The "son of the century" was born and existed in19th century, but this does not mean that its effective existence time is limited to19th century, nor can it simply be called19th century's "illegitimate child without father". Hamlet and Don Quixote in the Renaissance and Victor in the18th century can all be regarded as the ancestors of "century children" to some extent. The "redundant people" who appeared in Russia a little later than "Century Er" can be regarded as their brothers and sisters, while their descendants spread incense to China, Japan and other countries. The "redundant person" written by Yu Dafu, the "lonely person" written by Lu Xun and the "abnormal zero person" in Japanese literature can all be regarded as descendants of the "second century". Of course, there are also "outsiders" in post-modern literature. We can analyze more or less "morbid" or "deformed" characters in European literary works, such as "century children", "redundant people" and "outsiders", and study and discuss these "century diseases" patients. /kloc-in the first half of the 9th century, a number of works describing "the son of the century" appeared in the history of western European literature, among which Rene by chateaubriand, Childe Hallor by Byron, Dolf by Gong Sidang and Confessions of the son of the century by Miao Sai are more representative. Although the protagonists in these works come from different countries and writers, their experiences and personalities are different. But on the whole, the spiritual world is interlinked, and they all have similar morbid personalities, such as depression, hesitation, loneliness and melancholy, and are trapped in melancholy and confused emotions. Many writers have created a "son of the century" image that seems to have achieved * * * knowledge, making it a common literary phenomenon in a specific historical period. Brandeis, a Danish literary historian, once said, "1Depression in the early 9th century is a disease, not unique to any individual or country. It was a plague that spread from one nation to another, just like the religious fanaticism that often spread throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. "

Chateaubriand, a French historical romantic writer, formally created the image of "century child" (that is, century patient) in the history of literature. René, the protagonist of René, a novella written by 1805, is a typical representative of "century child". Rene, a young aristocrat in Brittany, grew up in melancholy and loneliness, and became a "nobody in the crowd" because he lost his right to inherit property. As a result, I am lonely, sad and world-weary. As an adult, I left my hometown to wander, but everywhere I went, I felt lonely and lamented that I was "alone" and could not see any hope. So I felt that "people come from nothingness and will return to nothingness" and finally died of despair.

Dolf, a novella by Gong Si Dang, is another image of "the son of the century" in French literature. The novel mainly shows the melancholy, loneliness, loneliness and helplessness of the protagonist in this restless life through countless love entanglements between the protagonist Dolf and his lover Eleanor, and then produces a world-weary psychology. At the end of the novel, although Eleanor's death liberated Dolf, it was only a formal liberation, and it could not fundamentally cure this "century disease" patient.

18 12 years, Byron published the poetic novel Childe Hallor, from which the "disease of the century" spread to Britain. Haller, the hero, was born in a dilapidated aristocratic family in England and lived a life of debauchery and drunkenness all day long. Finally, one day, he felt depressed, confused, empty and tired of his life, so he left England and went to the European continent. A person walks in the scenery of a foreign land, and a person wanders in a foreign land. However, the exotic scenery did not bring him a trace of pleasure, but aroused great depression. Facing the Spanish people in the war, he showed terrible indifference in character. "When the joy passed, I didn't miss it/when the disaster came, I had no fear/nothing worth my tears/which made me most sad." In order to get rid of depression, Haller's "century disease" is getting worse and worse.

From 65438 to 0836, the French writer Miao Sai published the novel Confession of a Century, which pushed the literature of "the disease of the century" to a peak. The novel depicts the image of Vodafone, a young French man suffering from mental torture. Vodafone represents a generation in the Napoleonic era. Due to the collapse of Napoleon's empire and the restoration of Bourbon, he lost the opportunity to gain everything through free competition and personal struggle, and he is feeling a great disappointment. As a result, he suffered from the "century disease" of melancholy, loneliness, indifference and inaction. Waldorf's melancholy "is an indescribable melancholy complex, which has begun to haunt all young people." ; Waldorf, unmoved, stood in front of his father's spirit without shedding a tear and let out a sob; Waldorf is lonely. "My understanding of life is only love, and my understanding of the world is only mistress." "I can't imagine what people can do besides falling in love." But in the end even his mistress betrayed him. Vodafoe does nothing. "There is no career, and there is nothing to do."

