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| 文学阅读与欣赏网上辅导Unit3 |
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| （ 2004年09月15日） | 浏览人次6160 | |
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［Word List］ archetypal: 原型的， 典型的 asset: 宝贵的（有益的）人或物 potential 潜在的， 可能的 recklessness 卤莽，草率 cynical 尖酸刻薄 omniscient 无所不知的 inference 推理， 推断 douche 冲洗 morose 阴郁的， 脾气不好的 skepticism 怀疑态度 whine 嘀咕 aspen 山杨树 vehemence 激情 petrify 使惊吓 ［Review Kit］ Characterisation The method an author uses to acquaint the reader with his characters. An author may use any of all of four different methods of characterization: a, he may describe the character’s physical traits and personality. b, he may show the character’s speech and behavior. c, he may give the opinions and reactions of other characters toward this individual. d, he may show the character’s thoughts and feelings. Conflict Every story, novel or play develops around a struggle or conflict. Sometimes the conflict may be obvious, as in some westerns in which the only conflict is the struggle between the good guys and the bad guys. In a more complicated western, besides the obvious conflict with the villain, the hero may have to struggle with a wild animal or a fierce blizzard or he may have to struggle with his conscience. In other words, he may be involved in several conflicts. Conflicts in literature are of two general types: 1) external conflict, in which the character or main figure (sometimes an animal or group) struggle against another character, nature or society; and 2) internal conflict; in which the character struggles against some element of his own personality (his conscience or code of values, for example). Varieties of Suspense and Expectation Stories hold our attention by creating an atmosphere of suspense around the characters and events. We turn the pages because we want to learn what happens next. Suspense creates expectation through the holding back of information; there is a promise of revelation to come. Sometimes the promise is implicit in the situation: the two men are fighting to the death and we read on to see who will win. In other cases, the author may subtly prepare the ground for us through foreshadowing-that is, passing along cues and hints about what will happen. ［Supplementary Reading］ Making contact with fictional world The reading of fiction is at once simpler and more demanding than more other kinds of reading. Reading fiction-as opposed, say to reading works of history or social science-is simpler because the work itself often has a natural appeal; involvement in the subject brings absorption. Fiction is rooted in the writer’s deep desire to seduce, compel, or enchant the reader. The work’s natural terrain in human nature, a subject in which we all have some stake, and its aim is, among other things, to shed some new light on our shared experience. A story or novel may pose difficulties and require our closest attention, but it seldom forces us against the grain of our natural curiosity. If we can open ourselves up, strike a receptive posture, the work will carry us forward. We will read on because we want to know what happens next, or because we sense that we are learning something that my help us to understand our own experience. But reading fiction can also be more challenging, and call for more concentration, than other kinds of reading. The language is often used differently; it asks more of us. We have to pay heed not only to the what of the story but also to the how. Most of the time-when we race through a report in the daily newspaper or work through a chapter in a textbook-we turn the pages for the sake of information. We read words for the denotative value, what might be called their dictionary meaning; we strip off the facts and ideas and move on. We do not expect an article in a news magazine to use ambiguous language or significant kinds of rhythmic variation. But as soon as we look at a more imaginative piece of writing, we meet a new set of requirements. To read literature we must be ready to understand language in both its denotative and connotative-or suggestive-uses. And reading becomes necessarily more demanding. Suddenly we pay attention not only to the meanings of words, but to their associations as well. Moreover, we have to read the author’s tone, looking for clues about how to interpret the actions and speeches of the characters. We watch out for images that might signal deeper thematic meanings. And we listen to the sentences themselves, hearing cues in rhythms and changes of rhythm. Silence and concentration are essential. 