中央电大英语本科毕业论文(教育方向)

1、Guizhou RadioTV UniversityPractical Project DesignTitle: Emily Dickinsons Refusal to Publish Her Poems 狄金森拒绝出版她的诗歌的原因Name:WangJin Number: 1052001253367School: Guizhou RadioTV UniversityMajor: English (Education Oriented)Date: March 25th, 2012Tel:-mail：631085473 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe

2、 completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the encouragement, the guidance, and the support of many other people. First of all, I would extend my sincere and heartfelt thanks to my supervisor Professor Xia Shangli, who has given me valuable suggestions and insightful comments in

3、 the thesis writing. She has also spent much time going through brainstorming with me, put my work on the right track, read in great details every draft of every section of this thesis, and helped improve the appropriateness of English used. My gratitude to Professor Xia knows no bound.Special thank

4、s also go to my family for their unfailing support and love throughout my university study. CONTENTSAbstract in English.1Abstract in Chinese.1 I. Introduction.1II. Emily Dickinsons personality22.1 Introverted.22.2 High-hearted .4III. Purpose of Emily Dickinsons writing. .5IV. The character of Emily

5、Dickinsons poetry.64.1 The using of omission64.2 The using of dash7V. The publication history of Emily Dickinsons poetry9VI. Conclusion. 10BIBIOGRAPHY.11DECLARATION12Emily Dickinsons Refusal to Publish Her PoemsAbstract: Dickinson is a famous American poetess. She is a literary genius. She wrote a l

6、ot of poetry during her lifetime but published very little of her poems. From the information available, It can be seen that she was introverted and a little arrogant, high-hearted; she was not good at dealing with people, and she had no interest on social life; her poetry does not follow grammar ru

7、les，so it was hard for the editors and readers to read. These are the reasons why her poems were not published during her lifetime. In this paper, the writer is going to explore the reasons why she refused to publish her poems by studying her personality, the character of her poetry, and the publica

8、tion history of her poetry.Key words：Dickinson; personality; refused to publish摘要：狄金森是美国著名的女诗人，她是个文学天才，但是她生前写了很多诗歌却很少发表她的诗歌。从现有的资料看出，她性格内向而又有些高傲，不善于社交也无心处理世事，她的诗歌不注重语法规则是当时的读者乃是编辑很难读懂，这些是她的诗歌在她的生前一直得不到出版的原因。本文要通过对她的个性、诗歌的特点及诗歌出版的历史的研究来探讨她不出版诗歌的原因。关键词：狄金森；个性；拒绝出版I. IntroductionEmily Dickinson was bor

9、n on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, the oldest daughter of Edward Dickinson, a successful lawyer, member of Congress, and for many years treasurer of Amherst College, and of Emily Norcross Dickinson, a timid woman. Dickinson was fun-loving as a child, very smart, and enjoyed the compa

10、ny of others. Her brother, Austin, became a lawyer like his father and was also treasurer of Amherst College. The youngest child of the family, Lavinia, became the chief housekeeper and, like her sister Emily, remained at home all her life and never married. The sixth member of this tightly knit gro

11、up was Susan Gilbert, Emilys ambitious and witty schoolmate who married Austin in 1856 and who moved into the house next door to the Dickinsons. Emily Dickinsons family had a conservative tradition. She had receipted orthodox religious education since her childhood. When she was a youth, her life wa

12、s monotonous and calm and she rarely go out. She started writing at age 20, and most of the early poems have been lost. She kept herself indoor since 1858. Researchers still can not understand the reasons for her long-term seclusion. She didnt publish her works during her lifetime. After her death,

13、her friends and her younger sister published her works, and she became as famous as Whitman for her well-loved works. She left 1775 poems. She had accessed to Emersons thought when she was young. Emerson opposed to authority, advocated the view of intuitive. Most of her poems write about arrogant lo

14、neliness, disappointment with the pursuit of religion, and serene death. This reflects her complex psychological status. Her poems focus on content, rather than focus on the rules of grammar. She used a lot of various punctuation marks, especially dash. Emily Dickinson died on May 15, 1886. Her sist

15、er and friends selected and edited her poems. Then they published 3 sets in the late 19th century. During her reclusive life in her own house, she wrote a lot of poems and correspondences that contain great literary value. But she published few of them. Why she wrote many but published few has becom

16、e a common topic to the people, and this is also the topic purpose of this thesis. As a famous writer, she and her works have been studied by a lot of people, such as Ferlazzo Paul J, as well as Chinese scholars Jiangfeng and Liu Shoulan. Basing on previous studies, this thesis is going to specifica

17、lly discus the reasons why she did not publish her poems.II. Emily Dickinsons personality2.1 Introverted Emily was introverted, and she disliked dealing with people. So she didnt want to show her talent.Her father Edward was indeed harsh and arbitrary. At the memory of Emily, her father immersed in

18、legal matters all day, simply didnt care about her much. Since she was a little child, she had a sense of awe toward her father. She thought that her father looked like Cromwell or Ancient Romes General. Before the age of 20, her father had always been the backbone of her life, and the major influen

