高英背景第五课

1、Henry L. Mencken First published in Prejudices: Sixth Series(1927), Menckens essay The Libido for the Ugly stands as a powerful exercise in hyperbole and invective. Note his reliance on concrete examples and precise descriptive details. 1920s in America, so-called the roaring twenties, or the Jazz A

2、ges, is a special age, when the first world war just ended and the great depression had not come yet. In this period, America was highly thrived, especially in economy when it had grasped enough wealth from the war and won the precious opportunity to develop the economy in the aftermath of the war.

3、However, it was also in this period that people suspected of the traditional values (such as national honor, democracy, freedom and other western ideology), lose their faith and indulged in pleasure.Background Knowledge1. What do you know about the author? (September 12, 1880 January 29, 1956)an Ame

4、rican journalistessayistmagazine editorsatirist critic of American life and culture scholar of American English He wrote for the Baltimore Sun and was the most influential journalist of the first half of the 20th Century. He was referred to as .巴尔的摩圣贤 On 12 September, 1880, Henry Mencken was born in

5、 Baltimore, Maryland to a family of cigar maker.three occasionally used nicknames:老战线州( the Old Line State）、自由之州（the Free State）、切萨皮克湾州（the Chesapeake Bay State) Baltimore is the largest city in the State of Maryland, the largest independent city in the United States. He completed high school but di

6、d not attend university, only graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute at 16.In 1899, at the age of 18, and on the Monday following his fathers death, Mencken presented himself to the Baltimore Morning Herald as a cub reporter. He quickly learned the ways of the world in a prospering American

7、city.The home offices of the Herald were destroyed by the Baltimore fire of 1904. He worked heroically to salvage the operation, and became city editor in 1905. But the Herald met its demise in 1906. Mencken then moved on to the Baltimore Sun newspaper, with which he was associated for the remainder

8、 of his active life.But Mencken was no ordinary reporter. His reviews and columns became some of the widest-read columns in the country.Among many of his amazing reports, Mencken was well known for his commentary during the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1929.As a freelance columnist, his columns addressed

9、many of the social issues of the day, ranging from civil rights and social Darwinism to Prohibition (1919 - 1933) and the Great Depression.MMMMMM When he was 50(in 1930), Mencken married Sara Haardt, a professor of English at Goucher College, but Haardt was in poor health throughout their marriage a

10、nd she died in 1935. marriageHenry Louis Mencken He was a central figure in American intellectual life during the 1920s. He launched the most cutting attacks of any writer against Americas middle class culture. He invented the word “booboisie” bu:bozi: 愚民阶级 , combining the two words “brw:zi: ” 中产阶级

11、and “booby ” 呆子.George Bernard Shaw: His Plays (1905)The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1907)A Book of Burlesques (1916)A Little Book in C Major (1916)Pistols for Two (1917)A Book of Prefaces (1917)In Defense of Women (1917)The American Language (1919)Prejudices (1919 - 1927)偏见Treatise on Right

12、and Wrong (1934)论是非On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe (1920 - 1936)Treatise of the Gods (1930)Happy Days, 1880 - 1892 (1940)幸福的日子Newspaper Days, 1899 - 1906 (1941)新闻界的岁月Heathen Days, 1890 - 1936 (1943)异教徒的时代 In addition to his reporting and editing career in periodical publications, Mencken also pu

13、blished over thirty books during his lifetime. autobiography 对萧伯纳和尼采的批判研究MMMMMM He was a leading scholar in the field of language. He made a large contribution to the study of language and particularly encouraged scholarly study of the American branch of English.MMMMMMCONTENTSIt examined the develop

14、ment of the English language in America.It contrasted English and American expressions and usage.It explained the origin of many American idioms.It traced the influence of immigrant languages on American English. The American Language, was first come out in 1919. It is a outstanding production in la

15、nguage academia . MMMMMMIn Defense of Women In 1917 women and the relationship between the sexes a great defender of womens rights MMMMMMTreatise on the Gods In 1930 Survey of the history and philosophy of religion As an unoffical companion volume to his Treatise on Right and Wrong p Menckens most i

16、mportant contribution is his satirical style. Mencken believed the lampoon(讽刺文） was more powerful than the lament. wrote with verve (strong feeling), gusto(eager enjoyment) and exaggeration.employed a huge vocabulary and liked to insert unusual or unexpected words, for surprise or comic effect, into

17、 otherwise normal sentences.employed varieties of rhetorical devices, such as irony, ridicule, sarcasm, to make his language biting, sharp and acid. His prose is as clear as an azure sky, and his rhetoric as deadly as a rifle shot. Bombastic style and acid language: exaggeration, hyperbole, over rhe

18、torical pompous (夸大的) Language- biting /sharpMMMMMMMenckens Creed I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind, that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking. I be

19、lieve that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious. I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty. I believe that the

20、evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect. I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech. I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run. I believe in the reality of progres

21、s. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant. Famous sayings It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull. 对事事都肯定的人一定是一个不敏锐的人 A celebrity

22、 is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesnt know.所谓名人，就是他被很多人认识，但是他却庆幸他不认识这些认识他的人His Endings In 1948, Mencken suffered a stroke which left him in possession of most of his normal capabilities, but tragically rendered him functionally illiterate. He spent the remainder of his life at hi

23、s home in Baltimore, enjoying his friendships and his beloved classical music. During this time, his journals and letters were organized for posthumous publication. He died on 29 January, 1956.EPITAPH If after I depart this vale you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some

24、sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl.在我死后，如果你还会偶尔记起我，并且想讨好我的鬼灵，不如宽恕某一个犯错的人，对某一个其貌不扬的女人眨眨眼。Map of Pennsylvania PA, a state in the northeastern US large amounts of steel and coal one of the 13 original US states an important center in the fight to become independent from Britain during the Am

25、erican Revolutionary War The states four most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, and Erie. The state capital is Harrisburg. The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR) was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the Pennsy, the PRR was headquar

26、tered in Philadelphiafldelfj , Pennsylvania. The PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U.S. for the first half of the twentieth century.18461968PittsburghPittsburgh: a city in Southwest Pennsylvania one of the most important industrial cities of America a center of rail and rive

27、r transportation. Termed the “Steel City” or “Smoky City” the center of rich bituminous-coal(生煤) region, natural gas, oil and limestone; a large part of U.S. steel and iron is produced here. wealth beyond computation, almost beyond imaginationWestmoreland countyWestmoreland county: a county in Southwest Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Greensburg. a mining and manufacturing region. T