美國文學簡史常耀信版講義4

1、American NaturalismBackgroundInfluences1. Darwins theory: “natural selection”- survival of the fittest in natural selection 2. Spensers idea: “social Darwinism”- the utilization of Darwins ideas to justify predatory competition between men. 3. French Naturalism: Zora- an overemphasis on the coarser

2、sides of life Features 1. environment and heredity 2. scientific accuracy and a lot of details 3. general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the society significance It prepares the way for the writing of 1920s “l(fā)ost generation” and T. S. Eliot. Realism vs. NaturalismSpecific changes i

3、n subject matter and characterization which help in defining Naturalism as different from Realism: 1. The subject matter: A. The subject matter deals with those raw and unpleasant experiences which reduce characters to “degrading” behavior in their struggle to survive. These characters are mostly fr

4、om the lower middle or the lower classes - they are poor, uneducated. B. The milieu is the commonplace and the unheroic; life is usually the dull round of daily existence. But the naturalist discovers those qualities in such characters usually associated with the heroic or adventurous - acts of viol

5、ence and passion leading to desperate moments and violent death. The suggestion is that life on its lowest levels is not so simple as it seems to be. C. Generally the controlling force is society , the surrounding environment and heredity. 2. The concept of a naturalistic character: a. Characters ar

6、e conditioned and controlled by environment, heredity, chance, or instinct; but they have compensating humanistic values that affirm their individuality and life - their struggle for life becomes heroic and they maintain human dignity. b. The Naturalists attempt to represent the intermingling in lif

7、e of the controlling forces and individual worth. -“The primary goal of the late nineteenth-century American Naturalists was not to demonstrate the overwhelming and oppressive reality of the material forces present in our lives. Their attempt, rather, was to represent the intermingling in life of co

8、ntrolling forces and individual worth. The Naturalists do not dehumanize man.” major writersStephen Crane Jack London NorrisDreiserStephen Crane (1871-1900)Stephen Crane, American poet and novelist. In the short span of his short life, he created some famous works, among which The Red Badge of Coura

9、ge ranks as the best, which brings him eminence in literature. His collections of poems The Back Riders and Other Lines and War Is Kind achieved him prominence in poetry. His poems inherited Emilys style with succinct, deep-going language, ingenious, specific image, but without ornamentation, which

10、exerted lasting influence on poetry creation in 20th century. He was considered as the precursor of Imagistic poetry. Novels: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893)The Red Badge of Courage (1895) Georges Mother (1896), Active Service (1899)Poem collections: The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895) War

11、Is Kind (1899)Short stories: The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky The Blue HotelMajor worksMaggie: A Girl of the StreetsCranes Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) is one of the best, if not the earliest naturalistic American novels. It is the harrowing story of a poor, sensitive young girl whose uneducate

12、d, alcoholic parents utterly fail her. In love and eager to escape her violent home life, she allows herself to be seduced into living with a young man, who soon deserts her. When her mother rejects her, Maggie becomes a prostitute to survive, but soon commits suicide out of despair. Cranes earthy s

13、ubject matter and his objective, scientific style, devoid of moralizing, earmark Maggie as a naturalist work. The Red Badge of Courage (1895)In The Red Badge of Courage, Cranes greatest novel, the accidents of war make a young man seem to be a hero. The story is set in the Civil War. In the view of

14、the author, war changes man into animals. Seeing that he is about to be killed, young Fleming runs like a coward. Then, he is accidentally hit on the head. The other soldiers think it is a battle wound. They call it his “red badge of courage”. Later, in another battle, Fleming again behaves like an

15、animal. But this time he is a fighting, “ heroic” animal. Questions:How do you appreciate the significance of “War”?Whats Cranes view on “War”?Theme-The world, like the battlefield, is filled with meaningless confusion. - Good and bad, hero and coward are merely matters of chance, of fate. Frank Nor

16、ris (1870-1902)Benjamin Franklin Norris, naturalist novelist in the United States. He was profoundly influence by Zola, French naturalist, which can find expression in his representative works: McTeague, Vandover and the Brute. He focused on environmental impact upon insignificant hero, driving him

17、from normal, peaceful state into a primitive savageness. Next, Norris concentrated his energies on a trilogy, The Epic of the Wheat. The first and the best, The Octopus (1901), describes the struggle between farming and railroad interests in California. And the second novel, The Pit, was published p

18、osthumously in 1903， which concerns the manipulation of the wheat market in Chicago.The third part, to be entitled The Wolf, was to tell of a wheat famine in Europe, but never written. Also published posthumously were The Responsibilities of the Novelist (1903), in which he advocated that novelist s

