美国文学吴伟仁2.ppt

1、Part IV The literature of Realism(1865-1918),I. Historical Introduction: the civil war brought about 2 results: 1. Further industrialization, mechanization, urbanization, development of transportation and communication. 2. Westward movement, Homestead Act, by 1890, the last of the first 48 states we

2、re settled.,II. Literary Characteristics,1. Feminist movement. Emily Dickinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Ellen Glasgow, Willa Cather. 2. Decline of American Romanticism, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass. 3. Appearance of American realism 4. Appearance of Ame

3、rican naturalism.,American Realism(1870-1890),1. Reasons: civil war, social development. People sought to describe the wide range of American experience and to present the subtleties of human personality, to portray characters who were less simply all good or all bad. 2. Realism originated in France

4、. A literary doctrine that called for “reality and truth” in the depiction of ordinary life. 3. American realism, different from European realism, is more varied and individualistic.,American Realism,4. Development of American realism: first appear in the literature of local color, arbiter: William

5、Dean Howells. He defined realism as “nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material”. 5. Important writers: Henry James, Mark Twain.,Realism,a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully an actual way of life. The term refers, both to a lite

6、rary method based on detailed accuracy of description and to a more general attitude that rejects idealization, escapism, and other extravagant qualities of romance in favor of recognizing soberly the actual problems of life. Realism is not a direct or simple reproduction of reality but a system of

7、conventions producing a lifelike illusion of some real world outside the text, by processes of selection, exclusion, description or manners of addressing the reader.,American Naturalism: pessimistic realism,1. Naturalism came from France. 2. Reasons: civil war, social upheavals, Darwinism, hypothesi

8、zed that over the millennia, man had evolved from lower forms of life. Human were special, not because God had created them in His image, as the Bible taught, but because they had successfully adapted to changing environmental conditions and had passed on their survivalmaking characteristic genetica

9、lly. Men were dominated by the irresistible forces of evolution. Men were conceived as more or less complex combination of inherited attributes and habits conditioned by social and economic forces, by heredity and environment.,American Naturalism,3. Features of naturalist writing: A. naturalist writ

10、ers turned literary creation into a mechanical record of society, in a way of attempting to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness. They never made comments on the characters and their behaviors. B. The characters were often figures of low social and economic classes, with animal desire, some phy

11、sically strong but weak-willed figures. There were also some healthy and lofty persons, but their ending were miserable. C. the viewpoint from which the writers understood problems was amoral, or non-moral. They stressed men had no free will, their lives were controlled by heredity and environment.

12、D. their material was infinite.,American Naturalism,4. American Naturalist writers: Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London, Henry Adams, Theodore Dreiser.,Poetry,Poetry is an art of transforming an intensely personal moment /experience /emotion (subjective, inward) into an impersonal and communica

13、ble image (objective, outward) through language, with a certain form and context, line-length, rhyme-scheme, regular meter. A poem is a verbal device that would preserve an experience indefinitely by reproducing it in whoever read the poem. (Philip Larkin),Characteristics of Poetry,Concentration and

14、 intensity are two of the qualities that distinguish the poetic treatment of a subject from its treatment on prose. Poetry is characterized by the following elements: a musical effect created by rhythm and sounds, a precise and fresh imagery, and multiple levels of interpretation suggested by the co

15、nnotation of the closer words and allusions. (the ultimate aim of a poet, is to integrate all of these elements in order to produce a verbal statement in which everything form overall shape to individual word-choice is organically related in the most precise way possible.),Imagery and Tone,1. Imager

16、y is the use of descriptive language to re-create sensory experiences. An image is a verbal picture of an object, action, abstract idea, or sensation. It is often created by using figures of speech. There are ways making an idea or picture come closer into focus by relating the idea or experience to

17、 another that may be more familiar to the reader. 2. Tone is inferred by the reader through the word choice, the connotation of those words, the verse form, the rhyme, the figurative language and the allusions.,Poet and Reader,The relationship between poet and reader is like an infinitely renewable

18、contract, wherein each meets the other on the shared ground of language. The task for the reader is to minimize the loss and distortion of meaning during the process of transmission from the poets private world to the public domain where there are limitless possibilities for misunderstanding.,Meters

19、 of English poetry,There are 3 basic types of meters: Accentual meter (the number of syllables per line is variable, the number of accents per line is not), Syllabic meter (there is a fixed number of syllables per line, the number of accents is variable), Accentualsyllabic meter (combination of thes

20、e types is characterized by a regular pattern in the number of both syllables and stresses in each line).,Feet: combination of stressed and unstressed syllables,There are 5 basic types of metrical foot. Iambic foot/iamb: unstressed syllable + stressed syllable, repeat Trochaic foot/trochee: stressed

21、 syllable + unstressed syllable, never Anapestic foot/anapest: two unstressed syllables+ a stressed syllable, interrupt Dactylic foot/dactyle: a stressed syllable + 2 unstressed syllables , possible Spondaic foot/spondee: 2 successive stressed syllables, heartbreak Pyrrhic foot/pyrrhic: 2 successive

