Realistic literature美国现实主义文学
美国现实主义文学苏倪娟
美国现实主义文学苏倪娟The Literature of America Realism 美国现实主义文学(1860―1914) `Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.------William Dean HowellI. Development II. Characteristics III. Authors and Works时至19世纪末, 现实主义作为一种文学思潮在美国已经得到了蓬勃发展并且日臻成熟。
这一阶段的文学主要反映美国人民与垄断资产阶级的矛盾,并广泛地触及这种矛盾制约下的社会生活。
出现了一批现实主义作家, 如豪威尔斯、马克吐温、亨利詹姆斯、海明威等, 正是这些作家的作品标志着现实主义文学潮流在美国已经形成, 在创作实践中已经成为一种成熟的文学形式。
二战期间及20世纪70年代后期形成了美国现实主义文学的第二次高峰。
两次世界大战之间30年左右, 产生了福克纳、海明威那样别具风格的大师级的作家, 更产生了像杰克伦敦、德莱塞、斯泰因、多斯珀索斯、斯坦贝克等现实主义声名卓著的文豪。
20世纪70年代中期又出现了一种现实主义文学复兴的景观。
与美国现代主义作品相比, 美国近20年作品的写作重心有了转移, 即创作主题和题材有了变化, 不少作家的创作以家庭/ 回归为主题,即重温大团圆主题, 这跟现代主义时期作品中离家出走的主题形成了鲜明的对比。
这正是20世纪70、80、90年代人们的社会心态在文学作品中的真实反映。
近20年来, 美国文学中的现实主义复兴, 美国作家回头写实, 已成为当代美国文坛一种不可忽视的文学现象。
作家们在重新找回现实主义的眼光和感觉的同时, 又从现代主义和后现代主义创作手法中汲取营养, 形成了独树一帜的风格, 因而, 这个现实主义, 又被称为新现实主义手法。
美国文学第三讲现实主义时期.ppt
Language and Style
• (1) First, he possessed utter clarity of style. The novel is written in a language that is totally different from the rhetorical language used by Emerson, Poe, and Melville. It’s not grand, pompous (very formal and important-sounding words), but simple, direct, lucid, and faithful to the colloquial speech. This unpretentious style of colloquialism is best described as “vernacular”. Before him there had been only American dialect; after him there was an American language. His success in creating this plain but evocative language hastened the end of American reverence (great respect and admiration) for British and European culture. His adherence to American themes, settings, and language set him apart from many other novelists of the day and had a powerful effect on such later writers .
美国现实主义时期文学
Naturalism
•apply scientific theory into art
•not adding an amoral attitudeto their woeks
•more pessimistic
N. is evolved from R. when the author's tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more detached and pessimistic, N. is an extreme form of R.. It is no more than a different philosophical approach to reality, or to human existence.
WORKS: Sister Carrie 《嘉莉妹妹》 An American Tragedy 《美国的悲剧》 Jenny 《珍妮姑娘》
1871—1945
By Stone
S. What is the distinction ?
Realism •concern of life directly
从根本上说是一个关于美国人的故事是对美国人的诽谤尤其是对美国女孩的侮辱和冒犯同时因为书中老一从根本上说是一个关于美国人的故事是对美国人的诽谤尤其是对美国女孩的侮辱和冒犯同时因为书中老一还还辈人的形象问题所以本书威胁了美国父母对孩子施加影响和表现威信的权力
美国现实主义时期文学
content：
Literary Features
He said that fiction must be "the realism is true to life ,reflecting the possibility of motives. " WORKS:
美国文学chapter2 The Realistic period (现实主义文学时期)
主要家作品
A. 马克.吐温
B.亨利.詹姆斯
C.艾米莉.狄金森
D.西奥多.德莱塞
A. 马克.吐温
一. The works :
1.The early period :
A.With works like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 哈克贝利芬历险记an Life on the Mississippi Twain密西西比河上的生活 shaped the world's view of America .
2.The late period :
A. the Gilded Age镀金时代 is Written in collaboration with Warner , the novel explored the scrupulous individualism .
B.In A Connecticut Yankee in king Arthu's Court ,亚瑟王宫廷的美国佬 Twain follows the journey of a representative of modern technology and ideas into a historically backward , feudal society .
文学史分析
一、The time period :
The period ranging from 1865 to 1914 has been referred to as the Age of Realism in the literary history of the United States .
