英美短篇小说Unit20TheMagicBarrel.ppt

1、Unit 20 The Magic Barrel,_Bernard Malamud,Bernard Malamud,Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 March 18, 1986) was an American author of novels and short stories. Along with Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, The Natu

2、ral, was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel The Fixer (also filmed), about anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize,1 Early life 2 Writing career 3 Awards 4 Themes 5 Quotations 6 Works,Early life,Bernard Malamud was born i

3、n Brooklyn, New York, the son of Bertha and Max Malamud, Russian Jewish immigrants. Malamud entered adolescence at the start of the Great Depression. From 1928 to 1932, Bernard attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.,He received his B.A. degree from City College of New York in 1936. In 1942,

4、he obtained a Masters degree from Columbia University, writing a thesis on Thomas Hardy. He was excused from military service in World War II because he was the sole support of his widowed mother.,Starting in 1949, Malamud taught four sections of freshman composition each semester at Oregon State Un

5、iversity (OSU), an experience fictionalized in his 1961 novel A New Life. In 1942, Malamud met Ann De Chiara (November 1, 1917 March 20, 2007), an Italian-American Roman Catholic, and a 1939 Cornell University graduate. They married on November 6, 1945, despite the opposition of their respective par

6、ents. Ann typed his manuscripts and reviewed his writing. Ann and Bernard had two children, Paul (b. 1947) and Janna (b. 1952).,Writing career,He completed his first novel, The Light Sleeper, in 1948, but later burned the manuscript. His first published novel was The Natural (1952), which has become

7、 one of his best remembered and most symbolic works.,Malamuds second novel, The Assistant (1957), set in New York and drawing on Malamuds own childhood, is an account of the life of Morris Bober, a Jewish immigrant who owns a grocery store in Brooklyn. Although he is struggling financially, Bober ta

8、kes in a drifter of dubious character.,In 1967, his novel The Fixer, about anti-semitism in Tsarist Russia, won the both the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Malamud is also renowned for his short stories, often oblique allegories set in a dreamlike urban ghetto of

9、immigrant Jews.,The Magic Barrel was his first published collection of short stories (1958) and won Malamud the first of two National Book Awards he received in his lifetime.,Awards,National Book Award (1959) Fiction, The Magic Barrel (1967) Fiction, The Fixer Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1967) The F

10、ixer O. Henry Award (1969) Man in the Drawer,PEN/Malamud Award Given annually since 1988 to honor Malamuds memory, the PEN/Malamud Award recognizes excellence in the art of the short story. The fund continues to grow thanks to the generosity of many members of PEN and other friends, and with the pro

11、ceeds from annual readings. Past winners of the award include John Updike (1988), Saul Bellow (1989), Eudora Welty (1992), Joyce Carol Oates (1996), Alice Munro(1997), Sherman Alexie (2001), Ursula K. Le Guin (2002), and Tobias Wolff (2006).,Themes,Malamuds fiction touches lightly upon mythic elemen

12、ts and explores themes like isolation, class, and the conflict between bourgeois and artistic values. Writing in the second half of the twentieth century, Malamud was well aware of the social problems of his day: rootlessness, infidelity, abuse, divorce, and more. But he also depicted love as redemp

13、tive and sacrifice as uplifting. In his writings, success often depends on cooperation between antagonists.,Quotations,I write a book or a short story three times. Once to understand her, the second time to improve her prose, and a third to compel her to say what it still must say. It was all those

14、biographies in me yelling, We want out. We want to tell you what weve done to you.,All men are Jews, though few men know it. Life responds to ones moves with comic counterinventions. Without heroes we would all be plain people and wouldnt know how far we can go. Life is a tragedy full of joy. There

15、comes a time in a mans life when to get where he has to go - if there are no doors or windows he walks through a wall.,Works,Novels The Natural (1952) The Assistant (1957) A New Life (1961) The Fixer (1966) Pictures of Fidelman: An Exhibition (1969) The Tenants (1971) Dubins Lives (1979) Gods Grace

16、(1982),Story collections The Magic Barrel (1958) Idiots First (1963) Rembrandts Hat (1974) The Stories of Bernard Malamud (1983) The People and Uncollected Stories (includes the unfinished novel The People) (1989),Short stories The Mourners (1955) The Jew bird (1963) The Prison (1950) A Summers Read

17、ing Armistice,The Magic Barrel,1 Summary 2 The Plot 3 Analysis of Main Characters 4 Symbolism in the Work 5 Questions,A collection of thirteen short stories written by Bernard Malamud and published in 1958. It won the 1959 National Book Award for fiction. The stories included are The First Seven Yea

18、rs, The Mourners, The Girl of My Dreams, Angel Levine, Behold the Key, Take Pity, The Prison, The Lady of the Lake, A Summers Reading, The Bill, The Last Mohican, The Loan, and The Magic Barrel.,Summary,The story describes a young Jewish, Leo, who was to be ordained in June after six years of study,

19、 believed that he would have a better chance of getting employment with a congregation if he was married. But he was never in a company of women. So he called in Salzman, an old Jewish matchmaker who wanted to help his beloved daughter find a perfect husband, to find a bride for him. But he was disa

20、ppointed with the first three women Salzman introduced to him.,As Salzman depicted that Lily was so good that Leo determined to meet her. Just because of this appointment did Leo realize he was unloved and loveless. After a long-term despair, Leo decided to reject the arranged marriage; instead, he

21、wanted to find himself a bride. However, in a bunch of pictures given by Salzman, Leo saw Stellas picture by accident and fell in love with her immediately. He turned to Salzman for help and finally met Stella as he wished. And they eventually came together.,The Plot,At first, Leo is afflicted with the conflict between reality and ideal. At the second stage, Leo still bears the spiritual suffering, but he has greatly awakened. As for the last stage, Leo regains his identity and his soul has been sublimat