On Mathew Arnold' Literary Social Function Views And Its Effect On China

Mathew Arnold was a famous poet and literary cultural critic in Victoria Ages. His literary thoughts of emphasizing individual improvement and social progress established him as an important critic in British literature history. His thoughts have profound influence on world literature. The study of his thoughts in China concerns too much about his political inclination of Conservatism and ignores the essence of his thoughts which emphasizes individual improvement and social progress. The paper studies his literary thoughts. From the background of Arnold's times, it exploits the reality-concerning characteristics, which emphasizes social function, in his literary creation and critic theories.The paper includes three parts. First, it analyzes the social background and theory source of his literary thoughts, exposing the particular significance of his literary social function views. Second, it studies his literary social function views under the background of British literature history. It analyzes his reference and development of his predecessors, the influence of his literary social function views on the after ages in Britain, and the universal values in his literary thoughts. Finally, through the comparison between Arnold's literary social function views and Chinese Confucian literary thoughts, the paper studies the influence of his views on the development of Chinese literature and culture and explores the values of his views in the development and reconstruction of contemporary Chinese literature and culture.