A Rose for Emily 课件.doc

Fiction(小说) novel, storybooks and stories about imaginative people and eventsFiction: invention, imaginationFictional, fictitious(invented, not real)1. Plot: What happened?2. -the arrangement of events that make up a story-a sequence of incidents that bear significant causal relationship to each other. Exposition (background inf, character introduction)Complication (intensification, rising actions)Crisis (moment of great tension), crisis (turning point)resolution(denouement)Why attracted or delighted by plot? (intriguing, intense mystery stories; detective stories)-The writer controls our emotional responses by plot, varying the tempo, preparing us reversals and surprises.-The events are ordered with a view to both the overall meaning and the responses of the readers3. Character: What happened to them?-imaginary peopleWhile reading, we identify with them; we judge them1) major and minor character (role ) hero, heroine; protagonist, antagonist2) dynamic and static character (development, change)3) 3) Flat character and round character(content of character)扁平人物: one-dimesional; who represents a single characteristic, trait or idea; type character; sometimes distorted to create humor, as caricatures单一，突出，鲜明，某一性格特征始终如一，稳定性极强。 单质，单向，单义，漫画式的夸张， 某种性格的抽象化，对生活的超越和深层把握，具有典型意义。圆形人物：multi-dimesional; who embodies a number of qualities and traits; complex characteres of considerable intellectual and emotional depth who have the capacity to graow and change.丰满，复杂，立体感强，有稳定的性格轴心，又有不同的性格侧面，性格层次。稳定而不凝固，流动感强，呈现多姿、多采、多面的立体形象。 阿Q，王熙凤，安娜卡列尼娜, HamletCHARACTERIZATION:-Narrative summary without judgment.-Narrative description with implied or explicit judgment.-Details of dress, physical appearance.-Action, what they do.-Speech, what they say.-Consciousness, what they think and feel4. Setting：When（time）；Where（place, location）-They provide backdrop for action, both make and keep the character real, enhance our understanding of character and embody theme. Setting helps the reader visualize the action of the work and thus adds credibility and an air of authenticity to the characters.-It reveals historical and cultural context.A Rose For Emily；Balzac; 贾平凹写实环境: 现实主义, 详实展示世态人情,时尚风俗和时代社会的真实面貌.假托环境: 比较符合生活的逻辑, 但又不确指,假托一个时代,地点. 比确指环境具有更深广的概括力, 是整个时代社会的缩影.虚幻环境: 超现实主义. 超出生活的形貌, 逻辑, 但在更高层次上映现深广的社会历史内容. 对现时生活形而上的概括5. Point of View : Narrative Voice (叙述视角, 叙述声音)Who is narrating the story?叙事者全知: 非聚焦 third person, omniscient叙事者不受时空限制(神的叙事观点), 上下几千年, 纵横几万里, 洞晓所有人的举动、言行、 心理；适合写错综复杂的关系,时间悠长的渊源, 波澜壮阔的场面Little space for the reader.叙事者参与: 内聚焦 first person “I”，真切，感染力叙事者观察: 外聚焦 third person, limited omniscient 客观观察，描写容貌、表情、动作、语言、环境，不写内心世界，不作主观解释、评论。真切可信，强烈，悬念，留有空间回味 Much space for the reader.6. Symbolism: A key to extended meaningSomething that stands for something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblancea visible sign of something invisible.Universal (cultural)symbolsContexual (private) symbols7. Irony: A key to extended meaninga disparity between what is said and what is meant and between what is presented and what finally turns out to be.verbal irony: what is said is the opposite of what is meant.Situational irony: an incongruity between appearance and reality, between expectation and fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate. Dramatic irony: the reader to know more than a character in the story knows.8. Theme: Meaning and Message in FictionFor open interpretation: Multi-level; Multi-dimensionA Rose for EmilyWilliam FaulknerPre-reading Questions1. What kind of story do you think this is? 2. What kind of girl do you think Emily is?3. Can you guess who presents a rose for her?Reading the story: A Rose for EmilyI. The death of Emily; the position and image of her and her family; her tax in the town1. What can you conclude from the opening paragraph?2. What is the setting of the story? 3. What can you conclude from the description about her house and her case concerning tax?4. How do you understand the sentence “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care”?5. What is your impression of Emily?6. irony and humor in the end.Encroach=to take the place of sthObliterated=ereasedAugust=grand (names)Coquettish=showing offPerpetual=lasting for everII. The smell problem; her life until her fathers death and her situation after.1. Can you guess where the smell is from?2. Make guess about the character of the father3. Explain how Emily reacts to her fathers death.4. Explain the towns attitude to Emilys situation after her fathers deathAlderman = members of town councilTorso= statue idolIII. Emilys love affair; the townspeoples reaction; Emily bought the poison.1. How does she look when she gets over the loss of her father?2. What is your impression of Homer Barron?3. Explain how Emily reacts to the towns gossip.4. Why does she buy the rat poison, the arsenic?H.B_ a big, dark, ready man Sociable, easy-going, vigorous, romanticAn interesting person to be withYankee: vulgar, uneducatedHe liked men. Not a marrying person.Emily needs to “persuade” him to get married.IV. Emilys love