美国成长小说.ppt

1、American initiation story,What is a story of initiation?,An initiation story is a fiction in which the protagonist undergoes an experience that is life-changing, and usually that character is a young person who gains a measure of maturity from the experience.,Good examples of initiation in short sto

2、ries,James Joyces Araby John Updikes A & P Sarah Orne Jewetts A White Heron, Alice Munros The Found Boat.,Origins of the term,First appears: after World War II initiation borrowed from anthropology initiation rites are seldom foundthe term be adapted The ritual aspects: be replaced by other characte

3、ristics some definitions : also find parts of rituality in literary realizations of the initiation-theme This hypothesis is controversial in as much as it is difficult to define ritualistic behavior in everyday life. Ritualistic initiation stories include adult society deliberately testing and indoc

4、trinating the young” -only found in a very small proportion of works called initiation stories.,Views on the characteristics of stories of initiation,As mentioned, initiation in literature focuses on different aspects of the passage from childhood or adolescence to adulthood than the anthropologic t

5、erm denoting mainly rituals of primitive societies. In general, four aspects of initiation can be found in literature .,1. -denotes the disillusioning process of the discovery of the existence of evil, which is depicted as a confrontation of the innocent protagonist with guilt and atonement and ofte

6、n has the notion of a shocking experience. -describes an episode which leads the protagonist to gaining insight and gaining in experience, in which this experience is generally regarded as an important stage towards maturity.,2. the result of the initiatory experience -This includes the loss of orig

7、inal innocence concerning the protagonist and is often compared to the biblical Fall of Men. Furthermore, this approach generally stresses the aspect of duality in the initiation process, which is the aspect of loss of innocence as a hurtful but necessary experience as well as the aspect of profit i

8、n gaining identity.,3. In contrast to the approaches presented above, which focus on the individuals experiences and their consequences, the third one emphasizes the sociologic aspect of initiation -This means, that by an initiatory experience the protagonist is enabled to become a full member of an

9、 existing society.,4. centers on the story of initiation as describing the process of self-discovery and self-realization, which basically means the process of individuation.,The initiatory experiences described in stories of initiation generally represent only one certain stage or one certain aspec

10、t in the passage to maturity. There is no limit to the duration of an individuals initiation and, first of all, that one cannot find a certain moment of conclusion of this process.,In Hemingways work about stories of initiation, Marcus offers a provisional working definition : “An initiation story m

11、ay be said to show its young protagonist experiencing a significant change of knowledge about the world or himself, or a change of character, or of both, and this change must point or lead him towards an adult world. It may or may not contain some form of ritual, but it should give some evidence tha

12、t the change is at least likely to have permanent effects.”,The aspect of movement in stories of initiation,A physical movement(a journey): (1)the inner process of initiation (2)the gaining of experience and insight The three-part structure : innocence experience maturity,The motive of the journey reflects this structu