英美短篇小说unit24WhosIrish.ppt

1、Unit 24 Who Is Irish?,Gish Jen,outline,About the author Important works & writing features Who Is Irish Warm up questions Plot summary Analysis Conclusion Discussion,About the author- Gish Jen (1955- ),Born in 1955 in Scarsdale, New York. Grew up as a second generation Chinese American living in an

2、area with people from many different ethnic backgrounds. Graduate of Harvard in English Began writing in undergraduate composition class that included a study of Robert Fitzgerald.,Early life and education,Gish Jen is a second generation Chinese American. Her parents emigrated from China in the 1940

3、s, her mother from Shanghai and her father from Yixing. Born in Long Island, New York, she grew up in Queens, then Yonkers, then Scarsdale. Her birth name is Lillian, but during her high school years she acquired the nickname Gish, named for actress Lillian Gish. She graduated from Harvard Universit

4、y in 1977 with a BA in English, and later attended Stanford Business School (19791980), but dropped out in favor of the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, where she earned her MFA in fiction in 1983.,Fiction,Several of her short stories have been reprinted in The Best American Short Stories. Her p

5、iece Birthmates, was selected as one of The Best American Short Stories of The Century by John Updike. Her works include four novels: Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land, The Love Wife, and World and Town. She has also written a collection of short fiction, Whos Irish?. Her first novel was T

6、ypical American. Her second novel, Mona in the Promised Land features a Chinese-American adolescent who converts to Judaism. The Love Wife, her third novel, portrays an Asian American family with interracial parents and both biological and adopted children. The novel World and Town portrays a fragil

7、e America, its small towns challenged by globalization, development, fundamentalism, and immigration, as well as the ripples sent out by 9/11. World and Town won the 2011 Massachusetts Book Prize in fiction and was nominated for the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.,Nonfiction,In 2013

8、Jen published her first non-fiction book, entitled Tiger Writing: Art, Culture, and the Interdependent Self. Based on the Massey Lectures that Jen delivered at Harvard in 2012, Tiger Writing explores East-West differences in self construction, and how these affect art and especially literature. Jen

9、has also published numerous pieces in the New York Times, The New Republic, and in other venues.,Honors and awards,In 2009, Princetons Elaine Showalter devoted much attention to Jen in her survey of American women writers, A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers From Anne Bradstreet to Annie Pro

10、ulx. In an article in The Guardian, Showalter elaborated, including Jen in a list of eight top authors, and pointing out that Jens vision of a multicultural America goes well beyond the angry rants or despairing projections of Roth, DeLillo, McCarthy or other finalists in the Great American Novel co

11、mpetition. In 2012, Junot Diaz concurred, calling Jen the Great American Novelist were always hearing about. And in 2000, in a millennial edition of The Times Magazine in the UK, in which figures were asked to named their successors in the 21st century, John Updike picked Jen.,Important Works & Writ

12、ing Features,In the American Society(1986) Typical American(1991) Mona in the Promised Land(1996) Who Is Irish?(1999) The Love Wife(2004) Much of Gish Jens writing reflects her childhood experiences Immigration, assimilation, ethnic tension are the major themes in her work Mona In The Promised Lands

13、 has been compared to Robert Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby,Who Is Irish?,Whos Irish? is a collection of short stories named for the short story in the collection, Whos Irish? Discussing Points Cultural Differences Generational Gap Americanization,Warming- up Questions: 1. What is the reason for using

14、 broken English? 2. The Grandmother calls her daughters husband Irish at the beginning of the story. The Labels of Irish and Chinese seem to stand for certain traits. What are these traits and why is this significant? 3. Ethnic labels have a tendency to be overly broad, why then are they used so muc

15、h in this story? 4. There are disagreements between the mother and grandmother. To what degree are these differences a result of culture, and generation and personality?,Plot summary,This is the story of an elderly Chinese woman and her mixed family living in New York. She begins talking about her g

16、randdaughter, Sophie, who is the daughter of John, who is Irish, and the narrators daughter Natalie who is Chinese. The narrator tells of how wild her granddaughter is and makes various cultural distinctions calling her Sophie wild and saying millions of children in China, not one act like this. ( J

17、en, 400). She also writes that her methods of discipline are not exactly embraced by her Irish son-in-laws family. The narrator argues that spanking is acceptable while her daughter encourages her to use her words (Jen, 401),The main climax of the story takes place when the narrator takes Sophie to

18、play in the park. Sophie learns from another kid, Sinbad, that it is ok to kick their parents. So Sophie kicks Sinbads mother to which the narrator responds by spanking Sophie. Sophie then hides in a foxhole that Sinbad created and throws a clump of dirt onto her grandmother. The narrator is furious

19、 and tries to get Sophie to come out of the foxhole. She eventually grabs a stick and begins to poke at Sophie to see if she is still alive. Evening comes, as well as Natalie and John who are furious when they see the narrator poking at their daughter with a stick. John gets Sophie out but she is co

20、vered in bruises.,At the end of the story, Natalie convinces the narrator that she needs to move out. Bess, Johns Mother, offers to let the narrator come stay with her. Natalie and John come and visit but they do not bring Sophie. Bess says they will in time. The story ends with the narrator reflect

21、ing on how she has become an honorary Irish.,Analysis,“Sophie is three years old American age, but already I see her nice Chinese side swallowed up by her wild Shea side.” “Nothing the matter with Sophies outside, thats the truth. It is inside that she is like not any Chinese girl I ever see.” “I am

22、 not exaggerate: millions of children in China, not one act like this.” “A Chinese mother would help, but American mothers, they look at you, they shake their head, they go home. And, of course, a Chinese child would give up, but not Sophie.”,Conflicts between American main stream culture and Chines

23、e traditional culture,“In China, daughter take care of mother. Here it is the other way around. Mother help daughter, mother ask, Anything else I can do? Otherwise daughter complain mother is not supportive. I tell daughter, We do not have this word in Chinese, supportive.” “My daughter thought this

24、 Amy very creativeanother word we do not talk about in China. In China, we talk about whether we have difficulty or no difficulty. We talk about whether life is bitter or not bitter. In America, all day long, people talk about creative.”,Analysis, You spank her, shell stop, I say another day. But th

25、ey say, Oh no. In America, parents not supposed to spank the child. It gives them low self-esteem, my daughter say. How could you use a stick? I told you to use your words! She is hard to handle, I say. Shes three years old! You cannot use a stick! say my daughter. She is not like any Chinese girl I

26、 ever saw, I say,Conflicts between two generations,Throughout the story the Grandmother seems at odds with her daughter and the American culture in general. She cannot understand why spanking a misbehaving child is not a good idea and thinks that the baby sitter is crazy for letting Sophie run aroun

27、d the house barefoot. This, combined with her difficulty with the English language makes her very confused and frustrated with the country that she is in.,Analysis,Of course, I shouldnt say Irish this, Irish that, especially now I am become honorary Irish myself, according to Bess. Me! Whos Irish? I

28、 say, and she laugh. I dont know how Bess Shea learn to use her words, but sometimes I hear what she say a long time later. Permanent resident. Not going anywhere. Over and over I hear it, the voice of Bess.,Assimilation： indifference about ethnic identity,Analysis,The Grandmother calls her daughter

29、s husband Irish at the beginning of the story. The Labels of Irish and Chinese seem to stand for certain traits. Chinese: discipline, filial Irish: willfulness, self-centered These two labels put value sets into two distinct categories that are often warring factions for immigrants. Labels reflect stereotypes and a level of ignorance.,Labels,Conclusion,Gish Jen dealt with cultural differences in herself and around her while growing up. Her writing refl