affair; the townspeoples reaction; her two female cousins visiting; the disappearance of Homer Barron; Emilys reclusive life till death.1. What do you know about Homer Barron?2. What do you know about Emily and her preparation for marriage despite of the towns frowning and her relations interfere?3. What happened to Emily “since we last saw Homer Barron”?4. Why do you think Emily gave the china-painting lessons?5. What is your impression of the Negro?Protestants The May Flower and the pilgrimsThe puritansRoman Catholic ChurchV. Emilys funeral; the inside of her long closed room above stairs.1. What are the whereabouts of the Negro?2. How do you interpret the old mens behavior in the funeral?3. What can you conclude from the decoration of the inside of the room, esp. things relating to the word “rose”?4. From the indentation of a head in the second pillow, What do you know about Emily?5. The story does not tell us the inner world of Emily, but can you infer something about it? BackgroundsI. About the Deep South (the Old South): 1. The Deep South refers to the southern states before the Civil War, which was a land of fertility, wealth and prosperity (with warm and humid climate), and the economy of which was based on the (tobacco, rice and cotton) plantation with the hard work of black slaves. Lot of distinguished noble families preserved the European heritage, and lived graceful and luxurious upper-class life, owning large cotton farms where numerous slaves toiling. See Gone with the Wind: OvertureThere was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old SouthHere in this pretty world Gallantry took its last bowHere was the last ever to be seen of knights and their ladies Fair, of Masters and of SlaveLook for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered.A civilization gone with the wind2. the economy of the south: plantation (wealth and prosperity)Deep-rooted slavery: strong racism; tense racial conflictsThe tradition of Chivalry/ Gallantry/ CavaliersDistinguished noble families: noblesse obligeeducation; art and music; honor and dignityKeen interest in the old myths of the south: romantic, unrealisticPatriarchy society: the image of rigid, severe fathersPuritan ethics: hardworking, thrifty, abstinent(禁欲的), etc.Strict ethics for women: chastity3. However, the Civil War destroyed the South not only economically, but spiritually. For a long time the chaotic situation lasted, with a lot of people indulging in the reminiscent memory of the past, being unable to adjust to the new situation, clinging desperately to the old traditions, which leads to ever greater traumatic tragedies. Many works reflect its prevailing problems like pessimism, disillusionment, racial hatred, violence, alienation, conservatism, and moral decline, etc.II. About the author William Faulkner (1897-1962) is a renowned giant Deep South writer, and is acclaimed throughout the world as one of the twentieth centurys greatest writers as well. He got the Nobel Prize in 1950.Deeply rooted in the South, Faulkner wrote about his hometown and people with a mixture of feelings. Using many experimental modern techniques, he depicts a realistic picture of the decaying South and shows great concern to the problems, (though he is like the majority of the southerners, reminiscent, always holding fast to the idyllic dreams), transcending the picture of the South into the truthful reflection of modern western world.Besides his unique artistic techniques, namely, multiple points of view, multiple narration, stream-of-consciousness, etc, he is acclaimed for his “Yoknapatawpha” series most of his 18 novels and three short story collections are set in imaginary “Yoknapatawpha” county and “Jefferson” town, which are based on his own home state and town (Mississippi and Oxford). Many characters, people from noble families whose history could be traced back to the pre-Civil-War period, even the pre-colonial period, repeatedly appear in different novels and stories, their life reflecting the decaying of the South and some other problems that modern western world are facing.The Sound and the Fury (1929)Go Down, Moses (1942)As I Lay DyingLight in AugustDetailed Analysis: A Rose for EmilyAn aging spinster Emily Grierson, whose death and funeral drew the attention of the entire town. The unnamed narrator (identified as “the town”) in a seemingly haphazard manner relates key moments in Emilys life, including the death of her father and a brief fling with a Yankee road paver. Beyond the literal level of Emilys narrative, the story is sometimes regarded as symbolic of the changes in the South during the representative period. 1. Plota. Emily lived to the age of 30, and her father died.b. Emily was sick for long, later she was in lovec. the town frowned on her affair, the minister going to see her; the female cousins visiting; Emily ordered jewelry, preparing for marriage. Homer Barron going away and coming; Emily bought the rat poison.d. the smell from Emilys house (from the rotten body); Emilys hair turning gray, her door closed; from 40 to 50, giving china-painting lessons.e. Since when she was about 60, the tax problem had remained unresolved.f. Emily died at 74.What happened?