A Study of Hemingway’s Writing Style.doc

海明威作品风格研究a study of hemingways writing stylecontentsabstract.1i. the influence of ernest hemingways works.2ii. hemingways writing style.31.analysis of hemingways style . .31.1.economical writing style : simplicity and precision.41.2.unique use of adjectives and adverbs.61.3.much dialogue & less punctuation.61.4.the flavor of the spanish language.71.5.employment of all-purpose and acceptable english words. .81.6.the technique of flashback used sparingly but effectively . .81.7.fiction mirroring the events in his real life.82. themes and characters in his works.82.1.criticisms in his writing.82.2.suspense in his fiction.92.3.one sequel theme in his works : what one loves must eventually be destroyed.92.4.literature has always been susceptible to tragedy in his writing.102.5deeply concerned with authenticity. 112.6.heroes characterized by their unflinching integrity. .122.7.removal himself from the role of narrator.12iii. conclusion. .12references . 13a study of hemingways writing style 摘 要：海明威（1899-1961），美国作家短篇小说家，其作品风格以灵活的措辞，简洁的对话，丰富的感情为特点，无论在生前还是在身后，他都以自己个人经历和作品影响了众多美国作家，其作品多为美国文学作品的经典之作，海明威以其革命性的创作在20世纪美国文学史上占据着显赫的地位，其文体及作品风格也影响了美国许多作家。 关键词：海明威 ，文体特色，创作风格 abstract：ernest miller hemingway (1899-1961), american novelist and short-story writer, whose style is characterized by crispness, laconic dialogue, and emotional understatement. hemingways writings and his personal life exerted a profound influence on many american writers, both during his lifetime and after his death. many of his works are regarded as classics of american literature. ernest hemingway occupies a prominent place in the annals of american literary history by virtue of his revolutionary role in the arena of twentieth century american fiction hemingways stylistic influence on american writers has been enormous. key words: ernest hemingway, stylistic features, style a study of hemingways writing style1. the influence of ernest hemingways works ernest miller hemingway (1899-1961), american novelist and short-story writer, whose style is characterized by crispness, laconic dialogue, and emotional understatement. hemingways writings and his personal life exerted a profound influence on many american writers, both during his lifetime and since his death. many of his works are regarded as classics of american literature ernest hemingway occupies a prominent place in the annals of american literary history by virtue of his revolutionary role in the arena of twentieth century american fiction. by rendering a realistic portrayal of the inter-war period with its disillusionment and disintegration of old values, hemingway has presented the predicament of the modern man in a world which increasingly seeks to reduce him to a mechanism, a mere thing. 1 written in a simple but unconventional style, with the problems of war, violence and death as their themes, his novels present a symbolic interpretation of life. the sun also rises (1926), a farewell to arms (1929), established hemingways reputation. the publication of the old man and the sea in 1952, was an immense success and won him the nobel prize for literature in 1954. though the vague unknown continues to lure him and frustrate his hopes and purposes, he does not admit defeat. death rather than humiliation, stoical endurance rather than servile submission are the cardinal virtues of the hemingway hero. many scholars have done some study on ernest hemingways works from different perspectives. some take the old man and the sea(1952) as the main material .some seem to like ernest hemingway early works including the collections of short stories three stories and ten poems (1923), in our time (1924), men without women (1927), winner take nothing (1933). some really have done some valuable research on ernest hemingways masterpiece :the sun also rises (1926), a farewell to arms (1929), death in the afternoon (1932), green hills of africa (1935). some have also done some studies on his works reflecting social concern as can be seen in to have and have not (1937), the fifth column( his play), the first forty-nine stories (1938), the classic novel for whom the bell tolls (1940), men at war: the best war stories of all time (1942), across the river and into the trees (1950)and the last published work during hemingways lifetime collected poems (1960).some concerned about ernest hemingways posthumously published works including a moveable feast (1964) ,ernest hemingway (1967), a collection of selected newspaper articles and dispatches, ernest hemingway, cub reporter, kansas city star stories (1970); islands in the stream (1970), a sea novel; the unfinished novel the garden of eden (1986); and true at first light (1999), a book edited by hemingways son patrick from a draft manuscript. hemingways genius as an american original was evident long before he produced his novels that are today considered masterpieces of american literature. both critics and readers have hailed his short stories as proof that a pure, true american literature was finally possible. american literature was no longer merely watered-down british reading fare. american literature had at last come into its own. hemingway set the standardand the writers who came after him honored his achievement.hemingways style proves to be equally complex and worthy of study, as he was awarded the nobel prize for literature in 1954. his terse prose requires the reader to make inferences and construct meaning beyond the words on the page. this novel provides multiple opportunities to explore how a writer uses syntax and diction to create meaning and enhance his purpose. he uses understatement to follow a description of the fatigue and sickness