Through the analysis of the characters such as René, Hallor, Dolf and Vodaford in the above four works, we can see that they all have some identical or similar moral characteristics, and they are all lonely, melancholy, indifferent and depressed, which is probably the basic symptom of the "disease of the century". This "disease of the century" is not an accidental disease, but its appearance is related to the specific social background, cultural background and the experience of the protagonist in Children of the Century.

1. From the social background. From 65438 to 0789, the French Revolution broke out, which dealt a devastating blow to the feudal system in France and even Europe. After the revolution, the autocratic rule of the big bourgeoisie replaced the feudal autocratic rule, and the people took part in the revolution but failed to benefit from it, and remained the object of tyranny. At this time, faced with such social reality, intellectuals can't help but feel disappointed and doubt their personal beliefs, and their future is bleak and hopeless. But you have to make your own choices. It can be said that René, Haller and Dolf were born under this social background. Vodafone is a little later than the three of them. He belongs to the Napoleonic era. Napoleon's incessant wars brought disaster to the society, but many French youths were very excited and felt that they could succeed through personal struggle and free competition. However, the restoration of Bourbon dealt a heavy blow to these fantasy youths. "Everything in the past is not worth nostalgia, because confidence has been lost. They love the future, but what kind of future! " (5) So the generation represented by Vodafone suffered from the "disease of the century" again.

2. From the cultural background. A generation of intellectuals, represented by the "second century", was deeply enlightened by enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau. The beautiful ideal of "rational kingdom" and free society inspired people to participate in the French Revolution. The social reality after the Great Revolution failed to live up to these ideas, and the "children of the century" became cynical outlook on life, skepticism and pessimism after feeling hopeless about enlightenment. The emergence of capitalism marks the progress of human society and the development of human civilization, which has brought people freedom, liberation and material wealth to a certain extent, but the sense of satisfaction and stability of people who were relatively poor in feudal times has disappeared. Commodity economy has stimulated people's consciousness of competition and material desire, but this consciousness has directly led to the alienation of people, the relationship between people, people and society, and people and things has deteriorated. The new civilization has brought new constraints to people and made people's freedom regain. The writer's pursuit of the concept of freedom is actually the new development of European humanism, and it is the reappearance of humanistic consciousness, especially secular humanistic consciousness, in Renaissance humanistic literature under the new historical conditions. Writers' conscious pursuit of the concept of freedom also reflects their denial and criticism of social reality, which can be said to be the most ideological value in the novel Children of the Century, and it is this that connects these romantic writers with realistic writers.

The experience of the century itself is also one of the reasons for his morbid personality. Most of the "children of the century" are intellectuals of noble birth and have received good cultural education. They look down on mediocre people and are arrogant, so they are divorced from reality and can't find a real way out and their own position. Freedom, equality and democracy in the enlightenment thought only stay in their words. They have nothing to do, and most of them fall into the small world of personal life, addicted to love, but at the same time they are extremely disgusted with this boring life, which embodies contradictions everywhere. It can also be said that "contradiction" is their pathology. Turgenev

The "disease of the century" was not confined to western Europe, but spread to Russia like a "plague". This is probably due to the introduction of western culture as early as18th century. In the Russian literature of19th century from 1920s to 1950s, a large number of images of "superfluous people" were produced, which was a great achievement of Russian literature in the first half of19th century. The image of "superfluous man" is exactly the same as the image of "century child" in character, and it directly inherits the "century child" in western Europe in the process of creation. Pushkin is an admirer of Byron, and Childe Haller is also his favorite work. Therefore, the pathological symptoms of the "superfluous man" can also be called "century disease". The "superfluous man" is named after Turgenev's diary novella "Diary of the superfluous man", with Pushkin's yevgeni onegin, lermontov's Contemporary Heroes, Turgenev's Luo Ting and Goncharov's Hobreau Muff as representative works.

