英美文学笔记5

美国文学史及选读（第二册）笔记
The Literature of Realism
陈银2014/3/28 Lecture 5 O.Henry－William Sydney Porter(1862-1910)
Contents
●Introduction
●His Life
●His Major Works and the Feature of His Storys
●The Gift of the Magi
●The Cop and the Anthem
Introduction
● a prolific American short-story writer
●wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York City
●noted for their careful plotting, ironic coincidences, and surprise endings.
His life （1）
●William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. His father
was a physician. When William was three, his mother died, and he was raised by his paternal grandmother and aunt. William was an avid reader, but at the age of fifteen he left school, and then worked in a drug store and on a Texas ranch. He continued to Houston, where he had a number of jobs, including that of bank clerk. After moving in 1882 to Texas, he worked on a ranch in LaSalle County for two years.
His life （2）
●O. Henry's last years were shadowed by alcoholism, ill health, and financial problems.
●O. Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver on June 5, 1910, in New York. Three more
collections, Sixes And Sevens (1911), Rolling Stones (1912) and Waifs And Strays (1917), appeared posthumously.
●During his lifetime, O. Henry published 10 collections and over 600 short stories. Major Works
The Gift Of The Magi -- 麦琪的礼物
A Service Of Love-- 爱的奉献
The Last Leaf -- 最后的常春藤叶
The Cop And The Anthem -- 警察和赞美诗
Lost on Dress Parade -- 华而不实
An Unfinished Story -- 没有完的故事
The Man Higher Up -- 黄雀在后
After Twenty Years -- 二十年以后
Stories
●O. Henry stories are famous for their surprise endings, to the point that such an ending is
often referred to as an “O. Henry ending”. His sto ries are also well known for witty narration.
Most of O. Henry’s stories are set in his own time, the early years of the 20th century. Many take place in New York City, and deal for the most part with ordinary people: clerks, policemen, waitresses.
The Gift Of The Magi
The Gift of the Magi is the story of a young married couple and how they deal with the chalenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. For Christmas, Della decides to buy Jim a chain for his prized pocket watch given to him by his father's father. To raise the funds, she has her long, beautiful hair cut off and sold to make a wig. Mean while, Jim sell his watch to buy Della a beautiful set of combs made jewels for her lovely, kneel-length brown hair. Each is surprised to find the gift they chose rendered useless, yet each is pleased with the gift that they received, because it represents their love for one another
The Cop and the Anthem
●Summary
●the Plots
●the Writing style
●the Theme
Questions before study
●What is it telling?
●Do you think it is an intereting story? why?
●What's your view about the cop and the Anthem? or what 's their functions?
The Summery
●The character Soapy, is homeless, a member of the substantial army of underclass men
and women who had flocked to New York City during the earliest years of the twentieth century. In an unstated day in late fall, Soapy faces the urgent necessity of finding some sort of shelter for the winter. As with many other homeless people in the United States, Soapy is psychologically experienced in thinking of the local jail as a homeless shelter.
He therefore develops a series of tactics intended to encourage the police to classify him as a criminal and arrest him.Despite efforts at dwindling a restaurant into serving him as an expensive meal, vandalizing the plate-glass window of luxury shop, repeating his eatery exploit at a humble diner, sexually harassing a young woman, pretending to be publicly intoxicated and stealing another man’s , Soapy fails to draw the attention of the police. Disconsolate（绝望的）, he pauses in front of a church, where an organ anthem inspires him to clean up his life—whereupon he is promptly charged for loitering and sentenced to three months in prison, exactly what he originally set to do.
Scene 1
●place: in Madison Square
●Character: Soapy, - the reguar inhabitants of Madison Square
●plot: when winter was coming, Soapy made his plan to enter the local jail as his shelter. Scene 2
●Place: at a glittering cafe in Broadway
●characters：Soapy; the head waiter
●Plot: Soapy imagined to go into have free dinner, but the head waiter threw him out
because his clothes looked like a bum's
Scene 3
●Place；at a corner of Sixth Avenue
●Character: Soapy; a policeman; a man running to catch a car
●Plot: Soapy broke the glass of a shop, and waited for arresting; the police refused to
accept Soapy even as a clue, then run after a man who was to catch a car
scene 4
●Place: a restaurant of no great pretensions on the opposite of Six Avenue
●Character: Soapy; two waiters; a policeman
●plot：Soapy had a free dinner at last, waiting to be sent to the police, but the waiter just
had some guys throw him out; and the policeman laughed to see this and walked away. Scene 5
●Place: Five blocks
●Characters: Soapy; a young woman of a modest and pleasing guise; a lager policeman of
severe demeanor
●Plot: Soapy designed to harrass the young woman, but she didn't call for the cops, and
caught Soapy's coat sleeve to ask him to buy a pail of suds for her.
Scene 6
●Place: on the sidewalk of the next corner
●Characters: Soapy; the policeman
●Plot: he acted drunk but the cop thought he was a college student celebrating a win in a
football game
Scene 7
●Place：in a cigar store
●Characters: Soapy; a well-dressed man; a policeman
●Plot: Soapy tried to steal another man's umbrella. But the victim of the umbrella theft
relinquishes the item without a struggle. Because it is also not his umbrella. The policeman just looked at them curiousely and then go to assisst a tall blonde across the street.
