buried and depressed in modern society. It is very significant to return to the origin of literary modernity, restore the true nature of sentimentalism in the 18th century, give proper status to sentiments and virtues, rebuild the real self, and develop the critical and reflective capacity of modernity.