押韵 押韵指相同或相似的重读音节先后出现在两个或更多诗行的相应位置上， 如： All night long and very night, When my mama puts out the light, 这两行末尾的/ait/ 音就是押韵。一般说来， 押韵仍然是诗歌有别于散文和日常谈话的一个重要标志， 它使诗歌和谐、优美， 富于音乐感。 根据“韵”在诗行中出现的位置， 英诗的押韵最常见的部位为尾韵。 “尾韵”， 押在诗行最后一个重读音节上，我们常用英语字母代表脚韵的格式， 用a代表第一个韵音， b为第二个不同的韵音。 以此类推。 More on ozymandias -notes and chinese translation 1．ozymandias: 奥西曼达斯， 即古埃及王雷米西斯二世。 他曾在位67年，多次与临国交战， 以’武功’著称。 在他统治期间兴建了不少大型建筑， 主要为庙宇。 他自己的陵墓位于尼罗河上古都底比斯， 造型为一庞大的狮身人面像， 是一座有名的建筑。 《奥西曼达斯》是雪莱最著名的十四行诗。源出于意大利文学， 十六世纪传入英国， 一般用来表达男女之情。 但雪莱却赋予它崭新的思想内容。 奥西曼达斯在自己的坟墓上建立了巨大的狮身人面斯芬克斯像， 想借此永远纪念自己的权威与业绩。 然而， 无情的岁月早已把他的’盖世功业’冲刷吞没：极目四望， 到处都是寂寞荒凉的沙漠， 巨像本身也残破不堪， 头像旁落， 半埋沙地。 如今真正为后人所知的倒是刻像匠人的艺术。 全诗采用了叙述性的描写， 寓评论于描述之中。 诗人巧妙地使用对比与讽刺的手法， 给读者留有充分思索联想的余地。 2．i met a traveler from an antique land: an antique land，古国， 指埃及 3．sneer of cold command: 指发好施令时那种不动声色的高傲神态。 4．well those passions read = read those passions well 知道那激情意味着什么， 即看透了国王的心 (附：译文) 奥西曼提斯 客自海外归，曾见沙漠王国 有石像半毁，唯余巨腿 蹲立沙砾间。像头旁落， 半遭沙埋，但人面依然可畏， 那冷笑，那发号施令的高傲， 足见雕匠看透了主人的心， 才把那石头刻得神情唯肖， 而刻像的手和像主的心 早成灰烬。像座上大字在目： ’吾乃万王之王是也， 盖世功业，敢叫天公折服！’ 此外无一物，但见废墟周围， 寂寞平沙空莽莽， 伸向荒凉的四方。 （王佐良译） More on jane eyre-a detailed analysis of first paragraphs Jane Eyre is the story of an orphan, jane, who is mistreated by her guardian and her guardian’s family, and sent away to a charity school, where she endures great unhappiness, but then secures a job as a governess in the home of a rich man, rochester, who eventually proposes marriage to her. The ceremony is interrupted, however, when it is revealed that rochester already has a wife who, because of her madness, is kept prisoner in the attic of his house. Jane flees, but in the end returns to rochester who has lost his sight in a fire that has destroyed his home. With his wife dead they are free to marry. The novel begins: There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning: but since dinner (mrs reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question. I was glad of it; i never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons; dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to eliza, john, and gorgiana reed. The said eliza, john and georgiana were now clustered round their mamma in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her ( for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining the group… The passage is spoken, indeed the whole novel is narrated, by the heroine, jane. In the first paragraph she offers what appears to be a fairly straightforward account of the day. In the second paragraph she tells of her hatred of long walks. In the third paragraph she presents a fairly vicious picture of the reed family. Looking for an opposition, the most obvious one is between jane herself and the reed family, but there is also an opposition between social routine and convention and anti-social behaviour: going for family walks, dining at a set hour, sitting around the domestic hearth is set against disliking long walks, being chided, quarrelling and crying. It seems to resemble the pattern of other novels in setting conventional behaviour against rebellious behaviour. Looking at the details of this opening sequence, it can be said that the whole emphasis of the first paragraph is social. The slightly wayward word ’wandering’ is undercut, both by the adverb ’indeed’(which, rather than being emphatic, modifies or qualifies, by giving a polite air to the sentence) and by the controlled extent of that wandering, made explicit in ’the shrubbbery’ (nature brought under control in a garden) and by the set time-span (one hour). Social factors are further underlined in the next sentence, where it is made clear that the day is organized around social occasions, such as dinner. There is also the idea of a group of people doing something together. But it is not only the ideas that create the social impression, so too does the syntax. The introduction of brackets signifies a social imagination, capable of thinking in sub-clauses, and introducing socially relevant asides. Thus, the overwhelming impression in the first paragraph is of social consciousness: the extreme weather that is referred to is, for the moment, pushed into the background. The second paragraph is almost shocking. First, it is shockingly personal: ’i was glad of it… i never liked long walks… dread to me…’ attention is thrust onto the concerns of one mind. But it is not only the personal pronouns that convey so strong a sense of the mind present: the rush of short clauses creates the impression of a mind racing along, feelings are pushed into a position of prominence, and these feelings are extreme. She could have written ’i disliked long walks’, but prefers the more forceful ’i never liked.’ such efforts help create the impression of an emotionally overwrought mind. But even if these features of style were overlooked, the same impression would emerge from the content. There is now a more emphatic concentration on harsh weather than in he first paragraph, the weather being so cruel that it makes a physical attack on her body. A sense of jane’s isolation comes across, that she can find no comfort in nature, nor can she turn to her companions, as they only chide her or make her feel inferior. This sense of her isolation is underlined in the third paragraph, where she is excluded from the family circles as they warm themselves around the fire. The language of this paragraph differs, however, from what has gone before: jane’s tone now becomes satiric, as she mocks the delicate home environment. But at the end the intensely personal manner reappears: ’me, she had dispensed from joining the group…’ Piecing all this together, it is fair to say that there is already an impression of an extraordinary heroine, conveyed through the emotionally direct language. She seems isolated, excluded from love and affection. As in so many novels, this is a character at odds with society, but the distinctive feature here seems to be how completely bronte gets inside her heroine’s mind, and an extraordinary mind at that. From the small amount of evidence looked at so far, it can be predicted that one of bronte’s strengths in the novel will be her insight into such a person. If the opening is a reliable guide, the style of the novel is likely to be intense, in order to convey this anti-social concern with self. Jane will probably be seen in conflict with the world she encounters. The novel may deal with how she eventually comes to terms with society (which would necessitate a change in the style of writing, as she comes to concentrate less on her self and more on the world around her), or possibly jane may never change. If this is the case, she is bound to suffer, as it is always dangerous to flout society’s rules. (The above material is selected from how to study a novel, john peck) ［Video Scripts］ Four authors are introduced in this unit, anton chekhov, charlotte bronte (whose sister emily bronte we already met in the previous unit), charles dickens and p. B. Shelley (1792-1822). In this second lecture, we shall mainly talk about chekhov, dickens and shelley because the brontes were already introduced in lecture 1. 1. Anton Chekhov The first author we shall meet is anton chekhov. Chekhov, anton pavlovich (1860-1904), russian dramatist and short-story writer, who is one of the foremost figures in russian literature. The son of a merchant, chekhov was born in 1860 in ukraine, and educated in medicine at moscow state university. While still at the university he published humorous magazine stories and sketches. He rarely practiced medicine because of his success as a writer and because he had tuberculosis, at that time an incurable illness. Modern critics consider chekhov one of the masters of the short-story form. He was largely responsible for the modern type of short story that depends for effect on mood and symbolism rather than on plot. His narratives, rather than having a climax and resolution, are a thematic arrangement of impressions and ideas. Using themes relating to the everyday life of the landed gentry and professional middle class, chekhov portrayed the pathos of life in russia before the 1905 revolution: the futile, boring, and lonely lives of people unable to communicate with one another. In the russian theater chekhov is pre-eminently a representation of modern naturalism. His plays, like his stories, are studies of the spiritual failure of characters in an aristocratic