南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件The_Jilting_of_Granny_____Weatherall
南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件 浪漫主义作家-欧文 08.9
With the publication of The Sketch Book, he won a measure of international recognition.
Knickerbocker
Rip Van Winkle
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（公使馆） Legation（公使馆） in London.
View of Sunnyside
3）Evaluation
Washington Irving was the first American writer 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.
《睡谷的 传说》
《布雷斯 布里奇庄 园》
c) Bracebridge Hall 1822 d) Oliver Goldsmith 1840 e) Life of George Washington 18551855-1859
《哥尔德 斯密斯》 《华盛顿传》
2）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.
《美国文学》课件一
V. The Survey of Selected Readings in American Literature
• 2. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was at first a faithful follower of Emerson, but alienated himself somewhat from the master later on. • 3. Another of Emerson's contemporaries, Walt Whitman (1819-1892), tried to write poetry describing the native American experience. • 4. Whitman and Dickinson were the two major American poets of the nineteenth century.
批注本地保存成功开通会员云端永久保存去开通
American Literature
Foreign Language Department
Tangmerican Literature
南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件Nathaniel_Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter represents the
height of Hawthorne's literary genius; dense with terse descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme.
Major Themes in Hawthorne's Fiction Alienation - a character is in a state of isolation because of self-cause, or societal selfcause, or a combination of both. Initiation - involves the attempts of an alienated character to get rid of his isolated condition. Problem of Guilt -a character's sense of guilt forced by the puritanical heritage or by society; also guilt vs. innocence.
《好小伙
儿布朗》 儿布朗》
h)
“The Minister’s Black Veil” Minister’ Veil” “Dr. Rappacini’s Daughter” Rappacini’
《教长的 黑面纱》 黑面纱》
《拉普齐 尼博士的 女儿》 女儿》
最新南开大学外国语学院美国文学课件TheJiltingofGrannyWeatherall
Stream of consciousness and interior monologue are distinguished from dramatic monologue, where the speaker is addressing an audience or a third person, and is used chiefly in poetry or drama. In stream of consciousness, the speaker's thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself) and is primarily a fictional devousness
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions.
George left her at the wedding, with the cake and guests, and Granny never let go of the memory. This memory is what dominates her thoughts as she nears death. At the end of the story as she asks God for a sign and doesn't get one, she feels that now God has jilted her. She blows out the light, and her life and the story are over.
南开大学外国语学院美国文学课件TheJiltingofGrannyWeatherall讲解材料
stream of consciousness
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter (15 May 1890 – 18 September 1980) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. She is known for her penetrating insight; her works deal with dark themes such as betrayal, death and the origin of human evil.
பைடு நூலகம்
The term was first introduced to the field of literary studies from that of psychology by philosopher and psychologist William James, brother of the influential writer Henry James.
南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件 爱伦坡
The narrator remarks that his "friend" the raven will soon fly out of his life, just as "other friends have flown before“ along with his previous hopes. As if answering, the raven responds again with "Nevermore". The narrator is convinced that this single word, possibly learned from a previous owner with bad luck, is all that the bird can say.
The main theme of the poem is one of undying （永恒的） devotion. The narrator experiences a perverse conflict between desire to forget and desire to remember. He seems to get some pleasure from focusing on loss. The narrator assumes that the word "Nevermore" is the raven's "only stock and store", and yet he continues to ask it questions, knowing what the answer will be.
南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件 Rip Winkle & Sleepy Hollow
Briefing of Rip Van Winkle Rip Van Winkle is a simple, good-natured, and hen-pecked man. He does everything except take care of his own farm and family. He helps everyone except his wife and his own folks. He is welcome everywhere except at home. But his wife does not leave him in peace ("Rip" may be, incidentally, the telescopic form of "Rest in Peace").
Briefing of Rip Van Winkle
Old houses have vanished, and so have some of his old friends. In place of the former little inn, there stands the large "Union Hotel," with a flag of stars and stripes fluttering in front of it. However, he is recognized by some of the old villagers and recognizes some of them. He discovers, to his great surprise, that he has slept for twenty years.
On his way, the “headless horseman” chases him.
南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件 美国文学史4(超验主义)
Important terms (1)
Although transcendentalism was never a rigorously systematic philosophy, it had some basic tenets that were generally shared by its adherents. The beliefs that God is immanent in each person and in nature每人都有内在的神性 and that individual intuition is the highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority.
社会和谐发展。
Important terms (3)
American Renaissance : The name is given to a flourishing of distinctively American literature in the period before the Civil War. This renaissance is represented by the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, H. D. Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman.
Important terms (2)
Individualism claims the ability to oppose "authority" 宣扬有能力与“权威”对抗, and to all manner of controls over the individual 反对一 切压抑个人的支配行为, especially when exercised by the political state or "society". It is thus directly opposed to collectivism 集体 主义, social psychology and sociology, which consider the individual's rapport to the society or community集体主义强调个人应注意与
The Jilting of Granny__ Weatherall(2)
1. Doctor Harry visits Granny in the morning. (Granny’s interior monologue, conversation between Cornelia and Doctor)
Readers are placed in the position of spectators at a movie or play-- they see what the characters do and hear, what they say, but must infer what they think or feel and what they are like. The authors are not there to explain.