22、 unstressed syllables, the top of the morning,Walt Whitman(1819-1892),Life experience: born on May 31, 1819 in Est Hills farming community on Long Island, New York, his parents were poor and semiliterate. The family moved to Brooklin in 1823. He had a few years of schooling.At the age of 11, he bega

23、n workingas an office boy in a law firm, learned pringting, a teacher, a journalist.,Leaves of Grass,Published in 1855, it first contains only nine poems and until his death the nine editions with 400 poems came into being. Features of the poem: 1. the lines are often extremely long; 2. the line lin

24、k is visual for Whitman; 3. parallelism is a technique of the Biblical poetry, of repeating the idea in verse lines,but there might minor changes in wording;,4. his poetry is religious; 5. his poetic structure is called the envelope structure; 6. he used the catalogue technique; 7. his verse unit is

25、 unique; 8. whereas many poets use meter to establish the rhyme of the poem, he seemes to wrok according to thoughts;,9. oratory ; 10. the influence of opera; 11.his poems are composed like mosaics; 12.he often wrote in the third person about his own experience; 13.he used slang words; 14.mysterism.

26、,Song of Myself In the Preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, Whitman says: “ The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity.” “Song of Myself” is characterized by simplicity of simplicity, but also by art of

27、 art. The simplicity lies in the simple expressionthe wording and the sentencing and the natural lining of the poem. The art lies in the varying rhythms of the poem-the ebb and flow of emotion within it., the shift of mood, the alternation between moments of intensity and moments of relaxation.,And

28、the Preface says,” The messages of great poets to each man and woman are,What we enclose you enclose, What we enjoy you may enjoy.” “Song of Myself” is saturated with the the pride of the persona himself and with the vehemence of the audacity of freedom. And the persona, that is, the “I” in the poem

29、, is Walt Whitman, is every American and is every human being. The vehemence of pride and audacity flows not only in words, but also from and in the sounds of the lines, powerful and torrential lines bursting out in succession.,The oneness of the persona with every American man and woman and with ev

30、ery human being, agrees to the varying but unifying rhythm, and to the harmonious melody. And in other words, not only the words describe the oneness, but also the melody expresses the oneness. This is the agreement between sound and sense. The “Song of Myself”, is the song of oneness, in terms of t

31、he sense and the sound.,I Sit and Look Out It is a poem of lines, and it opens with immediate presentation of the speakers stance and frame of view. The stance, sitting, is fixed and within the frame are placed “all the sorrows of the world.” Following the opening line, 7 lines, containing 11 juxtap

32、osed parallel clauses, present, in a sweeping and scanning way, 1 group of auditory images(“I hear) and 10 groups of visual and kinesthetic images(“I see”, “I mark”, “I observe”). These groups of images are typical ones or representatives of the sorrows of the world.,The 9th line puts, abruptly, an

33、end to the view of the sorrows that occur “without end”, and brings the speaker and the reader back to the stance of the view: a sitting-look-out-open stance. Upon the stance, the speaker continues to see and hear more of these without end. What he chooses to do or can do is to be silent. What more

34、is heard and seen? Why is he silent? And for how long will he be silent? There is a large blank that the reader should fill in with his own sensation and imagination.,Free Verse,Free verse, also known as “open form” verse, is the verse without regular meter, line length, rhyme(scheme), or stanza for

35、m, depending on natural speech rhythms related to the actual cadence of the poet expressing himself. It is different from the conventional schemed verse in several aspects: Regular meter, or controlled rhythmic pattern, is essential to conventional poetry; but free verse is based on the irregular rh

36、ythmic cadence of the recurrenc, with variation, of phrases and syntactical patterns rather than the recurrent metrical patterns.,Rhyme occurs in most traditional poetry(except blank verse), and often with various schemes. In free verse, however, rhyme may or may not be present; but when it is used

37、with great freedom. In conventional verse, the unit is often foot, or the line; but in free verse, the units are much larger, sometimes being paragraphs or strophes. If the free verse unit is the line, as it is in Whitman, the line is usually determined by qualities of actual speech rhythm and thoug

38、ht, rather than feet or syllable count; thus the line may be as short as one word, or as long as a passage.,In comparison with conventional verse, free verse may be composed with rhythms and melodies more personal and individual, more appropriate to the subject and the theme. In the hands of the gif

39、ted poets free verse very often acquires rhythms and melodies of its own. There is in free verse greater flexibility of the form and greater agreement between sound and sense. There are signs of it in medieval alliterative verse and in the translation of the Authorized King James Bible, which attemp

40、ts to approximate the Hebrew cadences. The Psalms and The Song of Solomon are noted examples of free verse.,Milton opposed the tyranny of strict versification. Milton, in order to set off the vexation, hindrance and constraint of traditional verse, experimented with free verse in Lycidas and Samson

41、Agonistes. After Milton, European poets, including Macpherson, Blake, Arnold, Heine, Goethe, Rimbaud, Hugo, and Baudelaire, continued the experiment with free verse. And the French poets of the late 19th century established the vers libre movement, from which the term free verse comes. Walt Whitman