19、ce that formed her personality.With the growth of age, Emily began to feel dissatisfied toward her fathers strictness. And the sense of worship toward her father had gradually replaced by the feelings of contradiction. On the one hand, her father had an unwavering love to Austin, but didnt spare a g

20、lance on her own intellectual superiority. It made her sad and emerge the feelings of resistance; On the other hand, the irresistible authority of fathers status in the family and charisma remained functioning as an absolute dominant role in her life, and they were her spiritual support for survival

21、. In order to maintain harmony at home and relative independence, she has been silent to deal with the various contradictions in life. In order to be her fathers obedient daughter, Emily seldom left Amherst, and she was also rare to drop a friends house. That was why she was so introverted.June 16,

22、1874, while Edwards was speaking at the conference of Massachusettss legislative bodies, he fell to the ground suddenly because of a heart attack. He supported to walk to the hotel, and died two hours later. Her fathers death made her grief and loss, and it made her became more introverted. She thou

23、ght that her home was no longer a home since her fathers death.During the last 20 years of her life, Emily often communicated with Bowles, one of her best friends, by correspondence. Interestingly, when Bowles visited the Dickinsons, he couldnt see Emily, but received her letter the next day.In Emil

24、ys last few years, Mabel often went to play the piano in Emilys home. When Mabel was playing the piano in the room, Dickinson always set quietly on the stairs, not allowing people to see. When Mabel finished playing, Emily would send some cake, wine and poetry to Mabel to show gratitude.As introvert

25、ed as she was, sometime she even didnt want to see her close friends, how could a woman like this would publish her poetry to the world?2.2 High-heartedIn 1847 autumn, at the age of seventeen Emily left for South Hadley, Massachusetts to attend the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. This schools school

26、objective was to train the opposite sex companions for pastors who go abroad to do their missionary work. That year, in the early morning prays of Christmas days preceding day, the school Principal Lyon announced that all the students and teachers must have a fasting in Christmas day. The girls were

27、 not allowed to leave the bedrooms, but to pray and think of faults quietly. However, Emily and her roommates refused to do like that. The Principal was startled by this action that disregarded authority. She punished the students, who refused to follow her announce, to stand in front of the schoolt

28、eachers and other students. Finally, Emily, who looked delicate, stood in the public with no fear. Judge Ottis Phillips Lord was not only her fathers good friend, but also her close friend. After her fathers death, in Emilys 40s, their friendship even developed into love. Dickinson was intense to en

29、joy the true love, and she told it to Lord, hoping that she could become Emily Lord. However, when Lord understood and accepted this love, and proposed to marry her, Emily refused decidedly. She said that rejection could bestow her to happiness, and the word no is the most frantic word in our langua

30、ge. From her words, we can see how arrogance she was. Although her dry mind needed love to moisten, and although she was willing to be his captive, she was actually not willing to enable her desire to be obtained easily. But she only hoped to take the man she loved as her father. Perhaps, she just w

31、anted to live in the fantasy, to immerse in her spirit world. From the tow stories above, we can see that Emily Dickinson was a high-hearted woman. She was arrogant. She wanted to aloof from worldly affairs.III. Purpose of Emily Dickinsons writingDifferent people have different purposes of writing.

32、Some people write to disclose the social contradiction, some people write to earn money, but Emily Dickinson just wanted to write down her thought. Lu Xun, a famous Chinese writer, studied on Medicine at first. But in order to wake up Chinese people, he gave up his studying on Medicine, and began to

33、 write. He wrote many articles to disclose all kinds of ugly social phenomena. In order to achieve the purpose of his writing, he must publish his articles.Dickinsons living environment did not have much serious contradiction. Although she was dissatisfied with the shackles of religion, after all sh

34、e was impacted by the thought of Puritan. She was opposed to the male authority, but she wasnt hostile to men. She had no desire to conquer men, but she just would like to surmount the obstacles that restrict her action. Although she had been dissatisfied with his fathers harsh, she respected her fa

35、ther very much.Another well-known Chinese writer Han Han, he can earn a lot of money from writing books. It is said that the money he get from a book he wrote could buy a sports car. He is a youth with open personality. He enjoys playing, and he likes sports car. In order to improve the quality of h

36、is life, he has to write and publish books to make money. Compared with him, Dickinson was introverted. She was born in a rich family, so she wasnt lack of money. In addition, her introverted personalities made her do not want to let the public know her thought.Dickinsons writing purpose was to vent

37、 her personal feelings. A girls delicate inner world would not be opened, because it was secret. Her family was rich, and she had a younger sister, who never married during her life, to take goof care of the whole family. Under the condition of no stress, she could explore the life and death, as wel

38、l as spiritual significance.Her writing purpose determined that there was no need for her to publish her poems.IV. The character of Emily Dickinsons poetry4.1 The using of omissionOmission was the rhetorical device that Dickinson used to use. Because of the omitted phenomenon that runs counter to tr