society that is disintegrating. He concentrated on subtleties of characterisation and interaction between characters rather than on plot and direct action. In a chekhov play important dramatic events take place offstage. Some of his plays were originally rejected in moscow, but his technique has become accepted by modern playwrights and audiences, and his plays appear frequently in theatrical repertories. In task 1, activity 1, task 1, activity 4, and task 2, activity 4, we read three excerpts from one of chekhov’s short stories ’the lottery ticket’. In these three excerpts we can have a taste of chekhov’s skills of exposition and characterisation. To repeat the first sentence of the story as follows: Ivan dmitritch, a middle-class man who lived with his family on an income of twelve hundred a year and was very well satisfied with his lot, sat down on the sofa after supper and began reading the newspaper. In this first sentence, chekhov gives the reader the information that is necessary to make the piece of fiction fully comprehensible in a simple and direct way. Indeed, though it is only one sentence, that is all we need to know about ivan for the purpose of beginning the story. Chekhov is a master of economical exposition; that is, he has the trick of giving just what is necessary for the effect of the story in hand. Throughout the story, we are never even told what ivan looks like, but we find that we know. He is a nondescript sort of man, nothing very striking about him, not quite shabby in his dress and quite clean in his person, about forty-five years of age, etc.. In other words, he is the sort of person a casual observer would find hard to describe because he is so much like a horde of people of his condition and class. He is, further, a somewhat dull, unimaginative, and unambitious man, whose life, we know, has long ago fallen into an unbroken routine with no hope or desire for change or enlargement. The lottery ticket alters all this, and then by disappointing him, converts his whole attitude into one of hatred and bitterness. At first glance it seems as though chekhov has done no better by his exposition than any ordinary writer could do; but we may realize when we consider the implications of his one sentence that he has given us precisely the information we need for his story, no more, no less, so that the result is an impression of great control and artistry. Chekhov has even made his omissions of information instructive. 2. Charles Dickens The second author we shall have a look at is charles dickens, for in task 1, activity 3 and task 2, activity 6, we read two excerpts from one of his short stories ’a christmas carol’. In this short story, dickens created two outstanding characters, scrooge and his scrooge’s nephew. The former was rich, but not rich enough to feel happy. The latter was poor, but not too poor to find life enjoyable. The name scrooge has now come to signify a miser. He has become so famous that now a mean person is also called ’a scrooge’. Charles dickens (1812-1870), 十九世纪英国伟大的小说家。幼年家贫，曾作徒工。一生创作辛勤，留下了二十几部小说，包括the posthumous papers of the pickwick club (1836-1837), oliver twist (1837-1838), the old curiosity shop (1840-1841), dombey and son (1846-1848), david copperfield (1849-1850), hard times (1854), a tale of two cities (1854), great expectations (1860-1861)等。他的作品广泛地反映了英国中下阶层的生活，对劳苦人民的苦难和不幸寄予深切的同情，同时对英国统治阶层的贪婪、虚伪及其统治机构的腐败作了无情的揭露和鞭挞。不过他对社会问题多从善恶观念去解释，以至作品中经常出现发善心的有钱人并常以好人团圆、恶棍受惩为结局，这在一定程度上减弱了他的作品的批判力量。dickens的小说情节曲折动人，人物形象鲜明生动，写景叙事真切而又富想象，有尖刻的讽刺，又有幽默的夸张，拥有广大读者，声誉至今不衰。 3. Percy Bysshe Shelley Now let’s come to the third author, p. B. Shelley (1792-1822). Percy bysshe shelley (1792-1822), 英国的浪漫主义诗人。他生于贵族家庭，早年深受卢梭(jean jacques rousseau)，潘恩(thomas paine)和葛德文(william godwin)等人的思想影响。在牛津大学就学时，因发表the necessity of atheism（《无神论的必然性》）一文被开除。不久赴爱尔兰参加民族独立运动，后来住在意大利，一直到乘舟海行，在风暴中遇难。 雪莱的诗才是很壮阔的。他既有富于政治思想性的诗，充满对专制暴政的抗议和对自由和理想社会的追求，也有优美的抒情诗，特别是爱情诗，显示了不羁的想象，瑰丽的色彩和动人的音韵，使他成为英国文学史上最有才华的抒情诗人之一。 根据马克思的女儿爱莲诺的记载，马克思对雪莱的评价很高，称他为彻底的革命者，说他将永远属于社会主义的前锋之列。 雪莱的主要作品有queen mab（麦布女王1813），the revolt of islam（伊斯兰的叛变1818）， prometheus unbound（解放了的普罗米修斯1819）， the cenci（沉西, 1819），the mask of anarchy（暴政的化装旅行, 1819）以及许多抒情名作如 ode to the west wind（西风颂, 1819），to a skylark（云雀歌, 1820）等等。散文作品a defense of poetry（诗辩, 1821）是他的重要文学理论著作。 |
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