Pushkin's poetic novel yevgeni onegin was written from 1823 to 1830, which lasted for eight years. During this period, Pushkin's creation is in the process of changing from romanticism to realism, which is also the reason why the tone of long poems is quite different. Onegin, the hero, was tired of the life of the upper class and went to other provinces and villages. He became friends with Lenski, a passionate and simple young poet, and made friends with the old lady Larina's family under his introduction. Larina's second daughter, lively Olga, fell in love with Lenski, while her eldest daughter, quiet tatyana, fell in love with onegin. However, onegin had been prejudiced against family life and didn't want to be bound by family, so he rejected tatyana. Because Lenski dragged him to participate in noisy social activities, and his appearance embarrassed tatyana, onegin deliberately approached Olga, which annoyed Lenski. The young poet launched a duel in a rage. Onegin accepted the challenge out of the abnormal sense of honor of the upper class, and killed his friend by making a fool of himself. After that, onegin was condemned by his conscience and wandered around the world. When he saw tatyana again in social activities, she had already married a general out of despair. Just then, onegin suddenly fell in love, but was rejected. Onegin, the ancestor of the image of "superfluous man", Haller's German melancholy "following his wife/always following him" is onegin's indifference to killing his friend Lenski and his rejection of tatiana's love; Onegin, who set foot on a wandering journey, is lonely; "He started to do everything, but nothing was done in the end; He thinks too much and does too little. At the age of twenty, he was already an old man ... he was always expecting something. " As a result, "nothing happened, but life disappeared." Doing nothing all my life.

Lermontov's novel "Contemporary Heroes", published in 1840, is a social psychological novel reflecting 18251February's failure of the revolutionary uprising in Russian society. This novel depicts the "bad habits of a whole generation". By naming the novel "Contemporary Heroes", the author expresses some negative feelings and understanding of life in a positive tone, which is an observation and recognition of an almost tragic attitude towards life. There are five independent novellas in the novel, which respectively describe the emotional experiences of the protagonists Pickering and Bella, "Mermaid", Meryl and Vera, their friendship with Maxim simic and Weiner, and a life game deduced from his life perception. Through Pickering's diary, the novel makes a profound psychological analysis of him, and realizes the profound revelation of life value with super-era significance. From the perspective of "the disease of the century", Pichelin is a typical "redundant person". The analysis of the morbid psychology of "redundant people" shows that "Contemporary Heroes" is the highest achievement among the series of "redundant people" novels.

Turgenev wrote many novels describing the image of "redundant people" in his creative career. Diary of a Redundant Man not only formally named the image of a Redundant Man, but also was the beginning of Turgenev's novel of a Redundant Man, followed by Quiet Corner, Yakov Bashengkov, Luo Ting, Summer and House of Nobles. The novel shaped the typical progressive aristocratic intellectuals in Russia in the 1940s. Luo Ting, the hero, was influenced by progressive thoughts in his youth and held lofty ideals. His talk about the meaning of life and a bright future can attract all the audience. However, when Nadalia, an innocent girl, was infected by his fierce words and decided to abandon everything and flee with him, she was full of worries and gave up on herself. She was the most typical "giant in words and dwarf in action" among the "redundant people". Loneliness, melancholy and indifference are not clearly reflected in Luo Ting, but inaction is what the author should focus on, in order to express that the protagonist has become "redundant" in society because of the darkness of society and various personal weaknesses.

Ob Lomov, written by Goncharov in 1859, created the last "superfluous man" image in Russian literary history. The hero "Oblomov" is an intelligent young aristocrat with a good education, but he is indecisive, dreamy, lazy and has no practical ability. He always sleeps in bed or sofa all day, even dreams, and finally dies in his sleep. This character is lazy, indecisive and fond of dreaming, and is called' Hobreau Muff'.