B. The first among these books is Roughing it .
美国文学--现实主义,马克吐温
The Age of RealismThe year 1865 is considered as an important year in the shift from Romanticism （浪漫主义）to Realism （现实主义）in American literature．Realism had always existed in literature，but yet not until the late nineteenth century did realism dominate in American 1iterature．The American society after the Civil War (1861—1865) provided rich soil for the rise and development of Realism．The civil War was a turning point in American historyThe Civil War destroyed the romantic concept of war. In the eyes of romanticists，wars were always glorious, grand，and noble encounters，something heroic. However, the amazing number of dead soldiers made it hard for people to have a noble vision of mankind any more. Therefore, Mark Twain once described man as “the only animal who indulged in one after another of the atrocity （凶恶，残暴）of war．” This statement is a representative attitude of the post-Civil War writers in America．To them，there is nothing romantic about war．Moreover, the Civil War also c hanged American people‟s views on values, morality and religion．Before the Civil War，the puritan ethic （清教的价值观）was the dominant morality in America．Puritans believed in the principles of evil and“salvation”. They considered perseverance （坚持不懈），stark （全然的）simplicity，and strenuous （艰苦，繁重的）good works as virtue，and regarded idleness，drunkenness and sexual immorality as depravity （堕落）. However，materialism had shaken the religious conviction of the Puritans. Stimulated by materialism，people were eager to pursue money and enjoyed the pleasures of life．They became dubious about human nature and God‟s benevolence （仁慈）. The Civil War marked a deterioration （恶化）of American moral values．Another important effect of the Civil War was American industrialization and urbanization （城市化）with its accompanying social diseases．The above political，social and moral changes have influenced American writers in both theme and technique．After the Civil War，there appeared a new generation of writers who were dissatisfied with the optimistic ideas of the Romanticists and showed a great interest in the realities of life. These realists sought to portray American life as it really was. They insist that the ordinary and the local were as suitable for artistic portrayal as the magnificent and the remote. They tried their best to create a new kind of literature that was completely realistic．Realism first appeared in the United States in literature with local, an amalgam （混合物）of romantic plots and realistic description of things immediately observable：the dialects，customs，sights，and sounds of reginal America. We can see this in the true-to-life descriptions of Bret Harte，William Dean Howells, Hamlin Garland，and Mark Twain．Bret Harte is the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularity．He presents stories about western mining town involving colorful gamblers，outlaws，and scandalous （丑恶可耻的）women. Thereafter editors ever sensitive to public taste （大众的阅读兴趣）demanded such works，and writers including Harte, Harriet Beecher Stowe，and Mark Twain provided regional stories and tales of the lives ofAmerica‟s Westerners，Southerners，and Easterns．Local-color fictions reached its peak of popularity in the 1880s，but by the turn of the century it has begun to decline as its limited resorces were exhausted and as its most popular writers grew tediously repetitious or turned to other literary modes.Realism is a direct contrast to Romanticism．As a movement，American Realism started during the Civil War period and evolved in the second half of the 19th century．It has realistically-flawed （有缺陷的）heroes instead of the idealized characters in Romanticism．The writers of the Realism tried to represent life with their writings．Their settings often include factories and slums，and their characters are ordinary people such as poor workers，businessmen，vagrants （流浪者），swindlers，（诈骗者）and even prostitutes．The most distinguishing characteristic of realism is probably the one given by William Dean：that it is“nothing more and nothing less t han truthful treatment of material．‟‟The realists tend to be highly selective in their choice of material，focusing upon what seems real to middle-class readers。
Realistic literature美国现实主义文学
• Iron
• Involves a contrast, a disparity between the expected and the actual. • ……..
Thank you for your listening
The Portrait of a Lady (1881) The Bostonians（1886） The Tragic Muse(1890)
• O. henry (1862-1918)
• One of the most prolific modern American short story writers.
• 1. In the United States three fundamental issues reached the breaking point in the period of 1865-1990. • 2. The conflict between the agrarian ideal of Jefferson and the industrial ideal of Hamilton. • 3. The conflict between the plantation gentility of the South and the commercial gentility of the north. • 4. The conflict between a culturally mature East and the.
• Humorist, satirist, lecturer, writer.
• Distinctive features: • A peculiarly American sense of humor • Used local dialect for comic effect but his prose style sounded distinctively in metaphor, newly invented and drawing rhythms.
美国文学课件10The Literature of the Realistic Period 4
2. Characteristics of American Naturalism Thematically: The lives of the downtrodden Human passion and sexuality The forces of environment and heredity Technically: Detailed documentation of life Gloomy and pessimistic atmosphere
Study question (page 114)
Why does Carrie still suffer from unsatisfied desires after she became successful? “Oh, Carrie, Carrie! … Oh, blind striving of the human heart! In your rocking chair, by your window, dreaming, shall you long, alone, in your rocking chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel”. (page 113)
The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost
Frost claimed that he wrote this poem about his friend Edward Thomas, with whom he had walked many times in the woods near London. Frost has said that while walking they would come to different paths and after choosing one, Thomas would always felt wondering what they might have missed by not taking the other path.