19. Father Connolly comes to see Granny.
20. Her dead child Hapsey’s ghostly form appears near her bed.
21. Granny rides in a wagon with a man she knows.
22. Granny makes plans to leave certain possessions to her children.
23. Granny blows out the light at the end.
712
Because I could not stop for Death— He kindly stopped for me— The Carriage held but just Ourselves— And Immortality.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall(被抛弃的韦瑟罗尔的奶奶 )
--她所做的一切，从孩子们的身上可以看得出来。孩子们一个个都是从她身上脱胎而出的，他们谁也不能回避这一点。有时她真想再见到约翰，指着孩子们对他说，怎么样，我干得还不坏吧！但是这还得等等。那是明天的事。她想到约翰时，总是把他想成一个年轻汉子。可是现在所有的孩子都比他们的爸爸年岁大了。如果再见到约翰，他站在她身旁准会象是一个孩子。这个念头似乎有些怪，有些不对头。哎，他不可能再认得出她来了。她曾经亲自掘洞竖柱子，圈进了一百英亩土地，还扎起了铁丝网，只雇了一个黑孩子做帮手。这种活儿可会使女人变样。约翰心目中的妻子一定还是高高的发髻里插着西班牙木梳，手拿一把彩扇的年轻妇人。掘洞竖柱的活会使女人变样的。寒冬腊月女人带着孩子在农村马路上驾车又是一件事：马病了，黑奴仆病了，孩子们也都病了，女人天天熬夜，可最后还是把孩子们都拖大了，没有一个夭折的。约翰，我可一个孩子都没有丢啊！这件事约翰一眼就可以看出来，她不必作任何解释，他就会明白的！
明天还远着呐，没有什么可担心的。到时间了，一切都多多少少有个了结；感谢上帝，总是还留下些时间可以安静安静：这时候自己可以全面审视人生，如果有些边边角角不完善的地方还可以修整妥贴。把一切都干干净净地摺拢，放匀贴是件好事，头发刷子，补药并都整整齐齐地安放在白色绣花台布上：从从容容地开始新的一天，餐具架上摆着一排排装果子冻的玻璃杯，褐色的大口杯，白色的磁罐子，上面用蓝颜色漆着各种玩意儿和字样：咖啡，茶，糖，姜，桂皮，浆果：一座铜钟，项上有一只掸得干干净净的狮子。二十四小时内天知道狮子上会积上多少灰尘！阁楼箱子里捆放着那一大堆信件，对，明天得去再读一下——乔治写来的，约翰写来的，还有她写给他们两人的——搁在那里以后给孩子们看到，可使她感到不自在。是呀，那是明天要办的事。让孩子们知道她曾经一度多么傻，那可没有好处。
南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件The_Magic_Barrel课堂展示版
loved to eat，and although he was missing a few teeth，his presence was not displeasing，because of an amiable manner curiously contrasted with mournful eyes．His voice，his lips，his wisp of beard，his bony fingers were animated，but give him a moment of repose and his mild blue eyes revealed a depth of sadness，a characteristic that put Leo a little at ease although the situation，for him，was inherently tense．He at once informed Salzman why he had asked him to come，explaining that his home was in Cleveland，and that but for his parents，who had married comparatively late in life，he was alone in the world．He had for six years devoted himself almost entirely to his studies, as a result of which，understandably，he had found himself without time for a social life and the company of young women．Therefore he thought it the better part of trial and error—of embarrassing fumbling ---- to call in an experienced person to advise him on these matters．He remarked in passing that the function of the marriage broker was ancient and honorable，highly approved in the Jewish community，because it made practical the necessary without hindering joy. Moreover，his own parents had been brought together by a matchmaker．They had made, if not a financially profitable marriage—since neither had possessed any worldly goods to speak of ---- at least a successful one in the sense of their everlasting devotion to each other．Salzman listened in embarrassed surprise，sensing a sort of apology. Later, however, he experienced aglow of pride in his work，an emotion that had left him years ago，and he heartily approved of Finkle．The two went to their business．Leo had led Salzman to the only clear place in the room，a table near a window that overlooked the lamp —lit city．He seated himself at the matchmaker side but facing him，attempting by an act of will to suppress the unpleasant tickle in his throat．Salzman eagerly unstrapped his portfolio and removed a loose rubber band from a thin packet of much-handled cards．As he flipped through them，a gesture and sound that physically hurt Leo，the student pretended not to see and gazed steadfastly out the window．Althoughit was still February，winter was on its last legs，signs of which he had for the first time in years begun to notice．He now observed the round white moon moving high in the sky through a cloud menagerie，and watched with half-open mouth as it penetrated a huge hen, and dropped out of her like an egg laying itself．Salzman，though pretending through eye-glasses he had just slipped on，to be engaged in scanning the writing on the cards, stole occasional glances at the young man's distinguished face，noting with pleasure the long severe scholar‘s nose，brown eyes heavy with learning，sensitive yet ascetic 1ips'and a certain almost hollow quality of the dark cheeks．He gazed around at shelves upon shelves of books and let out a soft，contented sigh．When Leo‘s eyes fell upon the cards，he counted six spread out inSalzman's hand.“So few?‖ he asked in disappointment．“Y ou wouldn‘t believe mf how much cards 1 got in my office，’’Salzman replied. “The drawers are already filled to the top，so I keep them now in a barrel，but is every girl good for a new rabbi?‖ ·Leo blushed at this，regretting all he had revealed of himself in a curriculum vitae he had sent to Salzman．He had thought it best to acquaint him with his strict standards and specifications, but in having done so，felt he had told the marriage broker more than was absolutely necessary．He hesitantly inquired，‖Do you keep photographs of your clients on file?”“First comes family，amount of dowry，also what kind promises，”Salzman replied，unbuttoning his tight coat and settling himself in the chair．After comes pictures, rabbi.‖“Call me Mr. Finkle．I‘m not yet a rabbi．”Salzman said he would，but instead called him doctor，which he changed to rabbi when Leo was not listening too attentively．．Salzman adjusted his horn-rimmed spectacles，gently cleared his throat and read in an eager voice the contents of the top card：―Sophie P．Twenty four years．Widow one year．No children．Educated high school andtwo years c011ege．Father promises eight thousand dollars．Has wonderful wholesale business.Also real estate．0n the mother's side comes teachers，also one actor．Well known on Second Avenue．‖Leo gazed up in surprise．“Did you say a widow?’’―A widow don't mean spoiled，rabbi．She lived with her husband maybe four month. He was a sick boy she made a mistake to marry him．‖“Marrying a widow has never entered my mind．”―This is because you have no experience．A widow，especially if she is young and healthy like this girl，is a wonderful person to marry．She will be thankful to you the rest of her life．Believe me，if 1 was looking now for a bride，I would marry a widow．，’Leo reflected，then shook his head．Salzman hunched his shoulders in an almost imperceptible gesture of disappointment．He placed the card down on the wooden table and began to read another：“Lily H. High school teacher．Regular．Not a substitute．Has savings and new Dodge Car. Lived in Paris one year．Father is successful dentist thirty-five years．Interested in professional man．Well Americanized family．Wonderful opportunity.‖“I knew her personally，”said Salzman．“1 wish you could see thisgirl．She is a doll．Also very intelligent. All day you could talk to her about books and theyater and what not．She also knows current events．‖―I don't believe you mentioned her age?‘‘“Her age?" Salzman said，raising his brows. "Her age is thirty-two years．"Leo said after a while，“I'm afraid that seems a little too old．，，Salzman let out a laugh．“So how old are you．rabbi?"