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  3. The work of English writer Aphra Behn (1640 ~ 1689) changed markedly during the 1680s, as she turned from writing plays to writi

The work of English writer Aphra Behn (1640 ~ 1689) changed markedly during the 1680s, as she turned from writing plays to writi

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问题     The work of English writer Aphra Behn (1640 ~ 1689) changed markedly during the 1680s, as she turned from writing plays to writing prose narratives. According to literary critic Rachel Carnell, most scholars view this change as primarily motivated by financial considerations: earning a living by writing for the theatre became more difficult in the 1680s, so Behn tried various other types of prose genres in the hope of finding another lucrative medium. In fact, a long epistolary scandal novel that she wrote in the mid-1680s sold quite well. Yet, as Carnell notes, Behn did not repeat this approach in her other prose works; instead, she turned to writing shorter, more serious novels, even though only about half of these were published during her lifetime. Carnell argues that Behn, whose stage productions are primarily comedies, may have turned to an emerging literary form, the novel, in a conscious attempt to criticize, and subvert for her own ends, the conventions and ideology of a well-established form of her day, the dramatic tragedy.
    Carnell acknowledges that Behn admired the skill of such contemporary writers of dramatic tragedy as John Dryden, and that Behn’s own comic stage productions displayed the same partisanship for the reigning Stuart monarchy that characterized most of the politically oriented dramatic tragedies of her day. However, Carnell argues that Behn took issue with the way in which these writers and plays defined the nature of tragedy. As prescribed by Dryden, tragedy was supposed to concern a heroic man who is a public figure and who undergoes a fall that evokes pity from the audience. Carnell points out that Behn’s tragic novels focus instead on the plight of little-known women and the private world of the household; even in her few novels featuring male protagonists, Behn insists on the importance of the crimes these otherwise heroic figures commit in the domestic sphere. Moreover, according to Carnell, Behn questioned the view promulgated by monarchist dramatic tragedies such as Dryden’s; that the envisioned "public" political ideal — passive obedience to the nation’s king — ought to be mirrored in the private sphere, with family members wholly obedient to a male head of household. Carnell sees Behn’s novels not only as rejecting the model of patriarchal and hierarchical family order , but also as warning that insisting on such a parallel can result in real tragedy befalling the members of the domestic sphere. According to Carnell, Behn’s choice of literary form underscores the differences between her own approach to crafting a tragic story and that taken in the dramatic tragedies, with their artificial distinction between the public and private spheres. Behn’s novels engage in the political dialogue of her era by demonstrating that the good of the nation ultimately encompasses more than the good of the public figures who rule it.
The passage is primarily concerned with______.
选项 A、tracing how Behn’s view on the nature of tragedy changed over time
B、differentiating between the early and the late literary works of Behn
C、contrasting the approaches to tragedy taken by Behn and by Dryden
D、presenting one scholar’s explanation for a major development in Behn’s literary career
答案D
解析 主旨大意题。通读全文后可发现，文中出现了According to literary critic Rachel Carnell，as Carnell notes，Camell argues，Carnell acknowledges…等词语，这些都是表达Camell个人观点的方式，由此可推断，文章主要是关于文学评论家瑞秋．卡内尔对阿赫拉．贝恩作品的评论，故答案为[D]项。
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