Pushkin, lermontov, Turgenev and Goncharov are all Russian realistic writers, and yevgeni onegin, contemporary heroes, Luo Ting and Ob Lomov are also realistic works. Realism is a reaction to romantic freedom, "but it is not a complete denial of romanticism." It first appeared in the literary world under the banner of romanticism. " Realistic writers are generally advocates of traditional rationalism, and they follow the cultural values of modern rationalism in Europe. The freedom advocated by romantic writers is manifested in the revelation of the "evil" nature of human nature by realistic writers.

By analyzing these four novels in chronological order, we will find that although the four protagonists are all called "superfluous people", their thoughts and personalities are not exactly the same. For this reason, we can combine the four novels into one, and regard them as the life tetralogy of "superfluous man", while the different performances of the protagonist can be regarded as the mental course of the development of "superfluous man". Behind this phenomenon is the historical changes of Russian society in the past 40 years, from the The Decemberists Revolution of 1825 to the serfdom reform of 186 1.

Onegin and Pichelin are both Russian senior aristocrats, and they belong to Ambassador 19. They felt the shadow after1February 1825 suppressed the inner-party uprising, so there were more negative factors than positive ones on them. Onegin, as a "redundant person" in the society, seems aloof and arrogant everywhere, but his hopes are only vague and impulsive, and he has no real pursuit and no clear rebel strategy. Pickering is full of hatred and contempt for the tired upper-class life, indifferent to fame, status and love, and eager for physical and mental freedom, but his struggle with upper-class life has repeatedly ended in failure. But it is more progressive than onegin: Pickering was distorted by the environment, but never assimilated by it. He didn't avoid reality, but analyzed society and self on the basis of understanding reality and self, which reflected a high degree of introspection. Therefore, Pigling showed more combativeness. It is through "a person's spiritual history" that the author realized the anatomy of the whole era and gave the author a lot of understanding of life. "Because a person's spiritual history, even the smallest spiritual history, is not necessarily more interesting and educational than the history of the whole nation." At this time, "redundancy" is not redundancy in the sense of object, but a sense of redundancy in subjective experience, which is an active attitude based on subjective consciousness.

Luo Ting can be said to be the most positive figure in the image of "superfluous person" and an important milestone in the history of Russian literature. The significance of Luo Ting lies in that it truly reflects the contradiction between words and actions, and the contradiction between ideal and reality. Written by Luo Ting in 1856. At this time, the revolutionary role of aristocratic intellectuals from aristocratic landlords is disappearing, and Democrats from civilian backgrounds have stepped onto the historical stage with a brand-new attitude. However, the author did not completely deny the historical role of aristocratic intellectuals before, but fully affirmed it. As an advanced aristocratic intellectual and ideological disseminator at that time, Luo Ting was successful. He embarrassed the other side in the debate with Picasso, the defender of serfdom. Compared with Dalya mikhailov, Pang Da levski and others, he showed noble personality, and his enlightenment to the younger generations such as Nadalia, Basistov and Leznev was even more brilliant. Luo Ting's tragedy lies in that when he changed from a reflective person to an action-oriented person, he was overwhelmed and blocked everywhere. And Don Quixote's blind fighting is a little more advanced than Pickering's. However, due to the development of the historical trend, they will gradually disappear from the stage of the times and give way to civilian intellectuals who are more fighting and can better combine with the people's struggle. But without Luo Ting-style figures, there would be no civilian intellectual revolutionaries in the 1960s and 1970s. "At that time, Luo Ting, an idealist, was a more beneficial figure than practitioners and actors ..."

In Oblomov, the hero of Oblomov written by 1859, almost all the positive factors in the image of "superfluous person" have disappeared, and aristocratic intellectuals have completely declined with the increasingly reactionary aristocratic society. At this time, the "redundant people" lack the enthusiasm to explore life, intervene life and transform life, but quit life, watch life and indulge in the narrow world of their spiritual life. Inner life completely replaces action and regards it as a way of life and behavior with peace of mind. Compared with onegin, Pichelin and Luo Ting, Aubrey Lomov has nothing special in speech and thought, but in action, he is "short" than his predecessors. At this time, "redundant people" have become outdated figures. In the life of the times, they lost the leading role and became supporting roles. Even in love, they can't win the true love of girls like the previous "redundant people", but are pitifully abandoned. At this point, the "redundant person" has completed his own life course. In 1960s, the image of "new person" replaced the image of "redundant person". From the analysis, we can see the growth process of "depression-introspection-exploration-depravity" experienced by "redundant people"