“Twenty-seven．’’“So what is the difference，tell me，between twenty-seven and thirty-two? My own wife is seven years older than me. So what did I suffer? ---- Nothing．If Rothschild's a daughter wants to marry you，would you say on account her age，no?”“Y es，”Leo said dryly．Salzman shook off the no in the yes．“Five years don't mean a thing．I give you my word that when you will live with tier for one week you will forget her age．What does it mean five years ---- that she lived more than somebody who is younger? On this girl，God bless her，years are not wasted．Each one that it comes makes better the bargain．”―What subject does she teach in high sch ool?"“Languages．If you heard the way she speaks French，you will think it is music．I am in the business twenty-five years，and I recommend her with my whole heart．Believe me，I know what I'm talking，rabbi．”“What's on the next card?”Leo said abruptly．Salzman reluctantly turned up the third card：“Ruth K．Nineteen years．Honor student．Father offers thirteen thousand cash to the right bridegroom．He is a medical doctor．Stomach specialist with marvelous practice．Brother in law owns own garment business. Particular people．‖Salzman looked as if he had read his trump card．“Did you say nineteen?，‖Leo asked with interest．“On the dot．’’“Is she attractive?”He blushed．“Pretty?’’Salzman kissed his finger tips．“A little doll．On this I give you my word．Let me call the father tonight and you wm see what means pretty．‖But Leo was troubled．‖Y ou‘re sure she's that young?”“This I am positive．The father will show you the birth certificate．”―Are you positive there isn't something wrong with her?‖Leo insisted．“Who says there is wrong?”．“I don't understand why an American girl her age should go to a marriage broker．‖A smile spread over Salzman‘s face．“So for the same reason you went，she comes．，’Leo flushed．“I am pressed for time．，’Salzman，realizing he had been tactless，quickly explained．“The father came，not her．He wants she should have the best，So he looks around himself．When we will locate the right boy he will introduce him and encourage．This makes a better marriage than if a young girl without experience takes for herself．I don‘t have to tell you this．‖“But don‘t you think this young girl believes in love?’’Leo spoke uneasily．Salzman was about to guffaw hut caught himself and said soberly，“Love comes with the right person，not before．‖Leo parted dry lips but did not speak．Noticing that Salzman had snatched a glance at the next card，he cleverly asked．“How is her health?’’“Perfect，”Salzman said，breathing with difficulty．“Of course，she is a little lame on her right foot from an auto accident that it happened to her when she was twelve years，but nobody notices on account she is so brilliant and also beautiful．‖Leo got up heavily and went to the window．He felt curiously bitter and upbraiaed himself for having called in the marriage broker．Finally，he shook his head．“Why not?”Salzman persisted，the pitch of his voice rising．“Because I detest stomach specialists．’’―S o what do you care what is his business? After you marry her doyou need him? Who says he must come every Friday night in your house?‖Ashamed of the way the talk was going，Leo dismissed Salzman，who went home with heavy，melancholy eyes．Though he had felt only relief at the marriage broker's departure，Leo was in low spirit the next day．He explained it as arising from Salzman‘s failure to produce a suitable bride for him．He did not care for his type of clientele．But when Leo found himself hesitating whether to seek out another matchmaker，one more polished than Pinye，he wondered if it could be ---- his protestations to the contrary，and although he honored his father and mother ----that he did not，in essence，care for the matchmaking institution? This thought he quickly put out of mind yet found himself still upset．All day he ran around in the woods——missed an important appointment，forgot to give out his laundry，walked out of a Broadway cafeteria without paying and had to run back with the ticket in his hand；had even not recognized his landlady in the street when she passed with a friend and courteously called out，“A good evening to you，Doctor Finkle．”By nightfall，however，he had regained sufficient calm to sink his nose into a book and there found peace from his thoughts．Almost at once there came a knock on the door．Before Leo could say enter，Salzman，commercial cupid，was standing in the room．His face was gray and meager, his expression hungry，and he looked as if hewould expire．on his feet．Y et the marriage broker managed，by some trick of the muscles，to display a broad smile．“So good evening．I am invited?’’Leo nodded，disturbed to see him again，yet unwilling to ask the man to leave．Beaming still，Salzman laid his portfolio on the table．“Rabbi，I got for you tonight good news．‖“I've asked you not to call me rabbi．I'm still a student．”"Y our worries are finished．I have for you a first-class bride．’’“Leave me in peace concerning this subject．”Leo pretended lack of interest．“The world will dance at your wedding．’’“Please，Mr．Salzman，no more．”“But first must come back my strength，”Salzman said weakly．He fumbled with the portfolio straps and took out of the leather case an oily paper bag，from which he extracted a hard，seeded roll and a small，smoked white fish．With a quick motion of his hand he stripped the fish out of its skin and began ravenously to chew．“All day in a rush．”he muttered．．Leo watched him eat．“A Sliced tomato you have maybe?”salzman hesitantly inquired．“No．”The marriage broker shut his eyes and ate．When he had finished he carefully cleaned up the crumbs and rolled up the remains of the fish，in the paper bag．His spectacled eyes roamed the room until he discovered，amid some piles of books，a one-burner gas stove．Lifting his hat he humbly asked，“A glass tea you got，rabbi?”Conscience-stricken，Leo rose and brewed the tea．He served it with a chunk of lemon and two cubes of lump sugar，delighting Salzman．After he had drunk his tea，Salzman's strength and good spirits were restored．“So tell me，rabbi，”he said amiably，“you considered some more the three clients I men tioned yesterday?‖“There was no need to consider．”―Why not?‖“None of them suits me．’’―What then suits you?‘‘Leo let it pass because he could give only a confused answer．Without waiting for a reply，Salzman asked，“Y ou remember this girl I talked to you—the high school teacher?‖―Age thirty-two?‖But，surprisingly，Salzman‘s face lit in a smile．“Age twenty-nine．’’Leo shot him a look．“Reduced from thirty-two?”“A mistake，”Salzman avowed．“I talked today with the dentist．He took me to his safety deposit box and showed me the birth certificate．She was twenty-nine year last August．They made her a party in the mountains where she went for her vacation．When her father spoke to me the first time I forgot to write the age and I told you thirty-two，but now I remember this was a different client。
