英语论文对爱默生散文圆的文体分析英文

1、 circles is characterized with circle:a stylistic study on ralph waldo emersons circles圆之 “圆”性 对爱默生散文圆的文体分析by chen yao ping (陈耀平)supervisor: associate prof. zhang huahong (张华鸿)march，2010school of foreign studiessouth china normal university摘 要拉夫·瓦尔多·爱默生是美国19世纪中最有影响的哲学家、思想家、散文家之一， 同时也是超验主义的

2、创始人和领袖人物。其极具哲理性的散文给人不凡的见解，令人作出深刻的反思，在国内外久享盛名。圆是收录在爱默生的散文：第一系列中的第十篇散文。爱默生关于圆的哲思在其诸多的文章中均有所体现，但这篇散文虽题为圆，在文学界得到的关注却甚少，更难以与散文：第一系列中的如论历史、论自助等知名度甚高的文章相提并论。国内外学者对该文研究的不足正好给本文提供了深入研究的机会。圆一文以“圆”作比，论述了自然界、文化、文学、宗教等所有的一切都具有一定的圆的性质：如，圆的延展性、无限性、不固定性、发展性、中庸性、层次性等等，用一个“圆”字贯穿全文。生动贴切的比喻引发读者对生活与自然的哲学思考。该文不仅在内容上处处体现“

3、圆”性，更在语言、文体、遣词用句上充分地做到了形式与内容的统一。因此，为了揭示该篇散文的文体美感以及爱默生在语言选择和文体应用上所体现的圆的某些属性，本论文围绕“圆这篇散文在文体上表现了圆的哪些特性，以及它是如何实现的？”这一研究问题，采用文学文体学分析的相关理论，从词汇、语法、修辞、文本连贯等方面对该散文的文体风格进行详细的剖析，发现了其文体美感，拓宽了赏析此文的角度并加深了赏析力度。最后以总结的方式对该研究问题作出了解答：除了呼应文章内容上所体现的圆的一些哲学延伸义，如层次性、不稳定性等，圆一文还从“圆”作为一个几何概念的角度去体现了它的其他特性，如对称性等。关键词：拉夫·瓦尔多

4、·爱默生, 圆， 散文：第一系列, 文体学分析，圆的性质， 哲学思考，文体学，语言学abstractralph waldo emerson was among america's most influential authors, philosophers and thinkers, and most well-known as a leading representative of transcendentalism movement of the mid-19th century. emerson's essays are all very philosophic

5、al, presenting for us extraordinary insight of nature, life, etc., motivating us to make reflections on ourselves, therefore bring him reputation both at home and abroad.circles is the tenth in emersons essays: first series. actually emerson expressed his philosophy about circles in many of his work

6、s, however, this one entitled circles received relatively little attention from scholars in the field of literature, let alone to compete with such well-received works in the same collection essays: first series as history and self-reliance. on the other hand, the shortage of studies and limitations

7、 of the previous studies rightly provide good chance for my research to conduct a detailed analysis of it.in circles, everything, including nature, culture, literature, agriculture, religion, etc. is compared to a circle, which is the embodiment of such features as circulation, expansion, non- fixtu

8、re, generation, development, medial, degree, and so on. such a metaphor evokes readersphilosophical thinking about life and nature. the characteristics of circles are perfectly expressed not only in content but also in form, that is the linguistic choice, or stylistic devices, etc. consequently, in

9、order to reveal the stylistic aesthetics and to discover how emerson incorporated the characteristics of circles in the writing of the essay circles, this thesis comes up with the research question "linguistically and stylistically, what characteristics of a circle are embodied in the essay cir

10、cles, and how?". to answer the research question, this thesis would apply all the theories concerning stylistic analysis to make a detailed analysis of the essay circles on the levels of lexical, grammatical, figure of speech, as well as coherence and cohesion, by which means this thesis would

11、unveil the stylistic aesthetics of circles, and enhance the appreciation of it. in the end, this thesis would make a conclusion of the characteristics of circles that have been discovered in the process of stylistic analysis, as to answer the research question proposed previously. and the answer is:

12、 not only does the essay circles give a linguistic echo to the philosophical features of circles which have been perfectly expressed in content, it also linguistically and stylistically mirrors some other geometric features of circles; in a word, either in content or in language, the essay correspon

