The Cultivation of the Mind and the Course of Civilization: An Aspect of English Literature

Abstract

Abstract: A constant concern with the cultivation of the mind, in response to the course of civilization, can be found in English literary works ever since the 16th century. The efforts concerned have gradually extended the intensions of the idea of culture. It is the common aspirations of literati in Britain, in their efforts to counteract the “fragmentation” which characterizes the Western civilization, to seek for the regimen of the mind and the restoration of a wholesome human nature, so as to facilitate an all-round or balanced development of the human society. Which method, of all the approaches available, is most crucial to the cultivation of the mind? Multifarious answers seem to have been provided in English literature, in ancient times or today, but they all tend to focus on imagination as the crux of the matter.

Key words: English literature, the idea of culture, the cultivation of the mind, the course of civilization, imagination

Yin Qiping. The Cultivation of the Mind and the Course of Civilization: An Aspect of English Literature[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2018, 40(4): 11-21.

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