南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件Tony Morrison
The story set in Cincinnati around the Reconstruction period. (战后恢复时期) Beloved is powerful book about the evil of slavery and the value of freedom. The tragic story is told in a series of flashbacks. Sethe, the protagonist, was once a slave in Kentucky before the Civil War.
By killing her child rather than let her be kidnapped into slavery, Sethe has suggested that slavery is more horrible than death. To die is better than to live as a slave, and freedom is more precious than life. Though Sethe has run away from her former master, she cannot rid herself of her painful recollections. She is forced to live with her sense of guilt and her past memories of slavery. By learning to accept, to love, and to overcome the past, she finally learns to live and survive. For this she has paid a dear price.
南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件《乌鸦》赏析
Poe’s poetic theories are remarkable in their clarity（（诗歌理论简洁明朗）about even if they lack what Joseph Wood Krutch terms “intellectual detachment” and “catholicity of taste.” （尽管缺乏Krutch 所说的“知识分子的超脱”和“大众品味）These are best elucidated （最好的证明）in his “the Philosophy of Composition” （创作原理）and “ The Poetic Principle.”（诗歌原则）The poem, he says, should be short, readable at one sitting（一口气能读完）( or as long as “The Raven”【或与诗歌”乌鸦“的长度相当】). Its chief aim is beauty, namely, to produce a feeling of beauty in the reader. Beauty ai ms at “an elevating excitement of the soul,” (震撼灵魂) and “beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. (无论何种形式的美，只要达到最高境界，就能令敏感的灵魂落下泪来) Thus melancholy is the most legitimate of all the poetic tones.” （所以悲伤是诗歌最好的基调）And he concludes that “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.”Poe stresses rhythm, defines true poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty,” （真正的诗歌是富有美好旋律的作品）and declares that“music is the perfection of the soul,or idea,of poetry.”（音乐是诗歌灵魂和思想的最高境界）Poe was unabashed to offer his own poem “The Raven”as an illustration of his point.“The Raven”is about 108 lines, perfectly readable at one sitting. Asense of melancholy over the death of a beloved beautiful young woman pervades the whole poem: the portrayal of a young man grieving for his lost Lenore, （早逝的美丽女友Lenore ）his grief being turned to madness under the steady one-word repetition of the talking bird introduced right at the beginning of the poem：Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weakry.Over many a quint and curious volume of forgotten lore.While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of some one rapping, rapping at my chamber door."'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--Only this, and nothing more."After he sees the bird, its response -- or its imagined one一“nevermore"–keeps breaking upon the young man’s psychic wound ruthlessly and ceaselessly as do the waves on the sea shore until his depression reaches its breaking point:And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sittingOn the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming,And the lamp-light o' er him streaming throve his shadow on the floor;And my soul from out chat shadow that lies floating on the floorShall be lifted-nevermore!The young man, a neurotic on the brink of a mental collapse, （精神几近崩溃）outpours his sorrow in his semi-sleep（半梦半醒之间）on the appearance of the bird. Poetic imagination externalizes itself（诗歌的想象力表现在…）in the phantom of a bird（幻象中的小鸟）and intermingles with it to enhance the effect of tbe tragedy of the bereavement .（失去挚爱的悲剧）It is good to note that Poe’s poems are heavily tinted in a dreamy, hallucinatory color. （Poe 的诗歌中具有一种浓烈的梦境和幻觉的色彩）“The Raven”is a good example as the narrator is in a state of semi-stupor. （神志几近不清的状态）In addition, Poe insists on an even metrical flow in versification.（主张运用规则的韵律创作）“The Raven”is a marvel of regularity: W. L.Werner records that, of its 719 complete feet, （全诗有719个音步），705 are perfect trochees, （其中705个是完全的抑扬格）ten doubtful trochees, （十个勉强可算是抑扬格）and only four clearly dactyls.（只有四个是强弱格）Poe rarely allows himself twenty-five percent of irregular feet as is found in “Israfel”. （Poe 几乎不会让诗中出现四分之一以上的不规则音步，就像在诗歌Israfel里一样）For the sake of regularity in rhythm, Poe disapproves of the use of archaisms, contractions, inversions, and similar devices.（Poe反对使用古体、缩写、倒置等技法）“The Raven” is thus aperfect illustration of his theory on poetry.The RavenOnce upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weakry. Over many a quint and curious volume of forgotten lore.While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one rapping, rapping at my chamber door."'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--Only this, and nothing more."Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; -vainly I had tried to borrowFrom my books surcease of sorrow -sorrow for the lost Lenore- For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-Nameless here for evermoreAnd the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating" ' Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door- Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-This it is and nothing more.Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, "Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,That I scarce was sure I heard you"--here I opened wide the door;Darkness there, and nothing more.Deep into that: darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!" This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, " Lenore! " Merely this, and nothing more.Then into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,Soon I heard again a tapping somewhat louder than before. "Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore-Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;'Tis the wind, and nothing more!Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter.In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;Not the least obeisance made he; not an instant stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door- Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-Perched, and sat, and nothing more.Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven, Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore-Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night ' s Plutonian shore!Quoth the raven, "Nevermore. "Much I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning-little relevancy hore;For we cannot help agreeing that no sublunary beingEver yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door-Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above I us chamber door,With such mime as "Nevermore.