When analyzing the social background of the works, cultural factors can not be ignored. As early as18th century, Russia began to imitate and learn western culture. Throughout the19th century, there is a fact that national culture collides, conflicts, meets and merges with western culture. And "redundant people" is the product of this all-round cultural exchange. "Redundant people" have personality and spiritual characteristics different from fully Europeanized figures and Russian national culture. For example, in Contemporary Heroes, there is a comparison between Pickering and Europeanized figures Weiner and Maxim simic, which is a typical national culture. Weiner denied faith and doubted everything, but Pichelin still had faith even in despair. Weiner's denial of life is a simple denial, while Pickering denies it in pursuit of something and doubts it in pursuit of lofty beliefs. Maxim Mark simic is a typical example of Russian excellent national culture, with a noble heart and good feelings. Compared with him, Pichelin is selfish and pessimistic, but his self-criticism and introspection are beyond Maxim's comprehension. No matter "century children" or "redundant people", they all have resistance to the society at that time, although this resistance may only be a negative emotion in their hearts, and they think the society is unreasonable. In the modernism and postmodernism of the 20th century, it rose to the suspicion and denial in the universal sense of human beings.

Irrationalism was conceived in romantic literature and realistic literature as early as19th century, and fully developed in modernism and postmodernism in 20th century. Nietzsche has long put forward that "God is dead!" Reassess all the values. After the two world wars in the 20th century, Europe generally doubted the God it once believed in. God can't save those who live in misery and don't believe in rational progress at all. On the contrary, it is full of introspection and reflection on the nationalist disaster caused by Hegel's "absolute rationality". Existentialist literature appeared during the first and second world wars, and its content was related to the absurdity and despair brought by the two wars. Just as mankind abandoned faith after the two world wars, existential literature banished faith. Existentialist literature no longer describes the situation of individual characters, but States an issue of the times. So readers can't stay out of it and watch other people's comedies and tragedies. Readers will see people of all ages, including their own pain, anxiety and despair, from the philosophical language of existential literature. Existentialism reflects an emotion that people feel when facing the world. It is absurd and endless for an isolated and helpless individual to take on a meaningless world. People are in a situation of being "left behind", that is, everyone is Sisyphus, and the only difference is whether they are aware of this. Existentialists don't believe in God, because God is dead, there is no light that can illuminate us and give us happiness, and we have no ultimate meaning to rely on, because the world itself is absurd and desperate.

Whether Camus' denial of existentialism is based on his denial of Sartre or his own understanding of his own thoughts, it is hard for future generations to ignore his contribution as an existentialist. Camus' thought really belongs to existentialism to a great extent. Although his "rebel philosophy" is different from Sartre's "free choice", absurdity is their basic understanding of the world. In Camus' works, the fear of existence and absurd feelings are well expressed, and the major themes of existentialism are expressed in Camus' works, and in an existential way.

The Outsider, published in 1942, is Camus' masterpiece. It can be said that it is a literary interpretation of the philosophical prose Sisyphus Myth. After understanding the outsider and Sisyphus myth, Sisyphus and Musso, Camus was understood. It vividly embodies the concept of "absurdity" in existentialism philosophy: because of the separation between man and the world, the world is absurd and meaningless to man, and man can do nothing about the absurd world, so he has no hope and is indifferent to everything. The novel is divided into two parts in structure; The first part mainly tells the reaction of the protagonist Musso during and after the wake for his mother. Also, he accidentally got involved in a peach dispute with his neighbors and friends and accidentally killed someone. The second part mainly tells the process that Musso was tried and sentenced to death. Moreover, he knew that he had to face the psychological reaction and thinking after death, as well as the argument with the priest about faith and God. The story begins with "Mom is dead". However, in this important event, the protagonist's attitude is extremely indifferent. On the day of his mother's funeral, he met his girlfriend and went to bed to have sex. The people around the hero are in the same emotional state, which is extremely absurd. For example, a beggar relies on his girlfriend who is a prostitute to support himself, but he beats his girlfriend many times on the grounds of unfaithfulness. Another example is an old man who has a dog. He has a bad relationship with dogs. He hit the dog and the dog barked at him. Later, the dog ran away from home, but the old man cried and felt that he had lost hope of survival. As for the climax of the novel: the hero killed the Arabs with a gun, not because his friends were enemies with them, but simply because the sun was too bright to stretch out a knife. During Prison of Heroes, Camus spent a long time describing his fragmented life. Finally, the hero was sentenced to death, and the reason related to the murder was extremely ridiculous: "He didn't cry on the day of his mother's funeral."

