William Dean Howells (1837 – 1920)
Biography
Born in Martins Ferry, Ohio, originally Martinsville, to William Cooper and Mary Dean Howells, Howells was the second of eight children. His father was a newspaper editor and printer, and moved frequently around Ohio. Howells began to help his father with typesetting and printing work at an early age. In 1852, his father arranged to have one of Howells\' poems published in the Ohio State Journal without telling him.
(1) Life
A. born in Midwest, Ohio, a humble family
B. little formal education but read widely
C. has been reporter and wrote a biography which helped Lincoln win presidency
D. American consul in Venice
E. editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Monthly
F. love to help young writers
G. nickname “Dean of the country’s literature”; first president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
(2) Theory (In his production “Criticism and Fiction”)
A. realism: a quest of the average and habitual
B. concern with “motives” and psychological conflicts
C. a free and simple design of the plot
D. real characters
E. stressing moral values
(3) Works
(He wrote all kinds of literary productions in his whole life.)
(Most famous) (a novel) The Rise of Silas Lapham
Notice the meaning of “rise” in the title of the novel: rise in wealth and rise in moral
This novel is a good specimen of Howells’ theory we mentioned above. There is nothing heroic in the novel. The hero is a representative of common Bostonians. And from the plot you can find the author’s stress on moral values.
(4) About The Rise of Silas Lapham
The Rise of Silas Lapham is one of William Dean Howell’s most read publications. Many universities include it in their American Literature class and high schools do also. Howell’s revised Lapham many times before he felt satisfied with the resulting text of today. Through Lapham, there are many examples of how the wealthy of Boston society viewed the family.
A. Background of the Author
Howells lived many places during his life. His description of Boston society comes from the Boston society he experienced while living there. Howells always used people and events in his life that were real. He was a very detail oriented writer. He would research his material thoroughly when talking about a subject, such as mineral paint. He also realized that at times for believability, certain places or organizations would have to be created out of nothing. Howells even used a name from his childhood for Lapham. When he was a boy in Southeastern Ohio, the only family he knew from the Boston area were the Laphams. This name became associated with Boston for him. During his life, Lapham was criticized very harshly, and then finally redeemed. Howells took the initial rejection hard, but felt a sense of satisfaction when his new contemporaries declared it brilliant. . Some of Howells’ contemporaries during the time he did most of his writing are Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, ad Gertrude Stein.
B. Characters in Silas Lapham
The Laphams
The Coreys
The Laphams
Silas Lapham
Persis Lapham
Penelope Lapham
Irene Lapham
Silas Lapham
Head of the Lapham family. Owns a mineral paint business. Includes his wife in business decisions. Acquired his wealth through paint. Has moved to Boston so his daughters can enter into Boston’s upper class society. Wants his daughters to find suitable matches for marriage.
Persis Lapham
Silas’ wife. She is very conscious of the differences between the Laphams and the members of Boston’s upper class. She wishes the same acceptance for her family and daughters that Silas does.
Penelope Lapham
Oldest daughter. She is smart and witty. Reads a lot of books accepted by the upper class. She is the homelier of the two daughters. The Laphams do not expect to marry Penelope as easily as her sister.
Irene Lapham
Youngest daughter. Very pretty, but not very smart. She is very polite and also very conscious of the differences between the Laphams and Boston’s upper class.
The Coreys
Bromfield Corey
Anna Corey
Tom Corey
Younger Daughters
Bromfield Corey
Head of the Corey family. An artist. Did not follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps (they were very successful businessmen). More open-minded about the class differences between his family and the Laphams. Wants his son Tom to find a profession and a wife.
Anna Corey
Bromfield’s wife. Does not want her son to choose a profession or a wife beneath his status. Very aware of the differences between the Laphams and the Coreys. Does not want Tom to work for Silas or marry one of his daughters. She is the main instrument Howells uses to provide the views of Boston’s upper class.
Tom Corey
Heir to the Corey fortune. Is uncertain of what he will choose for his profession at first, but then decides to join Silas in the mineral paint business. IS interested in Penelope Lapham and would like to marry her. Does not agree with his mother’s distaste for the Laphams.
Younger Daughters
They are used to increase the contrast between the Coreys and the Laphams, but are not an important enough to discuss for this topic.
B. Portraying Views of the Family (3 points)
1. Boston’s upper class society expresses its views through Anna Corey. Not all of the views are related to family, such as how a family acquired their money, but many are. Anna finds Silas Lapham distasteful because she feels like he is trying to corrupt Tom. She does not like the fact that the Laphams exhibit democracy between all family members. She does not think that the women of the family should have any say in business matters. Anna does not feel that either Penelope or Irene are suitable matches for Tom. She feels that Irene is too insipid, although she does admit that Irene knows how to perform her duties as a wife. She thinks that Penelope is too independent and spends too much time reading. She does not think it appropriate that she does not know how to perform the duties of an upper class wife. Bromfield constantly reminds Anna that times are changing and she should not be so harsh on Tom or the Laphams.