“But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke onlyThat one word, as if his soul in that ill~ word he did outpour. Nothing farther then he uttered-not a feather then he fluttered-Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before- On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before. " Quoth the raven, "Nevermore. "Wondering at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, "Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store," Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster Followed fast and followed fastel-so, when Hope he would adjure, Stern Despair returned, instead of the sweet Hope he dared adjure-That sad answer, "Nevermore!"But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust, and door ;Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linkingFancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore-What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yoreMeant in croaking "Nevermore. "This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressingTo the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease recliningOn the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er,She shall press, ah, nevermore!Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer Swung by angels whose faint foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. "Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee-by these angels he hath sent th eeRespite-respite and Nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!Let me quaff this kind Nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"Quoth the raven, "Nevermore. ""Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! -prophet still, if bird or devil! - Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted-On this home by Horror haunted-tell me truly, I implore-Is there-is there balm in Gilead?-tell me-tell me, I implore!"Quoth the raven, "Nevermore. ""Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! -prophet still, if bird or devil!By that Heaven that bends above us-by that God we both adore-Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn ,It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore-Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.Quoth the raven, "Nevermore. ""Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting- "Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's plutonian shore!Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! -quit the bust above my door!Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door! " Quoth the raven, "Nevermore. "And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sittingOn the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming,And the lamp-light o' er him streaming throve his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out chat shadow that lies floating on the floorShall be lifted-nevermore!* The RavenOnce upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weakry，Over many a quint and curious volume of forgotten lore，While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one rapping, rapping at my chamber door.“Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door ——Only this, and nothing more."有一天阴沉的半夜时分，当我疲乏烦闷，面对一堆古籍奇书，想把失传的奥秘揭开，当我打着盹几乎睡着，忽听得一声剥啄，仿佛有人轻轻敲着，轻敲在我的房门外。
南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison (1931-- )Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, the only Afro-American author to be so honored. In her works, Morrison has explored the experience of black women in a racist culture. She has been a member of both the National Council on the Arts and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Morrison has actively used her influence to defend the role of the artist and encouraged the publication of other black writers."Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What it is to have no home in this place. To be set adrift from the one you knew. What it is to live at the edge of towns that cannot bear your company. " (from Nobel Lecture, 1993)Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio. Her parents had moved to the North to escape the problems of southern racism and she grew up relatively unscarred by racial prejudices. Hers was a family of migrants, sharecroppers on both sides. She spent her childhood in the Midwest and read voraciously, from Jane Austen to Tolstoy. Morrison's father, George Wofford, was a welder, and told her folktales of the black community, transferring his African-American heritage to the next generation. In 1949 she entered Howard University in Washington, D. C. ,America's most distinguished black college. There she changed her name from "Chloe" to "Toni", explaining once that people found "Chloe" too difficult to pronounce. She continued her studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Morrison wrote her thesis on suicide in the works of William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf, and received her M.A. in 1955.During 1955 - 1957 Morrison was an instructor in English at Texas Southern University, at Houston, and taught in the English department at Howard. In 1964 she moved to Syracuse, New York, working as a textbook editor. She was transferred after eighteen months to the New York headquarters of Random House. There she edited books by such black authors as Toni Cade Bambara and Gayl Jones. She also continued to teach at two branches of the State University of New York. In 1984 she was appointed to an Albert Schweitzer chair at the University of New York at Albany, where she nurtured young writers through two-year fellowships.While teaching at Howard University and caring for her two children, Morrison wrote her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970). With the publication of the book, Morrison also established her new identity, which she later in 1992 rejected: "I am really Chloe Anthony Wofford. That's who I am. I have been writing under this other person's name. I write some things now as Chloe Wofford,private things. I regret having called myself Toni Morrison when I published my first novel, The Bluest Eye（蓝眼睛）. " The story is set in the community of a small, midwestern town. Its characters are all black. The book was partly based on a story Morrison wrote for a writers' group in 1966, which she had joined after the break-up of her six year marriage with the Jamaican architect Harold Morrison. ecola Breedlove, the central character, is a black girl, who prays each night for the blue-eyed beauty of Shirley Temple. She believes everything would be all right if only she had beautiful blue eyes. The narrator, Claudia MacTeer, tries to understand the destruction of Pecola. Sula (秀拉，1973) depicts two black woman friends and their community of Medallion, Ohio. It follows the lives of Sula, considered a threat against the community, and her cherished friend Nel, from their childhood to maturity and to death. The novel won the National Book Critics Award.With the publication of Song of Solomon (所罗门之歌，1977), a family chronicle comparable to Alex Haley's Roots（黑利的小说《根》）, Morrison gained international attention. It was the main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the first novel by a black writer to be chosen since Richard Wright's Native Son（土生子）in 1949. Morrison wrote the book from a male point of view. The story dealt with Milkman Dead's efforts to recover his "ancient properties",a cache of gold. After the success of Song of Solomon Morrison bought a four-story house near Nyack, N, Y. In 1989 Morrison was named Robert Goheen Professor at the Humanities at Princeton University.In 1988 Morrison received the Pulitzer Prize for the novel Beloved (宠儿，1987), after an open letter, signed by forty-eight prominent black writers, was published in the New York Time Book Review in January. The novel had failed to win National Book Award in 1987, and writers protested that Morrison had been honored with either the National Book Award or the Pulitzer Prize.