that had struck the italian army, underscoring his disgust and horror of the conditions that soldiers endured; he employs stream-of-consciousness to reinforce the drunken stupor that henry finds himself in to numb the pain associated with war; and his use of dialogue forces the reader to be influenced by the speech of the characters to explore his or her own thoughts on the subject. in short, hemingways stylistic influence on american writers has been enormous. the success of his plain style in expressing basic yet deeply felt emotions contributed to the decline of the elaborate prose that characterized american writing in the early 20th century. legions of american writers have cited hemingway as a major influence on their own work.2. hemingways writing style in literature, style is the novelists choice of words, and how the novelist arranges these words and phrases in sentences and paragraphs. style allows the author to shape how the reader experiences the work. for example, one writer may use simple words and straightforward sentences, while another may use difficult vocabulary and elaborate sentence structures. even if the themes of both works are similar, the differences in the authors styles make the experiences of reading the two works distinct. without extensive reading the capture of the so-called style is really a tough challenge. writers style is the most-discussed topic in our literary course. lecturers encourage us to read extensively about a certain author and compare between authors so we could formulate in our mind style of a specific author.2.1 analysis of hemingways writing style what are a few characteristics of hemingways writing style? below are some characteristics:1)stark minimalist nature. 2)grade school-like grammar. 3)austere word choice. 4)unvarnished descriptions. 5)short, declarative sentences. 6)uses language accessible to the common reader an excellent example is found in “a clean, well-lighted place.” in this story, there is no maudlin sentimentality; the plot is simple, yet highly complex and difficult. focusing on an old man and two waiters, hemingway says as little as possible. it was probably most influenced by his early work as a cub reporter for the kansas city star. there he was forced to adhere to a stylebook for young reporters, which included the following advice: use short sentences. use short first paragraphs. use vigorous english, not forgetting to strive for smoothness. be positive, not negative. perhaps some of the best of hemingways much-celebrated use of dialogue occurs in “hills like white elephants.” when the story begins, two charactersa man and a womanare sitting at a table. we finally learn that the girls nickname is “jig.” eventually we learn that they are in the cafe of a train station in spain. but hemingway tells us nothing about themnot about their past nor about their future. there is no description of them. in our time, like all of hemingways writing, uses simple, declarative sentences with little or no description of emotion. this spare, carefully honed and polished writing style of hemingway was by no means spontaneous. when he worked as a journalist, he learned to report facts crisply and succinctly. he was also an obsessive revisionist. it was reported that he wrote and rewrote all, or portions, of the old man and the sea more than two hundred times before he was ready to release it for publication. when hemingway was awarded the nobel prize in literature in 1954, his writing style was singled out as one of his foremost achievements. the committee recognized his “forceful and style-making mastery of the art of modern narration.”16 hemingway took great pains with his work; he revised tirelessly. “a writers style,” he said, “should be direct and personal, his imagery rich and earthy, and his words simple and vigorous.” hemingway more than fulfilled his own requirements for good writing. his words are simple and vigorous, burnished and uniquely brilliant. 13 rarely have authors become so identified with a particular writing style or with the word style itself as ernest hemingway. many writers have attempted to write like hemingway. few have succeeded. 9 2.1.1 economical writing style : simplicity and precision to many readers, the essential characteristic of the hemingway style is simplicity and precision of word choice. that description, while accurate, can be deceptive. simplicity is not the same thing as short, grammatically simple sentences. precision of word choice does not mean an abundance of unusual words in order to achieve precision. and hemingways style cannot so easily be explained as in his own often quoted advice (which needs to be taken with a grain of salt!) to write the story and then remove the adjectives and adverbs.17 at the conclusion of for whom the bell tolls, you will have a distinct picture of the places, the objects, the people in the story. if you diagrammed or sketched them, they might be somewhat different from another readers mental picture. thats inevitable. its the distinctness- giving the reader the feeling of being there- which is hemingways literary feat. beyond question this effect is achieved by a heavy use of nouns and verbs. if there is an object in the scene he is relating, hemingway will mention it. if a character moves, hemingway will mention it. hemingways economical writing style often seems simple and almost childlike, but his method is calculated and used to achieve complex effect. in his writing hemingway provided detached descriptions of action, using simple nouns and verbs to capture scenes precisely. by doing so he avoided describing his characters emotions and thoughts directly. instead, in providing the reader with