39、aditional norms of grammar always occurred, her poetry has also become more difficult to understand. No wonder that many of her contemporaries, both readers and critics, thought that her language was very bad. Even if when her close friend Higginson decided to publish her poetry, he still thought fi

40、rmly that even though her ideas could conquer the readers, but the defect in grammar standard is actually obvious. Perhaps, precisely because of these weird language features, her poetry was confusion for a long time for the publishing industry.Let us taste these features by reading her poetry.Four

41、Trees - upon a solitary Acre - Without Design Or Order, or Apparent Action - Maintain - The Sun - upon a Morning meets them - The Wind - No nearer Neighbor - have they - But God - The Acre gives them - Place - They - Him - Attention of Passer by - Of Shadow, or of Squirrel, haply - Or Boy - What Dee

42、d is Theirs unto the General Nature - What Plan They severally - retard - or further - Unknown (2008, Christine)The poem shows a fragmented scene. On the screen there are the trees, land, squirrels, children and the shadow. This scenario reminds us something described in her another poem. She descri

43、bed the long shadow and That Darkness. (poem No.764) On the screen, it seems that all are deeply in a flash, even if the sun and wind are just a brief appearance. The only thing that stays with them for long-term is the closer neighbor God. However, even the almighty God can not understand why these

44、 things are not linked, or put them into one organic entity, because he can not know their plan and action.From the syntactic level, it is obviously that this poem does not follow the traditional rules of grammar. For instance, in the first section, the contact verb “remain” which shows no dynamic d

45、oesnt appear until the fourth line. The main sentence (What Deed is Theirs unto the General Nature -) of the final section also has only one contact verb “is”. “Retard”, the only transitive verb of the poem, appears in the clause What Plan / They severally - retard - or further -. It makes the meani

46、ng very confusing. However, such a screen that lacks of dynamic is filled with a large number of nouns. The “Four Trees” have no “Design and order to grow in the solitary land. Perhaps, this is a true portrayal of unconscious nature in the mind of the poet. Clearly, the poet does not want to show th

47、e disorder of nature directly, but insinuate the chaos of nature and human society through the use of a lot of irregular omission.4.2 The using of dashIn the drafts that wrote on the draft paper, fragments of paper and margins of envelopes, there are a variety of lines with different length and grad

48、ient, in addition to common comma, full stop, question mark and exclamation point. The editors have treated all the lines as dashes. Amount these strange symbols, dash is the most frequent one. These various shapes of the symbols make her poems very difficult to be understood by the readers. The sym

49、bols make her poems seem so chaotic that her contemporaries thought that her poetry was very bad. So her poetry were not accepted by the publicThe brainThe brainis wider than the skyForput them side by sideThe one the other will containWith easeand you besideThe brain is deeper than the seaForhold t

50、hemBlue to BlueThe one the other will absorbAs spongesBucketsdoThe Brain is just the weight of GodForHeft themPound for PoundAnd they will differif they doAs Syllable from Sound - Emily Dickinson (1830-1882), The Brain.(2007, Hu Yindong，Liu Shusen)The poem was written in about 1862, an emphasis upon

51、 the limitless nature of spirit, and upon its sacredness that is compared to that of God. In the poem, there are many dashes. There is no need to put any mark between the words brain and is, but she used a dash. People dont know what the dash mean. It is common for Emily to put dash in any places in

52、 her poems. In the sentence ForHeft themPound for Pound, there are three dashes. The first and second ones are followed by capital letters, so it seems that they function as a full stop, but we can not put more than one full stop in one sentence according to grammar. Compared to the poems of other p

53、oets, this poem looks very strange. V. The publication history of Emily Dickinsons poetryAfter Emilys death, Lavinia, Mabel Loomis Todd, and Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson edited her poems and published them. They brought out two well received volumes, Poems by Emily Dickinson, and Poems by Emily D

54、ickinson, Second Series. Later, Mabel Loomis Todd brought out a third volume alone, Poems by Emily Dickinson, Third Series. The poems in these three volumes were significantly edited to meet the popular taste of the time for poetry. In the 1950s, Thomas H. Johnson edited The Poems of Emily Dickson.

55、In this volume, Dickinsons idiosyncratic punctuation, unmetrical verse, off-rhymes, and other innovations that had been regularized by previous editors, are restored to their original.In 1971, the United States Post Office issued a commemorative stamp of Emily; the portrait of the poet on the stamp

56、was copied from her silver-made photo that still exists today. At that time, on the first day covers, there were a few of lines surrounding a rose rimmed by dew.If I can stop one Heart from breakingI shall not live in vainIf I can ease one Life the AchingOr cool one PainOr help one fainting RobinUnt

57、o his Nest againI shall not live in Vain(1996, Jiang Feng)This poem was written in 1864. It was a very normal one amount the 1700 poems left by Dickinson, the subject and the Emotional of the poem were just very close to the popular style of poetry at that time. It can be said that this poem does not reflect the typical style of Emily Dickinsons poetry. If Dickinson finished all her poetry in this style, then