*Beloved was inspired by the true story of a black American slave woman, Margaret Garner. She escaped with her husband Robert from a Kentucky plantation, and sought fringe in Ohio. when the slave masters overcame them，she killed her baby in order to save the child from the slavery she had managed to escape. Morrison later said that, "I thought at first it couldn't be written，but I was annoyed and worried that such a story was inaccessible to art.”The protagonist, Sethe, tries to kill her children but is successful only in murdering the unnamed infant, "Beloved. " The name is written on the child's tombstone. Sethe did not have enough money to pay for the text "Dearly Beloved. " Sethe’s house, where she lives with her teenage daughter, Denver, is haunted by her dead baby daughter."Who would have thought that a little baby could harbor so much rage?" Sethe wonders. Paul D. , whom Sethe knew in slavery, comes to visit her, and manages to drive the ghost out for a while. "For a used-to-be slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a Crocker sack, well, maybe you'd have a little lo ve left over for the next one. ”Time passes and Paul D. is seduced by （受诱惑）Beloved, who becomes more violent. Denver leaves the house. Sethe is found at the farm, with the naked body of a very pregnant Beloved. The spell breaks, and Beloved disappears. Paul D. returns to take care of Sethe. Magic RealismA kind of modern fiction in which fabulous (寓言般的，传奇的) and fantastical events are included in a narrative that otherwise maintains the "reliable" tone of objective realistic report. The term was once applied to a trend in German fiction of the early 1950s, but is now associated chiefly with certain leading novelists of Central and South America （美洲中南部）, notably Miguel Angel Asturias (阿斯图里亚斯), Alejo Carpentier (阿莱霍卡彭铁尔), and Gabriel Garcia Marquez（马尔科斯，哥伦比亚小说家，1982年诺奖获得者）. The latter's Cien aTios de soledad (One HundredYears of Solitude,百年孤独，1967) is often cited as a leading example, celebrated for the moment at which one character unexpectedly ascends to heaven while hanging her washing on a line. The term has also been extended to works from very different cultures, designating a tendency of the modern novel to reach beyond the confines of realism and draw upon the energies (从…获取活力与养分) of fable, folktale and myth while retaining a strong contemporary social relevance. Thus Gtinter Grasses（君特﹒格拉斯, 德国作家,1927-, 99年诺奖获得者）Die Blechtrommel(The Tin Drum, 铁皮鼓，1959), Milan Kundera’s (米兰·昆德拉, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979), and Salman Rushdie’s (萨尔曼·拉什迪,1947-, 印度裔英国作家,具有世界性影响的作家之一,小说《撒旦诗篇》引起震动世界的风波) Midnight's Children(午夜的孩子,1981) have been described as magic realist novels along with Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus (夜间的竞技场,1984) and Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (《撒旦诗篇》,1988). The fantastic attributes given to characters in such novels –levitation(超自然力造成的人物升空,漂浮), flight, telepathy (通灵), telekinesis (心灵遥感) --are among the means that magic realism adopts in order to encompass (包含,实现) the often phantasmagoric (变幻无常,海市蜃楼般的幻景) political realities of the 20th century.BelovedSummary:When slavery has torn apart one’s heritage, when the past is more real than the present, when the rage of a dead baby can literally rock a house, the traditional novel is no longer an adequate instrument. And so Pulitzer Prize-winner written in bits and images, smashed like a mirror on the floor and left for the reader to put together. In a novel that is hypnotic (催眠般的), beautiful, and elusive (使人有片刻逃避的) , Toni Morrison portrays the lives of Sethe, an escaped slave and mother, and those around her. There is Sixo, who "stopped speaking English because there was no future in it," and Baby Suggs, who makes her living with her heart because slavery “had busted (毁掉) her legs, back, head, eyes, hands, kidneys, womb and tongue;" and Paul D., a man with a rusted metal box for a heart and a presence that allows woman to cry. At the center is Sethe, whose story makes us think and think again about what we mean when we say we love our children or freedom. The stories circle, swim dreamily to the surface, and are suddenly clear and horrifying. Because of the extraordinary, experimental style as well as the intensity of the subject matter, what we learn from them touches at a level deeper than understandingThe story set in Cincinnati around the Reconstruction period. (战后恢复时期) Beloved is powerful book about the evil of slavery and the value of freedom. The tragic story is told in a series offlashbacks. Sethe, the protagonist, was once a slave in Kentucky before the Civil War. She worked for Garner on a farm called Sweet Home. Garner was comparatively kind to his slaves. From him, Hall Suggs, one of the slaves, had bought freedom for his mother, Baby Suggs. She then moved to Cincinnati. Hall Suggs later became the husband of Sethe. After Garner died, a cruel man, known as "schoolteacher," became the owner of the farm. The slaves, including Hall, were forced to flee but were either killed in the fighting or disappeared. Hall's wife Sethe and her children escaped to Cincinnati. Seeing her former owner coming to claim them and return them to slavery, Sethe tried to murder all of them, but without success. She succeeded, however, in killing the two-year-old daughter. The infant child was buried, having one word on her tombstone, “Beloved”.Many years have passed. Now Sethe's life is marked with sadness, isolation and hopelessness. She works in a restaurant and lives a lonely life with her daughter, Denver, in the house of Baby Suggs. Sethe's two sons have left her. She is haunted by the ghost of the murdered daughter. The ghost is exorcised (妖魔被驱走)with the appearance (…出现之后) of Paul D., a fugitive (逃亡的) slave whom she knew. A few days later, however, the ghost reappears as a young woman, calling herself "Beloved". Sethe is tormented by thehorror of what she had done eighteen years ago to the child and by other memories of slavery. After Paul D. is told of the past event and the true status of the present ghost in bodily form, he is so startled