【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 d frustration of the human predicament.” Poe’s works ? “MS. Found in a Bottle” (1833)《 瓶中手稿 》 ? The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym ? Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque《 怪異故事集 》 ? “The Murders in the Rue Mue” ? 《 莫爾格街兇殺案 》 ? Poem The Raven (1844)《 烏鴉 》 ? “The Fall of the House of Usher” “The Fall of the House of Usher” ? Content: ? In a decaying house live a brother and sister. ? The sister—physical decay ? The brother—psychological decay ? He may have mitted incest with his sister and buries her alive in a coffin. ? She crawls out of the coffin and dies in his arms. Then, he dies too. ? The visitor escapes from the house, and the house falls into the water. “The Fall of the House of Usher” ? Theme: The universe is empty. Every mind is half mad and going to be mad. ? Techniques: ? Tone—melancholy ? Style—suspense ? The first sentence sets the tone. The last sentence gives finality to the story. Famous poems ? To Helen ? The Raven Comments on Poe’s works ? He remained controversial爭議 in American literature and was enjoyed in Europe. ? He was imaginative and creative. ? Theme of his works: disintegration of the self in a meaningless world ? Content: He studies the unconscious and subconscious normal existence. ? Style: traditional, rational, and ordinary ? His idea of beauty influenced French symbolists and “art for art’s sake”. Poe’s fame ? Established a new symbolic poetry ? Formulated a new short story in the detective and science and fiction line ? Developed an artistic theory ? Laid foundation for analytical criticism Literary theories ? Poetry should not to teach ? The tone should be sadness ? The most poetic topic is the death of a beautiful woman ? The immediate indefinite object of poetry is pleasure not truth ? Use different poetic devices such as alteration , assonance, and repetition ? Music is closely related with Fiction: the father of American short fiction ? Best mand of dialogue ? Swift dramatic ? 1st:brief ? 2nd: the writer must decide the effect first and decide the events ? Truth rather than the beauty ? Is the aim of the tale ? The merit of a work of art should be judged by its psychological effect upon the reader Chapter 8 Realism: Howells amp。 James Social setting ? Industrialized North vs. agrarian South ? The factory defeated the farm and US headed toward capitalism. ? Industrialization and mechanization produced extremes of wealth and poverty. ? The frontier was closing. Influences from the setting ? The Civil War led to suspicion or even negation to Transcendentalism, natural goodness, optimism, benevolent God. ? Selfreliance became abnormal into admiration for money and power. ? With the closing frontier, a reexamination of life began. People doubted American dream, the romantic view of man. ? Disillusionment幻滅感 and frustration prevailed. ? “Golden Age” turned out to be “Gilded Age”. ? Realism( a literary movement) : objective, concern for the reality, the monplace, the familiar and the low ? William Dean Howells, Henry James and Mark Twain representatives of American realism (more popular in the 70’s and 80’s William Dean Howells (18371920) Howells’s works ? Criticism and Fiction elucidates解釋 his literary aesthetic ideas. ? The Rise of Silas Lapham ? Subject: the ordinary ,the mainstream in American life (mostly good, healthy), man in natural state, not mere a faithful reflection of external reality, but a bination with psychological conflicts Howells’s ideas on Realism ? “Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.” ? Realism is not photographic pictures of externals but includes a central concern with motives and psychological conflicts. ? He condemns sentimentality and selfsacrifice, and avoids improper love. ? Authors should minimize plot and artificial sense. Howells’s ideas on Realism ? Events grows naturally out of characters and conditions. ? Realism came in the latter half of the 19th century against Romanticism and sentimentalism. 感傷主義以過分的傷感情緒為標(biāo)志的思想或表達(dá) ? Common feeling of monplace people ? It shows a civilization39。s progress, but not an individual?s. ? It shouldn?t depict events subjectively, but objectively with scientific description. The Rise of Silas Lapham ? His house is burned down, but his moral rises. The Rise of Silas Lapham ? Theme: ? Ethics: He stresses sympathy and moral integrity. ? He is against petitive economic individualism. ? Laissezfaire*leisei fe?+放任主義 petition rapes man. ? His moral rise begins with his financial fall. The Rise of Silas Lapham ? Techniques: ? Symbolism: The house is a symbol of Silas?s success and his aspiration for the polite society. ? The love subplot is interesting. ? Smiling aspects was used in an ironic sense. ? It avoids pessimistic defeatism. ? It has psychological depth Henry James (18431916) 3 periods of James’s creative life ? 1st period (186582) ? “international theme”: American innocence in face of European sophistication ? The American ? Daisy Miller ? The Portrait of a Lady ? 3rd period “international theme” ? 18951900 writes novellas with childhood and adolescence ? The Turn of the Screw ? What Maisie Knew ? The Ambassadors ? The Wings of the Dove ? The Golden Bowl James’s contribution to literary criticism—“The Art of Fiction” ? His criticism is concerned with form and devoted to human values. ? Art without life is a poor affair. ? The aim of the novel is to represent life. ? Reality is the supreme virtue of a novel. ? “Point of view” International theme ? Content : American innocence (naivety, traditionalism) and European decadence (sophistication ,