Part IV(3)The Literature of Realism 美国文学课件
Theme:
primitive violence; Anglo-Saxon supremacy; biological evolution; class warfare; and mechanistic determinism
In all, his works are a penetrating criticism of America of the time.
该文档贡献者很忙什么也没留下
Part IV
The Literature of Realism
Naturalism
A new and harsher realism
A more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories, and plays, usu. involving a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment.
the universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires; the world is amoral; religious “truths” are illusory; the helplessness of man, usu. of low social and economic classes, his insignificance in a cold world, and his lack of free will and dignity in face of the crushing forces of environment and heredity, thus the destiny of humanity is misery in life and oblivion in death
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The red badge of courage (1895) The Third Violet (1897)
• Theodore Dreiser(1871-1945)
• Novelist, one of the first American writers to come from the lower level of society. • • • • Distinctive features: As a Naturalistic writer, he stressed determinism His narrative method is natural and free from artifice His novels were very long filled with details about factories, banks, cities and business life.
• Iron
• Involves a contrast, a disparity between the expected and the actual. • ……..
Thank you for your listening
American realistic literature
Group number:
Outline:
Definition Time Characters Background Historical significance Representative writers Literary knowledge
• Stephen Crane（1871-1900）
• Novelist, poet and journalist • An observer of psychological and social reality • Distinctive features: • Direct and simple and used symbols and irony • He was influenced by impressionistic painters. He render readers the scene as a whole than focus on detail. • He’s writing is also characteristic of vivid color, animal imagery stereotyped character’s colloquial English, simple and straightforward narration. • • • • Major works: Maggie, A Girl of Street (1893) George’s Mother (1896) Active Service (1899)
• Humorist, satirist, lecturer, writer.
• Distinctive features: • A peculiarly American sense of humor • Used local dialect for comic effect but his prose style sounded distinctively in metaphor, newly invented and drawing rhythms.
• Major works: • Sister Carrie (1900) • The Titan (1914)
The Financier (1912) The Stoic (1947)
•
“All of us are more or less pawns. We’re moved about like chess pieces by circumstances over which we have no control.”
Definition:
Nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material. ——William Dean Howells (1837-1920)
Time:
The end of the Civil War(1861-1865) and beginning of the World War(1914-1918)
• Distinctive features: • Wit humor, irony cleverness, individuality, and local color are traditional earmarks. • His warmth of human understanding and sympathy with the “underdog” give many of his stories poignancy. • He always gave stories surprising endings. • • • • Major works: Sixes and Sevens(1900) The Four Million(1906) Heart of the West(1907)
• 1. In the United States three fundamental issues reached the breaking point in the period of 1865-1990. • 2. The conflict between the agrarian ideal of Jefferson and the industrial ideal of Hamilton. • 3. The conflict between the plantation gentility of the South and the commercial gentility of the north. • 4. The conflict between a culturally mature East and the.
Cabbage and Kings(1904) The Trimmed Lamp(1907) The Gentle Grafter(1908)
• Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) • short story writer
• Distinctive features: • Many characters suffer from suppressed and inarticulate feelings; they long for love and recognition or else; they wrapped in their own obsessive fancies. • Sense of isolation and desire for communication color almost all of Anderson’s best writings. • Major works: • Winesburg, Obio(1919)
Representative American realistic writers
Mark twain, Henry James, O. Henry, Sherwood Anderson, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser.
• Mark twain（1835-1910）
• Historical significance
• Realism came as a reaction against “the lie” of Romanticism and Sentimentalism. • The battle between idealists and realists provided the major issue of American literary history after the Civil War (1861-1865). Literature began to pay less attention to general ideas and more the immediate facts of life.
Characters:
Characters had to be ordinary, average, contemporary people. Plots had to be unobtrusive. The language had to be equally natural.
• Background:
• Major works: • The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County(1867) Roughing It(1872) • The Gilded Age(1873) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876) • Life on Mississippi(1883) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn （1884）
• Henry James (1843-1916) • Novelist, critics, historian • Distinctive features: • His work slay emphasis on the inner awareness and inward movement of his characters. • His realism was a special king of psychological realism. • Major works: • The American (1877) • The Art of Fiction(1884) • The Princess Casamassima（1886）
The Portrait of a Lady (1881) The Bostonians（1886） The Tragic Muse(1890)