(The story in chronological order) a-b-c-d-e-fHow is the story told? (The plot with inverted and disturbed time order: it forces the reader to shift the attention from what happens to why and how it happens. Full of suspense and shocks, it leaves much for the readers to explore) f-e-d-a-b-cI: Emily, such a grotesque, old recluse, seems to be privileged in the town. Why? II: Why are the aldermen deals with the smell in such circumspect manner? Why is there such strong smell?III. Emily bought the poison, but she didnt kill herself. What was used for?IV. Homer Barron was never seen since. Do you know his whereabouts?Flashback and foreshadowing are two often used literary devices that utilize time in order to produce a desired effect. Flashbacks (retrospect) are used to present action that occurs before the beginning of a story; through this a writer can bring in the past whenever it is most relevant to the present. Foreshadowing creates expectation for action that has not yet happened; it prepares the reader for what is yet to happen by presenting some details which hint at the direction the story will take. It is a device conducive to suspense. Faulkner uses both devices in A Rose for Emily to strike the reader with the following feelings: grotesque, mysterious, shocking, tragic, sympathetic, etc.The plot of the story evolves around many conflicts:the conflicts between Miss Emily and her fatherthe conflict between Miss Emily and the town, the established codes of conductthe conflict between Miss Emily and Homer Barron,the conflict between the South and the Norththe conflict between the past and the present. 2. Character: a. major / minor character (roles )b. dynamic / static character (changes)c. Flat character / rounded character (contents)EmilyFather(static): Possessive and domineering, patriarchicWhat are in his mind? When he was alive, he “robbed” Emily and “thwarted” her womans life so many times, driving away many young men from Emily. “We thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the backgroundthe two of them by the back-flung door.” When he was dead, he still shadowed her life. The portrait above (Murderer of Emily)Homer Barron (static): YankeeA big, dark and ready man; easy-going, romanticWhat void (缺失) in Emilys life is filled by Homer.symbol of life, vigor, freedom and changebut on the other hand, he is unreliable (not a marrying man)homosexual People regard him low (the Yankee, a day laborer), which shows the conflicts between the North and the South. The negro-Tobe (static):Loyal to master, devoted, hardworkingHaving no subjectivityHe is speechless, but he surely knows a lot of things.He disappears after the master of the house dies. Why?Emily (dynamic)Both physical and spiritual changes:Miss Emily a slender figure in white (She must be beautiful and graceful, well educated and well behaved, which attracts lots of young man.)When we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl(Despite the thwarting effect of the father, she still holds nice hopes for life, and is very determined to pursue her own happiness.)But the town is so strong in their way, disapproving her uniting with Homer Barron, needing her be its tradition, which is exactly her duty and also her care (pain).Miss Emily had been a scapegoat, a sacrifice for the towns rigid ideas, tradition and so-called noblesse obligeHomer Barron fills her life with hope, vigor and romance, which make her strong when faced great pressure from society and family. But the fact that Homer is unstable and unmarrying, a last straw to Emily, leads her final breakdown. She became a grotesque recluse, a distorted lover, and a merciless murderer. Her image in the end:she entered-a small, fat woman in black.She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue.Who killed Homer?Who killed Emily?Townspeople (static): nosy, gossipyMiss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care? a small old rural town (Jefferson) in the Southwith some history (the past)Conservative: reminiscent for what is gone(noblesse oblige, “Poor Emily”)in the process of modernization (the future); Materialized; prevalent slavery Woman biased; having suffocating rules for womenThe great auntTwo female cousinsMiss Emily had been a scapegoat? A sacrifice for their rigid ideas, tradition and so-called noblesse obligeCo-murderer of EmilyBut sometimes, they show contradictory attitudes.That was when people had begun to feel really sorry for her. When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less.We were really glad. We were glad because the two female cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been. (By that time it was a cabal, and we were all Miss Emilys allies to help circumvent the cousins.)The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister-Miss Emilys people were Episcopal- to call upon her.At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, Of course a Grier