Scene 8
●Place：near an old church on an unuasually quiet corner
●Character：Soapy
●Plot: The Sabbath anthem exerted an wounderful influence on his soul, Soapy decided
that on the very next day he will seek out this potential mentor and apply for employment.
However he was arrested this time for standing around.
the Main Characters
●Soapy: tagic destiny, abnormal psychology
●the cop: the right and wrong were confused in capitalist society.
●Anthem: just give spiritual comfort; but cannot change one's misfortune
Themes
A. The Cop and the Anthem is a tragic comedy to expose that the police tolerate the crimes and punish the person who do nothing sinful.
B. The sarcasm on the law and the corruption of the police
C. He shows sympathy for the poor people.
Figures of speech
1. Simile
●“Don’t you figure out that I might have had something to do with it ?” said Soapy,
not without sarcasm, but friendly, as one greets good fortune(正如他交着桃花运一样）
2. metaphor
●That was Jack Frost’s card
3. metonymy
●Soapy, having decided to go to the Island, at once set about accomplishing his desire
4. personification
●Jack is kind to the regular denizens of the Madison Square and gives fair warning of his
annual call杰克对麦迪逊广场的常住居民非常客气，每年来临之先，总要打一声招呼
5. euphemism
●Jack is kind to the regular denizens of the Madison Square and gives fair warning of his
annual call . At the corners of four streets he hands his pasteboards to the North Wind, footman of the mansion of all Outsiders , so that the inhabitants thereof may make ready
●Wherefore it is better to be a guest of the law, which though conducted by rules, does not
meddle unduly with a gentleman’s private affairs
6. Irony
●Arrest seemed but a rosy dream
●Soapy had confidence in himself from the lowest button of his vest upward
7. Pun---(polysemy词语的多义性)
●(1) and when Soapy moves uneasily on his bench in
●the park , you may know that winter is near at hand.
●(2) At the corners of four streets he hands his pasteboard
●to the North Wind , . . .
●(3) If not in coin you must pay in humiliation of spirit for
●every benefit received at the hands of philanthropy.
●(4) The pleasantest was to dine luxuriously at some expensive restaurant ; and then , after
declaring insolvency , be handed
●over quietly and without uproar to a policeman.
●(5) Would never a policeman lay hands on him ?
●(6) Soapy felt a hand laid on his arm.
To sum up
●O.Henry’s short stories are noted for their careful plotting ,ironic coincidences and
surpring ending.
Henry James(1843-1916)
Henry James’life
●Wealthy cultured family in New York (1843)
●Unusual upbringing.
●Harvard Law School (1862).
●Settle down in London (1876)
● A naturalized British citizen (1915).
●Order of Merit (1916)
The International Theme
●“The international theme” refers to the moral and psychological complications when the
American innocence encountered the European sophistication
●The typical Americans in James: fresh, enthusiastic, eager to learn, and basically “good” ,
disregard of the conventions, stand for morality
●The Europeans in James : highly cultivated, elegant in manners, but sophisticated. stand
for manners
James’s psychological novel
●James changed the method of presentation in a novel, shifting the centre of gravity from
action to its intellectual and fantastic aspects:
●external circumstances lose significance before the inward events that take place in a soul. Literary Features of James
●The cultural conflict between Europe and America
●The psychological activities of character
●Dramatic effect
●Ambiguity in attitude towards many things
Three Periods of James’literary Career
●Early period (1865-1882): “international theme”(American innocence in face of
European sophistication)
major works: The American (1877), Daisy Miller (1878), The Europeans (1878), The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
●Middle period (1865-1895): experiments with different themes and forms (subtle studies
of inter-personal relationship)
major works:The Bostonians (1886), The Private Life (1893), The Death of a Lion (1894)
●Late Period (1895-1916): a revival of the theme of innocence in a corrupted world and
“the international theme”.
major works:
1895-1990: The Turn of the Screw (1898), What Maisie Knew (1897), etc.
1900-1904: The Ambassadors (1903), The Wings of the Dove (1902)
1904-1916: The American Scene (1907), etc.
Henry James and Realism
●An strong advocate of realism:
The Art of Fiction
1)“Art without life is a poor affair”; “the only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life”, etc.
2) “It is art that makes life”
●Psychological approach to his subject matter:
forerunner of the 20th-century “stream-of –consciousness”novels and the founder of psychological realism (“historian of fine consciences”)
Features of James’successful novels
●“the international theme”: American innocence Vs. European sophistication
●His narrative with the limited point of view (“center of consciousness”):
The narrator tells the story in the third person, but stays inside the confines of what is perceived, thought, remembered and felt mainly by a single character within the story, such as Strether in The Ambassadors, Isabel Archer in The Portrait of a Lady
Characterization and Theme
●Isabel Archer:
naïve and innocent; intelligent and perceptive; strong-willed; spirit of self-sacrifice
●Madame Merle:
●cynical and pretentious
●Theme: the conflict of innocent America and European culture
Homework
●Act out the eight scenes in the Cop and the Anthem
●Appreciate the Portrait of A Lady(think what's you view about Isabel Archer's character
and her choose.)
●Pre-study Jack London and his works。