19、hould describe the reality，tell the truth, and probe into humanity.According to the novelist Frank Norris, Realism was the literature of the normal and the representative “the smaller details of everyday life, things that are likely to happen between lunch and supper.” Romanticism, according to Norr

20、is, was concerned with “variations from the type of normal life”, and in its desire to penetrate beneath the surface of experience and derive large generalizations on the nature of life. It explores “the unplumbed depths of the human heart, and the mystery of sex, and the problems of life, and the u

21、nsearched depth of the soul of man.” Frank Norris on Naturalism Naturalism abstracts the best from Realism and Romanticism-detailed accuracy and philosophical depth. Also important in Naturalism is the “choice of milieu.” “That Zolas is not purely romantic as was Hugos, lies chiefly in the choice of

22、 milieu.” “These great terrible dramas no longer happen among the personnel of a feudal and Renaissance nobility, those who are in the forefront of the marching world, but among the lower-almost the lowest-classes; those who are falling by the roadway. This is not romanticism-this drama of the peopl

23、e working itself out in blood and ordure. It is not realism. It is a school by itself, unique, somber, powerful beyond words.” “It is naturalism.” Norris. Major works Mc Teague (1899)Vandover and the Brute (1914)The Octopus (1901)The pit (1903)The Responsibilities of the Novelist (1903) Norris first

24、 novel, McTeague, does more or less follow his idea of naturalism, combining the dispassionate amorality Zola advocated with a romantic emphasis on the grotesque and violent. It is considered as the manifesto of American Naturalism. McTeague The central character, for whom the book is named, is an u

25、nintelligent, sluggish and powerful animal. He has been raised, by his mothers efforts, from a life of simple physical labor in which he might have been happy, to the position of a semi-skilled dentist-really just a puller of teeth. In a poor section of San Francisco he achieves a life of simple phy

26、sical comfort. Mc Teague This routine satisfies until he gets married with Trina, who for a while takes pains to refine and “civilize” him. The life in marriage arouses him to keener sensations of pleasure in a slightly more varied and interesting life. When she wins 5000 dollars in a lottery, her f

27、ormer suitor becomes jealous enough to inform the authorities that McTeague is practicing dentistry without a license, and he is forced to close his office. He has no idea what else he can possibly do in the bewildering city he has never even explored; his wife goes back to work and they separate. F

28、inally he kills her because she will not share the lottery money she is hoarding. True to his emphasis on man as an animal, Norris has Trina convert the money into gold coins with which she fills her bed, rolling upon them in a naked ecstasy for the sheer physical sensation of possession. She never

29、entertains the more sophisticated idea of money as a possibility of investment or prestige or even luxury. Questions: What do you think of this novel?What do you think Norris deliberately revealed in this novel?Can you achieve a better understanding of Norris theory on Naturalism?In Norris next and

30、most famous novel, The Octopus (1901), we find a very different viewpoint. It is more uneven than McTeague. It uses a huge canvas to present some of the most significant social conflicts of the time, develops a great variety of representative men and women, and shows a real grasp of its fast-changin

31、g world. Plot: p. 146The Octopus (1901) Questions for discussion:What do you think Norris wanted to debunk in this novel?Who or what do you believe Norris wanted to blame?Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)Theodore Dreiser is known as one of Americas literary naturalists. That novel Sister Carrie, became a

32、 landmark in American naturalistic fiction. In 1910, he completed and published Jennie Gerhardt. (珍妮姑娘) The next fourteen years were productive but difficult for Dreiser. Such novels as The Financier, The Titan, and The Genius were frank in their treatment of sex and severe in their criticism of Ame

33、rican society; as a result, they were frequently attacked and sometimes banned. His career as a writer of fiction culminated in 1925 with publication of the magnificent two-volume novel American Tragedy. works(1) Sister Carrie (2) The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic (3) Jennie Gerhardt (4)

34、American Tragedy (5) The Genius point of view(1) He embraced social Darwinism survival of the fittest. He learned to regard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive. (2) Life is predatory, a “game” of the lec

35、herous and heartless, a jungle struggle in which man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will. (3) No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of i

36、nternal chemisms (heredity) and by the forces of social pressure. About Sister CarrieCaroline Meeber, an simple, innocent, and industrious young girl leaves her home and comes to Chicago to crave for a better life. However hard she tries, what she has to confront is still impoverishment. Poverty-str

37、icken, she has no alternative but to degrade herself as the mistress of a salesman Druet by name, then goes into elopement with a hotel manager Hurstwood. The rest of the novel traces Carries rise and Hurstwoods fall. Hurstwood is proved to be an unfit in the harsh reality and commits suicide in des