13、ds and lives up to the title circles perfectly, for its perfect reflection of both the geometric features and the philosophical characteristics of circles.key words: ralph waldo emerson, circles, essays: first series，stylistic analysis, circles features, philosophical thinking, stylistics, linguisti

14、cscontentschinese abstract.1english abstract .2content .3chapter introduction .51.1 significance of the research.51.2 organization of the present thesis.5chapter literature review.7 2.1 introduction to ralph waldo emerson .72.2 account of the essay circles .72.2.1 the themes of circles.82.2.2 previo

15、us researches on circles and their limitations .8chapter research design .103.1 theoretical framework .103.1.1. style and stylistics.103.1.2. literary stylistic.113.2 research question of this thesis.113.3 research methodology.12chapter the detailed stylistic analysis of circles.134.1 lexical featur

16、es .134.1.1 general features.134.1.2 semantic repetition of words indicating “circle”.134.2 grammatical features.144.2.1 general features.144.2.2 sentences and clause types.154.2.3 sentence complexity .184.2.4 sentence and clause structure.184.3 figure of speech .194.3.1 parallelism .194.3.2 antithe

17、sis .204.3.3 alliteration .204.3.4 pun .214.3.5 paradox and oxymoron.214.3.6 metaphor and simile.224.3.7 personification .234.3.8 climax and anti-climax .234.4 cohesion and coherence .24chapter conclusion .255.1 summary.255.2 limitations and suggestions for further study.255.2.1 limitations of the p

18、resent study .255.2.2 suggestions for further study.26bibliography.27chapter introduction1.1 significance of the researchralph waldo emerson was widely regarded as one of america's most influential authors, philosophers and thinkers, and most well-known as a leading representative of transcenden

19、talist movement in the mid-19th century. (/wiki/ralph_waldo_ emerson)essay is one primary form emerson makes use of to express his philosophical thought. essays: first series, which contains 12 essays bound together by the systematic coherence of emerson's thought alone was

20、 published in 1841. the diverse titles do not limit the subject matter of the essays, but they are essentially repeating the consistent concerns of emerson's philosophy.emerson's style of writing is quite rhetorical and often involves an exploration of the contrary poles of a particular idea

21、, that is similar to a poetic antithesis. emerson applies a highly figurative style and his poetry remarkable as poetry of ideas, which characterizes him as a philosopher-poet. the language of the essays is appropriately poetical, thus compelling thoreau to say critically of the essays, "they w

22、ere not written exactly at the right crisis to be poetry though inconceivably near it." (http:/self-improvement- essays1.php)philosophical and exquisitely written as all the 12 essays are, undeniably self-reliance enjoys the greatest reputation for being regarded as one of emersons most renowne

23、d and influential works. the tenth essay, circles, is obviously not so famous as self-reliance and seemingly rather few studies of it have been conducted. nevertheless, we should pay more attention to it. according to some surveys, it was pointed out that "emerson loves circles, and circular wo

24、rds. a computer scan through his writings for the word circle yields 17 different pieces of writing. related words and phrases would likely show up in every essay: circulate, circumscribe, circumstance, circuit, circumference, limit, unit, universe, revolve, revolution, globe, ball, around"(qtd

25、, emerson on circles by joe miller) then the essay circles should be the best embodiment of emersons love and philosophy about circles. as far as this essay circles is concerned, only a few studies have been carried out, moreover, this essay is hardly the center or target of those researches but mer

26、ely as a starter or an example. let alone to present literary criticism of this essay circles, or to conduct a detailed analysis of it. the insufficiency and lack of researches done is where lies opportunities and room for me to re-interpret circles, emersons exquisitely written essay, from a new po

27、int - a detailed stylistic analysis.to sum up, the significance of my research is attributed to 3 aspects: emersons significant statue in the history of american literature; essays: first series being one of emersons influential works collection, and circles being one important theme of emersons wor

28、ks as well as being one philosophy of emersons attitude towards life and nature; last but not least, the limitations and lack of the researches on the essay circles, providing room for the innovation of my research, hence contributing to the practical significance of my thesis.1.2 organization of th

