英美文学选读PPT

(1856-1950) Playwright for the People

wrote 63 plays
The Devil's Disciple (1897) was his first significant
financial success as a playwright By the 1910s, Shaw was a well-established playwright
1879-1970

1905 1907 1908 1910
-
Where Angels Fear to Tread The Longest Journey A Room with a View Howard‘s End

1924 - A Passage to India 1971 - Maurice
Week 14
British Literature
1882-1941

Dubliners (1914, short-story collection) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916,
novel)


Ulysses (1922, novel) Finnegans Wake (1939, novel)
◦ He attempted to make a fiction that would reflect the whole life, conscious and subconscious, without being limited by conventions of language




Symbolic differences between Italy and England
◦ Italy as a place of freedom and sexual expression. ◦ Britain was a place of restricted values and conservatism
Eric Arthur Blair 1903-1950




Winston is sick of his job fabricating and changing history at the ―Ministry of Truth‖ Winston has a sexual affair with Julia -- he trusts her and shares his rebellious thoughts with her Winston wants to give help to O‘Brien, who he thinks is part of the Brotherhood rebellion Eventually both Winston and Julia are captured by the Party, but will he confess?
1911-1993

Golding believed that our humanity rests in the capacity
to make value judgments ◦ the power to decide what is right and wrong
◦

BUT,
◦ After the war, he no longer believed in the inherent innocence and goodness of mankind
his astonishing way of constructing a novel his frank portrayal of human nature in his books his complete command of English influenced many writers including Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot《等待戈多》

Linguistically, he develops a written form of stream of consciousness


Psychologically, he is forever attempting to re-seek unity in a world that is disorganized Philosophically, he came to feel that time and space are artificial, that all is related, and that art should be a symbol of that relationship
the Broadway musical My Fair Lady could be produced only after Shaw's death

Class system Social prejudice Judging by appearance Morality/behavior Money/class Rich/poor Speech/dialect

◦ New works such as Fanny's First Play (1911) and Pygmalion (1912) had long runs in front of large London audiences ◦ Shaw forbade musicalization of his work

Symbolic meanings of ―rooms‖ and ―views‖:
◦ ―rooms‖: conservative and uncreative, e.g. Mrs Honeychurch, Cecil usually pictured in a room ◦ ―views‖: forward-thinking and modern character types, e.g. Freddy and the Emersons often described as being ―outside‖
the ethical nature of the individual not on any political system


Survival Power/Leadership Civilization vs. Savagery Loss of Innocence Human Nature Good vs. Evil
1775-1817

1787-1793: Juvenilla 1795-1799: began Sense and Sensibility,
◦ Working titles: Elinor and Marianne, First Impressions, and Susan.
Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey



man‘s primary role is to be the provider: work, propose an engagement for a wife, earn the family‘s only income, make final decisions, physically and fiscally support and protect the family, and provide a home, food, and clothing.
1899 to 1961

1950
1951
◦ Across the River
and Into the Trees


◦ mother dies
1952
◦ The Old Man and the
Sea
◦ wins Pulitzer Prize ◦ survives two plane crashes

The theme of Lord of the Flies is
◦ an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature ◦ that the shape of a society must dep of the American viewpoint because:
◦ He was one of America‘s greatest dreamers. ◦ He reflected America‘s exaggerated hopes and dreams, especially The American Dream. ◦ He was self-indulgent.
◦ published after the start of The Great Depression ◦ it is about people with money ◦ People didn‘t want to read about success and excess when they didn‘t have enough!




Journalistic – lean, simple, short sentences; hardly any adjectives, especially in dialog Principle of the iceberg: 7/8 under for every 1/8 showing Forces the reader to infer – to ―read between the lines‖ Also called ―hard boiled‖ style