that he leaves Sethe.Seethe lives together with both Denver and Beloved, who gets more and more selfish. Sethe is finally able to face her past and learns to live. She is no longer cold-shouldered by the community as she was before. At the end of the novel, Sethe and Paul D. have come together. Beloved has disappeared.Depicting the tragic life story of Sethe and her family, Beloved centers on the inescapable and devastating legacy of slavery. The legacies (遗留物) of slavery are viewed as a haunting force that tortures the enslaved blacks both physically and spiritually. The slaves in the novel are deprived of their ancestors, parents, mates, and children. They have no right to love and get married. They are deprived of their dignity, selfhood, freedom, and identity. By killing her child rather than let her be kidnapped into slavery, Sethe has suggested that slavery is more horrible than death. To die is better than to live as a slave, and freedom is more precious than life. Though Sethe has run away from her former master, she cannot rid herself of her painful recollections. She is forced to live with her sense of guilt and her past memories of slavery. By learning toaccept, to love, and to overcome the past, she finally learns to live and survive. For this she has paid a dear price.The novel is a mixture of the fantastic and the realistic that is also typical of Morison's other novels. The supernatural elements are best represented by the ghost character, Beloved. Like Baldwin and Elision, Morrison made constant use of the flashback method of storytelling in this great narrative. By moving back and forth chronologically, Morrison has combined the past and the present fragments into a unified whole. Morrison's use of multiple timeframes and fantastic occurrences, such as the reappearance of Beloved, demonstrates her lyric storytelling abilities.Selected Reading124 WAS SPITEFUL (124号宅子里充满怨毒). Full of a baby's venom (咒怨). The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years each put up with the spite (怨毒)in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims. The grandmother, Baby Suggs, was dead, and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old ---- as soon as merely looking in a mirror shattered it (往镜子里瞧一眼镜子就会碎掉) (that was the signal <警告…快走掉>for Buglar); as soon as two tiny hand prints (两个小手印) appeared in the cake (that was it for Howard). Neither boy waited to see more; anotherkettleful of chickpeas (一锅鹰嘴豆) smoking in a heap (堆在地上冒热气)on the floor; soda crackers crumbled (苏打饼干被捻碎)and strewn in a line(撒成一条线) next to the door-sill (门槛). Nor did they wait for one of the relief periods (间歇期): the weeks, months even, when nothing was disturbed. No. Each one fled at once--the moment the house committed what was for him the one insult notto be borne or witnessed (再不能忍受或目睹的侮辱时刻) second time. Within two months, in the dead of winter (残冬), leaving their grandmother, Baby Suggs; Sethe, their mother; and their little sister, Denver, all by themselves in the gray and white house on Bluestone Road. It didn't have a number then, because Cincinnati didn't stretch that far. In fact, Ohio had beencalling itself a state only seventy years when first one brother and then the next stuffed quilt packing into his hat, snatched up his shoes, and crept away from the lively spite the house felt for them.Baby Suggs didn't even raise her head. From her sickbed she heard them go but that wasn't the reason she lay still. It was a wonder to her that her grandsons had taken so long to realize that every house wasn't like the one on Bluestone Road. Suspended between the nastiness of life and the meanness of the dead, she couldn't get interested in leaving life or living it, let alone the fright of two creeping-off boys. Her past had been like herpresent--intolerable--and since she knew death was anything but forgetfulness, she used the little energy left her for pondering color."Bring a little lavender in, if you got any. Pink, if you don't."And Sethe would oblige her with anything from fabric to her own tongue. Winter in Ohio was especially rough if you had an appetite for color. Sky provided the only drama, and counting on a Cincinnati horizon for life's principal joy was reckless indeed. So Sethe and the girl Denver did what they could, and what the house permitted, for her. Together they waged a perfunctory battle against the outrageous behavior of that place; against turned-over slop jars, smacks on the behind, and gusts of sour air. For they understood the source of the outrage as well as they knew the source of light.Baby Suggs died shortly after the brothers left, with no interest whatsoever in their leave-taking or hers, and right afterward Sethe and Denver decided to end the persecution by calling forth the ghost that tried them so. Perhaps a conversation, they thought, an exchange of views or something would help. So they held hands and said, "Come on. Come on. You may as well just come on."The sideboard took a step forward but nothing else did."Grandma Baby must be stopping it," said Denver. She was ten and still mad at Baby Suggs for dying.Sethe opened her eyes. "I doubt that," she said."Then why don't it come?""You forgetting how little it is," said her mother. "She wasn't even two years old when she died. Too little to understand. Too little to talk much even.""Maybe she don't want to understand," said Denver."Maybe. But if she'd only come, I could make it clear to her." Sethe released her daughter's hand and together they pushed the~sideboard back against the wall. Outside a driver whipped his horse into the gallop local people felt necessary when they passed 12.4."For a baby she throws a powerful spell," said Denver."No more powerful than the way I loved her," Sethe answered and there it was again. The welcoming cool of unchiseled headstones;the one she selected to lean against on tiptoe, her knees wide open as any grave. Pink as a fingernail it was, and sprinkled with glittering chips. Ten minutes, he said. You got ten minutes I'll do it for free.Ten minutes for seven letters. With another ten could she have gotten "Dearly" too? She had not thought to ask him and it bothered her still that it might have been possible--that for twenty minutes,a half hour, say, she could have had the whole thing, every word she heard the preacher say at the funeral (and all there was to say, surely) engraved on her baby's headstone: Dearly Beloved. But what she got,settled for, was the one word that mattered. She thought it wouldbe enough, rutting among the headstones with the engraver, his young son looking on, the anger in his face so old; the appetite in it quite new. That should certainly be enough. Enough to answer one more preacher, one more abolitionist and a town full of disgust.。
the jilting of Granny Weatherall 被背弃的老奶奶
end
"she stretched herself with a deep breat h and blew out the light."