38、pair. And Carrie has nothing better, but to manages to move up driven by desire and catch blindly at any opportunities for a better existence. Her “success” brings her nothing but loneliness and emptiness. A feather in the wind, She is totally under the manipulation of some overwhelming force she ca

39、nnot comprehend, still less to say control. Questions for discussionWhat do you think Sister Carrie strives for? How do you comprehend in this novel Dreisers naturalistic view? Brief analysisInfluenced by social Darwinism and determinism, Dreiser debunked the fact that man is merely an animal driven

40、 by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive. In the cold, godless world, Man is futile in reasoning but float like a feather, yielded to the manipulation of destiny. Jack London (1876-1916)- the most successful writer in America in the early

41、 20th Century. Strikingly handsome, full of laughter, restless and courageous to a fault, always eager for adventure on land or sea, he was one of the most attractive and romantic figures of his time. I would rather be ashes than dust!I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze

42、 than it should be stifled by dry rot.I would rather be a superb meteor,every atom of me in magnificent glow,than a sleepy and permanent planet.The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.I shall use my time His vigorous stories of men and

43、animals against the environment, survival against hardships, and its exploration of the laws of nature were drawn mainly from his own experience. He once ventured to sea on a sealing ship, on which his best novel, the Sea-Wolf based. And his years searching for gold left their mark in his best short

44、 stories; among them, The Call of the Wild, and White Fang. Most of his best works aim to describe the suffering of the working people; reveal the cruelty and evils of the social system and disclose the corruption and moral degeneration of the ruling class. Major worksThe Call of the Wild (1903), Th

45、e Seawolf (1904) White Fang (1906) The Iron Heel (1908), Martin Eden (1909). Jack Londons classic (1903), a story of Buck, a courageous dog fighting for survival in the Alaskan wilderness, is widely considered to be his masterpiece. The Call of the wildSometimes wrongly considered simply a childrens

46、 novel, this epic vividly evokes the harsh and frozen Yukon (northwest of Canada) during the Gold Rush. As Buck is ripped from his pampered surroundings and shipped to Alaska to be a sled dog, his primitive, wolf-like nature begins to emerge. Savage struggles and timeless bonds between man, dog, and

47、 wilderness are played to their heartrending extremes, as Buck undertakes a mystic journey that transforms him into the legendary “Ghost Dog” of the Klondike. 巴克原是米勒法官家的一只愛犬，經(jīng)過了文明的教化，一直生活在美國南部加州一個溫暖的山谷里。后被賣到美國北部寒冷偏遠、盛產(chǎn)黃金的阿拉斯加，成了一只拉雪橇的狗。它目睹了人與人、狗與狗、強者與弱者之間冷酷無情和生死爭斗，于是為了生存，它學會了只求活命、不顧道義的處世原則，變得兇悍、機智而狡

48、詐。最后，在森林中狼群的呼喚下，巴克狼性復萌，逃入?yún)擦郑貧w荒野。在小說中，杰克倫敦運用擬人手法，把狗眼中的世界及人類的本質(zhì)刻畫地淋漓盡致，反映了資本主義社會冷酷的現(xiàn)實和“優(yōu)勝劣汰，適者生存”的客觀現(xiàn)實。巴克渴望并奔向了自由，這也正是作家的追求和理想的體現(xiàn)。 Martin EdenP.607Upton Beall Sinclair (1878-1968)- a Pulitzer Prize-winning prolific American author who wrote over 90 books in many genres and was widely considered to be

49、 one of the best investigators advocating socialist views. He achieved considerable popularity in the first half of the 20th century, gaining particular fame for his 1906 muckraking novel The Jungle. The book dealt with conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that partl

50、y contributed to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act純凈食品和藥品法案 and the Meat Inspection Act in 1906.His proposed program, called EPIC End Poverty In California called for the state to turn over idle farms and factories to the unemployed in a system of cooperatives based on “production for use” i

51、nstead of “production for profit”.There is no excuse for poverty in a state as rich as California. We can produce so much food that we have to dump it into our bay. Though failed, Sinclairs campaign did have an impact on the political landscape in California. After his defeat in political forum，Upto

52、n Sinclair launched a new and highly successful writing career. In 1940, at the age of 62, he published Worlds End. His novel Dragons Teeth (1942), about Hitlers rise to power, won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.Major WorksThe Jungle (1906) King Coal (1917)Oil!(1927) Boston (1928)Worlds End (19

53、40) Dragons Teeth (1942, Pulitzer Prize)American Outpost (1932)The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair (1962)Upton Beall Sinclair (1878-1968)In this novel Sinclair portrayed the horrible and degrading working conditions and meat industry of the Chicago stockyards with such accuracy so as to arouse not only the reading public, but also to cause th