42、and Gerald Manley Hopkins did more and better than anyone else to develop it to maturity; and Whitman startled the literary world with Leaves of Grass, by using lines of variable lengths which depended for their rhythmic effect on cadenced units and on repetition, balance, and variation of words, ph

43、rases, clauses, and lines, instead of on recurrent metric effect.,Emily Dickinson,Previewing Questions: 1.preview “I heard a Fly buzz” and “Because I could not stop for death”. 2. What is the symbolic meaning of the fly? 3. How does she feel when dying? 4. What is the theme of the poem? 5. What do t

44、he carriage and drive symbolize? Who is “He”? What is he like? 6. What is the theme of the poem? 7. What are the features of Emilys poem?,Emily Dickinson: Americas best-known female poet,I. Life story (1830-1886) II. Works:1800 poems, the definitive edition of her poetry were published in 1955: The

45、Poetry of Emily Dickinson. (Her weakness is a reliance on rhythmic cadences and meters from hymns and popular jingles. Her modernity is her articulation of psychological experience and skeptical desire for faith.),Emily Dickinson,Sources: Dickinson enjoyed the Bible, English writers Shakespeare, Mil

46、ton, Dickens, Browning, Keats, George Herbert, George Eliot, Thomas Carlyle.,Themes: wholly original, from her personal experiences, love, nature, friendship, death, immortality, war, god, religious belief, humor, literature, music, art.,Artistic features,Abundant use of dashes, irregular and idiosy

47、ncratic punctuation and capitalization. Clear-cut, delicately original imagery, precise and simple diction, fragmentary and enigmatic metrical pattern.,Short poetic lines, condensed by using intense metaphors and by extensive use of ellipsis. Conventional meters, iambic tetrameter, off-rhymes. Visua

48、l and audible effects, great imagina- tion, sincere emotions.,On Poetry,She thought that poetry should be powerful and touching. The inspiration of the poet came from his inner world or intensity of his emotions and the past literary traditions and the noble heroes. Like Emerson, she thought that on

49、ly the real poet could understand the world. Truth, virtue and beauty are all the one thing. The most dignified beauty was embodied by the active, affirmative dignity. Poetry should express ideas through concrete images. It was the poets duty to express abstract ideas through vivid and fresh imagery

50、. She was against the restriction of the traditional doctrines and argued for the depiction of ones inner world.,On nature,Dickinson observed nature closely and described it vividly but never with the feeling of being lost in it, or altogether part of it, nor was she surprised when its creatures als

51、o kept their distance. She thought that nature was both kind and cruel, which was similar to Tennyson.,On Death,She wrote about nearly 600 poems on death. Her attitude toward immortality was contradictory. It is clear always that for Dickinson life and consciousness are inseparable. To be transmuted

52、 into grass or transcendentally made one with the ocean or the over-soul are as irrelevant and meaningless to this individualist as the idea would have been to her puritan ancestors.,Because I could not stop for death,She attempts to image some sort of being after death develops the deceptively triv

53、ial metaphor of death as a gentleman taking a lady for a drive. He and his passenger are clearly presented but perhaps the carriage also holds “immortality”. In a few compact lines the drive rapidly becomes ones passage through a lifetime. Although it ends unambiguously at the grave there is still a

54、 bare hint of some inconceivable but possible continuing consciousness.,Summary of each stanza,Stanza 1: The angel of death, in the image of a kind person, comes in a carrage for the sake of Immortality and the poet. Stanza 2: To show my politeness to god of death, I gave up my word and my enjoyment

55、 of life as well; I give up my life. Stanza3: The journey of our carriage implies the experience of human life:,School implies time for childhood; the fields of gazing grain, for youth and adulthood; which the setting sun, for old age. Stanza 4: Probably we may say the sun sets before we reach the d

56、estination-the night falls, death arrives. I felt a fear and chilly after death, for my shroud is thin and my scarf too light. Despite the description of “death”, the usual gloomy and horryfying atmosphere is lightened by the poetess with the elegantly fluttering clothing she describes.,Comment on t

57、he poem,The poem is dicussing death, a very gloomy subject, but it is done with a rther light tone. The tone is light just because the author does not take death as a catastrophe; instead,she treats the angel of death as a very polite gentleman, as a long-missing guest, giving up her work and leisur

58、e, putting on her fine silky dresses, she accompanies death in the same carriage to eternity. All the beauty of this work lies in the poetesss open-minded attitude towards death.,I Heard a Fly Buzz-when I died-,Stanza 1. When I was dying, I heard the buzz of a fly which reminded me of the stillness

59、in the air. STaza2. Before the absolute power of death, I was helpless, so were my relative and friends. They could do nothing more than gathering around me; tearless and breathlessw, and watching the arrival of death to me. Stanza 3. When I was abandoning this material world, a fly comes to me.,I Died for Beauty,Stanza 1. I died pursuing the beauty of art and immediately as I became accustomed to the new circumstance of a tomb, I was told that there was another who died for truth and arrived in the next room. Stanza 2. I died for beauty and he died for truth. Since “b