B. Portraying Views of the Family
2. Tom Corey represents a shift in views concerning women. He does not think that a woman should only be pretty and have no wit or intellect. In this way, Howells shows that although this society still believes that a woman’s place is in the home, people outside of this society do not feel the same way.
B. Portraying Views of the Family
3. When Silas finds that his business is in trouble he keeps this information from Persis, so as not to trouble her or Penelope and Irene. This demonstrates that although he is very democratic about a lot of family issues, he still believes it is solely his responsibility to provide for his family. This pressure eventually breaks Silas and he falls ill. Persis quickly steps in to take over the household and try to find out what has happened with the business. Howells demonstrates how strong women can be, and that society may be overlooking a valuable resource by trying to confine them to the home.
C. Conclusion
A. Though he criticized the materialism, but he was mainly optimistic. He believed in the strength of personal moral elevation. So lots of later scholars criticized his so-called “smiling aspect”. (You can find it from his most famous novel’s end.)
B. limitation: wanting in depth
American Romanticism & Washington Irving
American Romanticism
Time: from the end of the 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War
(2)Reasons (Why Romanticism emerged?)
A. Fast development of the new nation (flood of immigrants; pioneers pushing the frontier further west; industrialization; economic boom; a promising new land with prevailed optimistic moods)
B. Development of journalism (Some influential periodicals appeared, such as The Atlantic Monthly. They need more literary productions.)
C. Foreign influence (Review history of English literature.)(from the 18th century classicism to sentimentalism to Pre-Romanticism to Romanticism which can be divided into passive group and active group)(most influential British writers to American Romanticists-Walter Scott)
American Romanticism
General features of Romanticism
A. Stressing emotion rather than reason
B. Stressing freedom and individuality
C. Idealism rather than materialism
D. Writing about nature, medieval legends and with supernatural elements
More Features of Romanticism
emotions
subjective
original
youth
supernatural
into nature
innocent
pure of purpose
heavy figurative language
imaginative
American heroes
possibly: arabesque grotesque
past subject matter
American Romanticism
Features of American Romanticism
A. Imitative
B. Independent
a. peculiar American experience (landscape, pioneering to the West, Indian civilization, new nation\\\'s democracy and dreams)
b. Puritan heritage (more moralizing, edifying more than mere entertainment) (careful about love and sex. example: Scarlet Letter)
Washington Irving (1783-1859)
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories \"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow\" and \"Rip Van Winkle\", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra. Irving also served as the U.S. minister to Spain from 1842 to 1846.
Washington Irving (1783-1859)
Life
Significance
Works
Life
Irving was born into a wealthy New York merchant family. From a very early age, he began to read widely and write juvenile poems, essays and plays. Later, he studied law.
His first book A History of New York, written under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker, was a great success and won him wide popularity.
In 1815, he went to England to take care of his family business ther, and when it failed, had to write to support himself.
Life
With the publication of The Sketch Book, he won a measure of international recognition.
In 1826, as an American diplomatic attaché, he was sent to Spain, where he gathered material for his writing.
From 1829 to 1832, he was secretary of the U.S Legation in London.
Then when he was fifty, he returned to America and bought “Sunnyside”, his famous home. There he spent the rest of his life, living a life of leisure and comfort, except for a period of four years (1842--1846), when he was Minister to Spain.
Significance
“Father of American literature”
“Father of the American short story”
The first American writher of imaginative literature to gain international fame.
The short story as a genre in American literature began with Irving’s The Sketch Book.
The Sketch Book also marked the beginning of American Romanticism.
Works
A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty by Diedrich Knickerbocker 1809 《纽约外史》
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent 1819-1820 《见闻札记》
“Rip Van Winkle”
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 《睡谷的传说》
Bracebridge Hall 1822 《布雷斯布里奇庄园》
Oliver Goldsmith 1840 《哥尔德斯密斯》
Life of George Washington 1855-1859 《华盛顿传》
The End
Walt Whitman
1819 – 1892
Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892)
an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.[1] His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.
Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892)
Life
Major works
Analysis
Free Verse
His selected poems
Song of Myself
I Sit and Look Out
Life
born in New York, a common family
five years education, variety of jobs
before wrote poems, wrote kinds of other literary productions
inspired by grandeur landscape of America, wrote lots of poems, thus a famous poet
Major works
Leaves of Grass《草叶集》(famous poems such as “Song of Myself” and “O! Captain! My Captain!”)
totally nine editions and last edition includes more than 400 poems
Analysis
A. He extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man.
B. employing “free verse” (no conventional rhyme and meter) as the form of his poems with two characteristics: parallelism; phonetic recurrence (P92-P93)
* What is the difference between free verse and blank verse? (blank verse has no rhyme, but it should be iambic pentameter)
C. frankness of the commonplace and the ugly sides in human life
D. direct, plain and even vulgar language
E. “untold latencies” (his poetry suggests rather than tell)
F. great influence on the 20th century American poets
Free Verse
Free verse, also known as “open form” verse, is the verse without regular meter, line length, rhyme(scheme), or stanza form, depending on natural speech rhythms related to the actual cadence of the poet expressing himself. It is different from the conventional schemed verse in several aspects:
Regular meter, or controlled rhythmic pattern, is essential to conventional poetry; but free verse is based on the irregular rhythmic cadence of the recurrenc, with variation, of phrases and syntactical patterns rather than the recurrent metrical patterns.
Rhyme occurs in most traditional poetry(except blank verse), and often with various schemes. In free verse, however, rhyme may or may not be present; but when it is used with great freedom.
In conventional verse, the unit is often foot, or the line; but in free verse, the units are much larger, sometimes being paragraphs or strophes. If the free verse unit is the line, as it is in Whitman, the line is usually determined by qualities of actual speech rhythm and thought, rather than feet or syllable count; thus the line may be as short as one word, or as long as a passage.
In comparison with conventional verse, free verse may be composed with rhythms and melodies more personal and individual, more appropriate to the subject and the theme. In the hands of the gifted poets free verse very often acquires rhythms and melodies of its own. There is in free verse greater flexibility of the form and greater agreement between sound and sense.
Song of Myself
It is a poem consisting of 1345 lines. It is the longest poem in Leaves of Grass. The poet takes for granted the self as the most crucial element of the world and thus sets forth two of his principal beliefs: first, a theory of universality; second, all things are equal n value.
In Part 1 of the selected sections, the author unfolds the theme of “ a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars” by cordially celebrating himself. Meanwhile, he “extols the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man.’
Song of Myself
In part ten he told us his experience in walking the countryside. He went to the mountain, to the sea and to take part in the marriage ceremony of an Indian couple. At last he told us an experience of saving a runway slave, which showed his attitude toward slavery.
In the Preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, Whitman says: “ The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity.” “Song of Myself” is characterized by simplicity of simplicity, but also by art of art.
Song of Myself
The simplicity lies in the simple expression—the wording and the sentencing and the natural lining of the poem. The art lies in the varying rhythms of the poem---the ebb and flow of emotion within it., the shift of mood, the alternation between moments of intensity and moments of relaxation.
And the Preface says,” The messages of great poets to each man and woman are,…What we enclose you enclose, What we enjoy you may enjoy.” “Song of Myself” is saturated with the the pride of the persona himself and with the vehemence of the audacity of freedom. And the persona, that is, the “I” in the poem, is Walt Whitman, is every American and is every human being. The vehemence of pride and audacity flows not only in words, but also from and in the sounds of the lines, powerful and torrential lines bursting out in succession.
Song of Myself
The oneness of the persona with every American man and woman and with every human being, agrees to the varying but unifying rhythm, and to the harmonious melody. And in other words, not only the words describe the oneness, but also the melody expresses the oneness. This is the agreement between sound and sense.
The “Song of Myself”, is the song of oneness, in terms of the sense and the sound.
I Sit and Look Out
It is a short poem of 10 lines, opens with immediate presentation of the speaker’s stance and frame of view. The stance, sitting, is fixed, and within the frame are placed “all the sorrows of the world.”
Following the opening line, 7 lines, containing 11 juxtaposed parralled clauses, present, in sweeping and scanning way, 1 group of auditory images (I hear,,,”) and 10 groups of visual and kinesthetic images(I see…”, I mark…I observe…”) these groups of images are typical ones or representatives of the sorrow of the world.
I Sit and Look Out
The 9th line, abruptly, an end to the view of the sorrows that occur “without end,” and brings the speaker and the reader back to the stance of the view: a sitting-look-out-upon stance. Upon the stance, the speaker continues to see and hear more of these without end. What he chooses to do or can do is to be silent.
What more is heard and seen? Why is he silent? And for how long will he be silent? There is a large blank that the reader should fill in with his own sensation and imagination.
The End
[ 本帖最后由 yl120872063b 于 2010-1-22 15:35 编辑 ] |
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