29、is thesisthis thesis is made up of five chapters:chapter gives a general introduction to the practical and theoretical significance of the research and a brief description of organization of this thesis. chapter reviews on the background information about emerson and the to-be-discussed essay circle

30、s, including its themes and previous researches on it.chapter presents the theoretical framework of this thesis, including theories of style, stylistics and literary stylistics; then puts forwards my research questions, and the methodology to be applied during the process of research.chapter investi

31、gates the essay circles from the stylistic perspective, making a general survey of the linguistic features in circles and studying the features of language from the aspects of lexical, grammatical, figure of speech, coherence and cohesion, to support my point of view, that is, how well they are echo

32、ing the characteristics of circles. chapter concludes the main points of this thesis, in order to form a systematic explanation of circles characteristics that are well reflected by the linguistic and stylistic features of the essay circles; besides, the last chapter would also point out the limitat

33、ions of this thesis and therefore make some suggestions for further study.there above is the preliminary arrangement of my thesis. next lets move on to chapter .chapter literature review 2.1 introduction to ralph waldo emerson ralph waldo emerson (1803 1882) was one of the most influential literary

34、figures in the nineteenth century. he was a founder of the transcendentalist movement and the founder of a distinctly american philosophy emphasizing optimism, individuality, and mysticism. emerson seeks to "create all things new" with a philosophy emphasizing the recognition of god immane

35、nt, the presence of ongoing creation and revelation by a god apparent in all things and who exists within everyone, which is due to the simple reason that he was brought up to be a minister in puritan new england. also, the related eastern concept of the essential unity of all thoughts, persons, and

36、 things in the divine whole is crucial to emerson's thought. in his works, traditional values of right and wrong, good and evil, appear necessarily opposites and evidence the effect of german philosopher g.w. f. hegel's system of dialectical metaphysics. besides, his works also highlight ind

37、ividualism and individual's pursuit to get liberated from the trappings of the illusory world, say, maya, so as to discover the godliness of the inner self.during the late 1830s and early 1840s, his works which present his thought at its most idealistic and optimistic was published. the lyrical

38、essay nature (1836), a pamphlet repudiating both materialism and conventional religion, declares nature the divine example for inspiration and the source of boundless possibilities for humanity's fulfillment. the american scholar, an address delivered before harvard's phi beta kappa society

39、in 1837, attacks american dependence on european thought and urges the creation of a new literary heritage. divinity school address, delivered at harvard in 1838, caused tremendous controversy for renouncing the tenets of historical christianity and defining transcendental philosophy in terms of the

40、 "impersonality" of god. the doctrines formulated in these three works were later expanded and elaborated upon in his essays: first series (1841) and essays: second series (1844), of which self-reliance, the over-soul, and the poet are among the best-known. the decline in emerson's ide

41、alism and the emerging recognition of his mortal limitations could be traced back to his poetry from the era of the dial onward, as well as his essays since essays: second series. the conduct of life (1860) may be the works that best expresses his humanistic acquiescence to the reality of worldly ci

42、rcumstances. other important later works include representative men: seven lectures (1850), and english traits (1856), the former of which was a series of essays on the men who best fit emerson's ideals, among whom are plato, napoleon and shakespeare; the latter of which was a works that his fri

43、end thomas carlyle hailed as an accurate portrait of english social manners in the mid-victorian era. yet, emerson's decline as an essayist starts with the works society and solitude (1870)in his last few years, emerson lived in concord, though hardly wrote any, he was recognized as a philosophe

44、r of great stature throughout america . emerson's thought and philosophy have been exerting great influence on many great american authors, such as, herman melville, walt whitman, emily dickinson, nathaniel hawthorne, and thoreau, and so on. even though some critics criticize emerson to be a wri

45、ter of pleasant-sounding but ultimately impractical essays containing ideals that stale with the age of his works, others appreciate his energizing influence on inquisitive minds as evidence of his lasting greatness. (/pages/biography.htm)2.2 brief account of the essay circles2.2.1

46、the themes of circlesemerson finished the writing of this essay circles, one section of essays: first series, in september, 1840. in circles, emerson praises flux, abandonment, impermanence and forgetfulness. there are four main themes running throughout it. the first theme is that nature and our lives are in a continual state of transition and flux, which fact emerson was quite aware of, for he was at that period of time experiencing such transit