英美文学课件7MarkTwain

1、Mark Twain,(马克吐温) Samuel Langhorne Clemens （塞缪尔朗赫恩克莱门斯） (1835-1910),Mark Twain (1835 -1910),Mark Twain was a great American writer, and he was also a famous speaker. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) was born in Florida and he was not a healthy baby. In fact, he was not expected to live through

2、the first winter. But with his mothers tender care, he managed to survive. As a boy, he caused much trouble for his parents. He used to play jokes on all of his friends and neighbors. He didnt like to go to school, and he constantly ran away from home.,Mark Twain (1835 -1910),He always went in the d

3、irection of the nearby Mississippi as he loved the great river so much. His father died when he was 12. Mark Twain left school and began to work for a printer, who only provided him with food and clothing. Then, he worked as a printer, a riverboat pilot and later joined the army. But shortly after t

4、hat he became a miner. During this period, he started to write short stories. Afterwards he became a full-time writer.,Realism A Response to Romanticism Tried very hard to capture life exactly as it was, rather than romanticizing it Rather than focus on emotion or prize it, realists tried to prevent

5、 their works from being filtered through their emotional lenses Characters came from poorer, super-rural or super-urban backgrounds Included workers at factories, people living in slums, etc. the types of people who never showed up as romantic heroes,Twain as a Realist,Twain as a Realist,Twain is on

6、e of the greatest realists possibly the greatest of all time. One of the reasons hes so great is that he dares to examine the “whys” why does society have problems? Why do characters experience conflicting emotions? Why do we act the way we do?,Mark Twain and his masterpieces,The Adventure of Tom Sa

7、wyer was an immediate success as “a boys book”; its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn became his masterpiece, the one book from which, as Ernest Hemingway noted, “all modern American literature comes.” Life on the Mississippi is another masterpiece of his.,Mark Twain and his masterpieces,In

8、 his later works the change from an optimist and humorist to an almost despairing determinist is unmistakable. Some critics link this change with the tragic events of his later life, the failure of his investments, his fatiguing travels and lectures in order to pay off his debts, and added to this,

9、the death of his wife and two daughters which left him absolutely inconsolable.,Samuel Clemens Major Works,The Gilded Age 镀金时代 written in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner Life on the Mississippi 密西西比河上 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court亚瑟王朝里的康涅狄格州美国佬 The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug

10、败坏了哈德莱堡的人 The Mysterious Stranger 神秘的陌生人 Autobiography These works contain bitter attacks on the human race,The Innocents Abroad 傻子国外旅行记 Roughing It艰难岁月 Puddnhead Wilson傻瓜维尔逊 The Prince and the Pauper王子与贫民 American Claimant美国申请人,Mark Twains Writing Features,1.local colour,represented social life thr

11、ough portraits of local places which he knew best,drew from his own rich fund of knowledge of people and places,tall tales (highly exaggerated),a texture of most local color literature，a kink of humor,2. Literature is an art of language. Mark Twains language is artistic and like a sharp weapon witho

12、ut doubt. Mark Twain is famous for his humor and satire. He used the artistic style of hyperbole on the basis of the western traditional humor and made his writing full of allegories that lay behind the humor.,Mark Twains Writing Features,Mark Twains Writing Features,humour,is of witty remarks mocki

13、ng at small things and making people laugh,is a kind of artistic style used to criticize the social injustice,3. He used a lot of colloquial idioms and colloquial syntax.,a master of language,short concrete direct in effect,simp1e, even ungrammatical,sentence sentence structure is mostly simple or c

14、ompound; ungrammatical elements Mark Twain made the colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of America.,An Excerpt from Chapter 31 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home wher

15、e his family was, as long as hed got to be a slave, and so Id better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion, for two things: shed be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so shed sell him straigh

16、t down the river again; and if she didnt, everybody naturally despises an ungratedful nigger, and theyd make Jim feel it all the time, and so hed feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of me! It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anyb

17、ody from that town again, Id be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame.,The key to understanding Twains novel is by realizing that its a satire.,What is Satire?,Satire - using sarcasm to denounce or expose something foolish So what is Twain trying to denounce? Racism. Irony - Opposite of literal meaning: I have a ton of homework - how nice! (this is also sarcasm) Or the opp