the raw material of an experience and eliminating the authorial viewpoint, hemingway made the reading of a text approximate the actual experience as closely as possible. hemingway was also deeply concerned with authenticity in writing. he believed that a writer could treat a subject honestly only if the writer had participated in or observed the subject closely. without such knowledge the writers work would be flawed because the reader would sense the authors lack of expertise. in addition, hemingway believed that an author writing about a familiar subject is able to write sparingly and eliminate a great deal of superfluous detail from the piece without sacrificing the voice of authority. the success of his plain style in expressing basic, yet deeply felt, emotions contributed to the decline of the elaborate victorian-era prose that characterized a great deal of american writing in the early 20th century. (encyclopedia article from encarta of ernest miller hemingway, 2004) in contrast, a complex style uses long, elaborate sentences that contain many ideas and descriptions. the writer uses lyrical passages to create the desired mood in the reader, whether it is one of joy, sadness, confusion, or any other emotion. american author henry james uses a complex style to great effect in novels such as the wings of the dove (1902): the two ladies who, in advance of the swiss season, had been warned that their design was unconsidered, that the passes would not be clear, nor the air mild, nor the inns open-the two ladies who, characteristically had braved a good deal of possibly interested remonstrance were finding themselves, as their adventure turned out, wonderfully sustained.5 at the beginning of his writing career in the 1920s, hemingways writing style occasioned a great deal of comment and controversy. earlier works relied more heavily on colloquial dialogue to communicate action and rarely included lengthy descriptive passages. basically, a typical hemingway novel or short story is written in simple, direct, unadorned prose. possibly, the style developed because of his early journalistic training. the reality, however, is this: before hemingway began publishing his short stories and sketches, american writers affected british mannerisms. adjectives piled on top of one another; adverbs tripped over each other. colons clogged the flow of even short paragraphs, and the plethora of semicolons often caused readers to throw up their hands in exasperation. and then came hemingway.2.1.2 unique use of adjectives and adverbs it is true that hemingway often leaves the adjectives and adverbs to the reader. the resulting effect is all the more vivid and memorable. an excellent example is the description of the sights and smells both inside and outside the cave, at the opening of chapter 5 of for whom the bell tolls. at the same time, hemingway does not avoid modifiers altogether. hemingways words are essentially just words like any other words, but the way he stirs them together is his own unique formula, a stylistic recipe that no other writer has been able to recreate. there are sentences that only hemingway could get away with because we know that hemingway wrote them. take this short sentence from for whom the bell tolls: he was dead and that was all. this is and always will be a hemingway sentence. for a reader to immediately recognize that hemingway wrote this by reading the words alone is a remarkable legacy for a writer to leave. hemingway is truly alive in his words because his words are truly his. his style is uniquely his. this is what makes him a writer in the truest sense.2.1.3 much dialogue & less punctuation much has been made of hemingways dialogue, through which you get the feeling of being at the scene. yet when the dialogue is transferred to the motion picture screen, directors have had to be careful to keep it from sounding stilted and formal, because its effectiveness does not depend on reproducing the exact words (including the uhs and ers) that people utter in real life. hemingway also doesnt often punctuate his dialogue with italics, capital letters, ellipses (.), and exclamation points to suggest emphasis. the effectiveness lies in stating with utmost simplicity the heart of what the characters mean. hemingway has often been described as a master of dialogue; in story after story, novel after novel, readers and critics have remarked, “this is the way that these characters would really talk.”7 yet, a close examination of his dialogue reveals that this is rarely the way people really speak. the effect is accomplished, rather, by calculated emphasis and repetition that makes us remember what has been said. hemingway is a master of dialogue. its not so much that he is recreating precisely how individuals speak, but through his brilliant use of repetition, he is able to make the reader remember what has been said. hemingways style of writing was probably most influenced by his early work as a cub reporter for the kansas city star. there he was forced to adhere to a stylebook for young reporters, which included the following advice: use short sentences. use short first paragraphs. use vigorous english, not forgetting to strive for smoothness. be positive, not negative.2.1.4 the flavor of the spanish language both hemingways actual spanish and his attempt to render the flavor of spanish in english have been criticized as frequently inaccurate by people who know spanish better than he did. an exiled loyalist commander, gustavo duran, read the manuscript of for whom the bell tolls before it was published and was critical of hemingways spanish, although impressed by the story. a more contemporary spanish critic has called the langu