【正文】 its sylables, th。 they point, they hint, or, as Henry Jam es put it, they cast long shadows. Sym bolism The t er m symbolism r ef ers t o t he use of symbols, or t o a set of r elat ed symbols, which is one of t he devices t hat enr ich short f iction and pensate f or it s br ief ness in space. 2. Ther e ar e t wo br oad t ypes of lit er ar y symbols Symbol is gener aly acknowledged t o be one of t he m ost f r equently em ployed devices in poet r y. I n wor ks of f iction it is no less f r equent and no less im por tant. The f act is t hat, when a r eader r eads a wor k of fict ion, his f ocus is m ost ly cast upon the plot, the character, and the language used, so that the symbols are automaticaly backgrounded on the reader’ s par t. But in some novels and stor ies, t he symbolism looms so lar ge t hat t he r eader wil f ail t o get a pr ehensive under standing of t he wor k wit hout paying special at t ent ion t o t he symbols. The Scar let Let er by Nat haniel Hawt hor ne is one of such wor ks. The ver y t it le point s t o a double symbol: t he scar let let ter A wor n by Hester conveys a m ult iple of senses which dif f er greatly f r om what it lit er aly st ands f or , and t he wor k eventualy develops int o a t est and cr it ique of sym bols t hemselves. Thomas Pynchon’s V. continues along m uch the same line, testing an alphabetical symbol. Another exam ple is Herm an Melvile’ s M obyDick, in which t he huge whit e whale in t he t it le of t he book acquir es gr eater meaning t han t he lit er al dict ionar y definit ion of an aquat ic mamm al. I t also suggests m ore t han t he devil, t o whom som e of t he character s liken it . The huge whale, as t he stor y unf olds, es t o im ply an amplit ude of m eanings: am ong t hem t he f orces of nat ure and t he whole univer se. Lit er ary symbols ar e of t wo br oad t ypes: one t ype includes t hose embodying univer sal suggest ions of meaning. Flowing wat er suggest s t ime and eter nit y, a jour ney int o t he underwor ld and r et ur n f rom it is int er pret ed as a spir it ual experience or a dar k night of t he soul, and a kind of r edem pt ive odyssey. Such sym bols ar e used widely ( and som etim es unconsciously) in west ern lit er at ure. The ot her t ype of sym bol secur es it s suggest iveness not f r om qualit ies inher ent in it self but f r om t he way in which it is used in a given wor k, in a special cont ext . Thus, in M obyDick the voyage, the land, and the ocean are objects pregnant with m eani gs that seem alm ost independent of the author’s use of t hem in t he st ory。 he hint s t hat some sad, passionat e spir it is br ooding as it wat ches t he passing pr ocession of humanit y. Such an object is a sym bol: in lit er at ur e, a symbol is a t hing t hat r efer s or suggest s m ore t han it s lit er al m eaning. Ther e are quit e a lot of symbols t hat appear in or dinar y lif e, f or t he use of sym bol is by no m eans of lim it ed t o lit er atur e and ar t . For instance, a dove is a sym bol of peace, t he f lag is t he symbol of a countr y, and t he cr oss i t he symbol of t he Chr istian r eligion. These ar e symbols adopted by a whole societ y and ar e r ecognized by al m em ber s of such a society. Ther e are ot her kinds of symbols, such as f igure 3, which m ay be abst ract symbols. But symbols in lit er at ur e wor ks are dif f erent fr om eit her of t he ot her t ypes. Gener aly speaking, a lit er ar y sym bol does not have a mon social acceptance, as does t he f lag。 f or inst ance, t he ways sent ences are connect ed. This is t he int er nal or ganization of a t ext . Under cont ext , r oughly t he mat er ial, m ent al, personal, int er act ional, social, inst it utional, cult ural, and hist or ical sit uat ion in which t he discour se is m ade, we consider t he ext er nal r elations of t he lit er ary t ext or a part of t he t ext, seeing it as a discourse presupposing a social r elat ion bet ween it s par t icipants ( aut hor and r eader , c haract er and character, character and r eader, etc. ), and a shar ing of knowledge and assumptions by par ticipant s. Cohesion: Does t he t ext cont ain logical or ot her links bet ween sentences ( eg coordinat ing conjunct ions, linking adver bials) , or does it t end t o r eply on im plicit connections of meaning? What sort of use is m ade of cross r ef erence by pr onouns ( she, it , t hey, et c), by subst it ute f orm s ( do, so, et c), or ellipsis? I s t her e any use m ade of elegant variat ion—the avoidance of repetition by substitution of a descriptive phrase ( as “the old lawyer” substitutes for the repetition of an earlier “Mr Jones”) ? Are m eaning connections reinfor ced by r epetit ion of wor ds and phr ases, or by r epeat edly using wor ds f r om t he sam e semant ic f ield? Cont ext : Does t he wr it er addr ess t he r eader dir ectly, or t hrough t he wor ds or t hought s of some f ictional char act er? What linguist ic clues ( eg f ir st per son pr onouns I , m e, m y, mine) ar e ther e of t he addresser addressee relationship? What atitude does the author im ply towards his/her subject? If a character’s words or thoughts are r epresented, is t his done by dir ect quotation, or by some ot her m ethod ( eg indir ect speech, f r ee indir ect speech) ? Ar e t here signif icant changes of st yle wit h r espect o dif f erent per sons ( nar at or or c har act er ) who is supposedly speaking or t hinking t he wor ds on t he page? What is t he point of view of t he st ory? Ar e t he f r equent shif t s of point view? I f so, in whose voice is t he nar r ator speaking? Chapt er Seven Sym bol What is sym bol? Sym bol, in t he simplest sense, anything t hat stands f or or epr esents somet hing else beyond it —usualy an idea convent ionaly associat ed wit h i