For the work, we can't simply interpret it as: the author's criticism of Luo Zhi's crimes in modern justice and the killing of human spirit and morality by the legal machine. This is just a realistic interpretation. The central concept of Camus' philosophy is absurdity. "Absurdity" is produced after "rational people" encounter "unreasonable world". In the face of absurdity, there is "rebellion", so Camus has a famous saying: "I rebel, so I exist." The best way to deal with absurdity is to deal with a man as he deals with you, that is, to ignore all existing order and morality and choose your own path. Instead of avoiding absurdity, it will continue. According to the myth of Sisyphus, "Rebellion endows life with value".

There is no denying that Musso is a clever man, and he has a full understanding of the absurdity of this world. He really existed, he chose, he thought, he grasped his own destiny, he faced the absurdity, took on the absurdity, and he took on everything himself! On the contrary, people who believe in God have never really lived on the earth. They live and die like slaves, giving fate and truth to God, and giving them to the illusory kingdom of heaven after death. But against the whole absurd society, the outcome can be imagined. Camus once summed up the theme of The Outsider in one sentence: "In our society, anyone who doesn't cry when his mother is buried is in danger of being sentenced to death." There is a very harsh logic behind this almost absurd statement: anyone who violates the basic laws of society will be punished by society. This society needs people who are consistent with it, and those who abandon it or resist it will be punished. The prosecutor may say, "I want to get this man's head from you ..." Musso's head was indeed taken away by him: society abandoned him, but Musso declared, "I was happy, and I am still happy." Here we can't help but ask: why are such people, even those who have no right to speak in the process of judging themselves, happy? As he said, "the world I experienced is so similar and friendly to me", which is obviously not the case.

This is nothing more than Musso's "re-examining everything" and "opening his heart to the moving indifference of the world" before he died. In the review and summary of his life, he rediscovered his life and found the resistance to absurdity that has always existed in his life. This resistance is explained by a symbol in Sisyphus myth: "A nervous body repeats an action a thousand times: move the boulder, roll it and push it to the top of the mountain." What we see is a painful and twisted face, a cheek against a boulder, trembling shoulders, muddy feet, completely rigid arms, and solid men's hands covered with mud. After being limited by boundless space and eternal time, the goal has been achieved. Sisyphus saw the boulder rolling down towards the world below in a few seconds, and he had to push it back to the top of the mountain, so he walked down the mountain ... ". Sisyphus can't push the rock to the top of the mountain, but he is always fighting against fate. Camus once said, "It should be assumed that Sisyphus is happy." Sisyphus is always being teased by fate, but he always resists. Fate left him at the mercy of absurdity, but he ignored it in the face. He won't beg for God's gift, and he won't run away from this endless competition. Being makes people happy, and realizing your existence is a kind of happiness. It is this kind of happiness that Merso discovered. He has been fighting against the absurd life until the last moment. Therefore, "in order to make everything perfect and make me less lonely, I also hope that many people will come to see the day when I am executed, and I hope that they will shout at me with hatred."

Outsiders' melancholy and apathy are inherited from the "sons of the century" and "superfluous people", and their positive cognition and reflection on the inner world are the excellent qualities of "superfluous people", so the "illness" of "outsiders" is a kind of "century disease".