This is not only the ending of this story, but also the ending of Granny Weatherall's life. Light is just herslf.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
writing techniques
• • • • • • stream-of-consciousness flashback foreshadowing(伏笔，铺垫） symbloism simile allusion
Style
• “Katherine Anne Porter’s short fiction is noted for its sophisticated use of symbolism, complex exploitation of point of view(third person perspective), challenging variations of ambiguously ironic tones, and profound analyses of psychological and social themes.” • The Jilting of Granny Weatherall is no exception. In this story, Porter employs the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique. This style allows Porter to create empathy for the title character by giving readers uncensored access into Granny’s mind, memories and experiences.
南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件 The_Age_of_Realism
the overwhelming triumph of industrialism over
agrarianism. The War brought many great
changes to every aspect of American people.
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The Civil War destroyed the romantic concept of war. In the eyes of romanticists，wars were always glorious, grand，and noble encounters，
“the only animal who indulged in one after another of the atrocity （凶恶，残暴） of war．”
This statement is a representative attitude of the post-Civil War writers in America．To them， there is nothing romantic about war．
about human nature and God’s benevolence （仁慈）. The Civil War marked a deterioration （恶化）of American moral values．
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南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学课件 美国文学史-霍桑与红字
the year, leaving much property in England and America to Pearl. Soon, Hester and Pearl leave Boston and disappear. Later, Hester returns alone and again taking up her badge ofshame the scarlet letter "A" - she lives alone in the same small cottage by the seashore. It is thought that Pearl is happily married in Europe. After a long, full life of giving advice to women who are troubled by affairs of the heart, Hester dies and is buried beside Arthur Dimmesdale.Chapter XXIII THE REVELA TION OF THE SCARLET LETTER* SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTERThis chapter contains the following dramatic happenings:1. Dimmesdale concludes his Election Sermon which is cheered by the townspeople in the market-place.2. The procession starts to leave for the town-hall where a banquet is to close the ceremonies of the day. People suddenly notice that Dimmesdale no longer is filled with great energy; he seems weak and tottering.3, Dimmesdale stops opposite the scaffold and calls Hester and Pearl to his side. Chillingworth tries to stop him, but he pays no attention to the old physician. Then they all mount the steps of the scaffold, Hesterby Sir Walter Scott:。
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Porter gradually reveals the details of the jilting through Granny Weatherall's fragmented recollections. In Granny Weatherall's semi-conscious state, the past mingles with the present and people and objects take on new forms and identities.
Stream of consciousness and interior monologue are distinguished from dramatic monologue, where the speaker is addressing an audience or a third person, and is used chiefly in poetry or drama. In stream of consciousness, the speaker's thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself) and is primarily a fictional de916)
Major Works:
The American (1877) Daisy Miller (1879) The Portrait of a Lady (1881) The Turn of the Screw (1898) The Wing of the Dove (1902) The Ambassadors (1903) The Golden Bowl (1904) The Art of Fiction (1884)
The setting for' "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" is the bedroom where Granny Weatherall is dying, though most of the action occurs in Granny's head. Told as a stream-ofconsciousness monologue, it is the story of the last day in the eighty-year-old woman's life.
stream of consciousness
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions.
George left her at the wedding, with the cake and guests, and Granny never let go of the memory. This memory is what dominates her thoughts as she nears death. At the end of the story as she asks God for a sign and doesn't get one, she feels that now God has jilted her. She blows out the light, and her life and the story are over.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter (15 May 1890 – 18 September 1980) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. She is known for her penetrating insight; her works deal with dark themes such as betrayal, death and the origin of human evil.
The term was first introduced to the field of literary studies from that of psychology by philosopher and psychologist William James, brother of the influential writer Henry James.
Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative (and at times dissociative) leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing a character's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings.
In her final hours with her surviving children around her bed, Granny Weatherall reconsiders her life and ponders her impending death. Almost against her will, her thoughts return to an incident that occurred more than sixty years earlier: She was left standing alone at the altar when her fiance George jilted her.