陶洁《美国文学选读》笔记和课后习题(含考研真题)详解(拉尔夫 华尔多 埃利森)【圣才出品】

第21单元拉尔夫•华尔多•埃利森

21.1 复习笔记

I. Introduction to author（作者简介）

1. Life（生平）

Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914—1994) was born in Oklahoma City. From his birth, Ellison’s parents knew he was bound for prosperity. His father even named him for the great writer Ralph Waldo Emerson in an effort to ensure such success. Mrs. Ellison, a maid, would bring home books, magazines, and record albums that had been discarded in the homes she cleaned. Ellison revered and admired the musicians of his area. At Douglas High School, Ellison followed his inclination toward music. From there, he went to Tuskegee Institute on a scholarship and dreamed of writing a symphony. After there was a mix-up with his scholarship, Ellison chose to go north in order to save money for tuition. Arriving in New York, Ellison found it difficult to find work and even harder to find work as a musician. The result was a succession of odd jobs at Harlem’s YMCA with a psychiatrist. There Ellison acted as a file clerk and a receptionist, and held various other jobs around town. During this time, Ellison met the writer Richard Wright, who encouraged him to be a writer rather than a musician. From this point on,

Ellison followed a life of writing in which he earned many awards.

拉尔夫·华尔多·埃利森(1914—1994)出生在俄克拉荷马市。自出生起，他父母就认为他会前程似锦。他父亲甚至以伟大作家爱默生的名字给他命名，以期他能取得成功。他母亲是一位女仆，会把她要打扫的房间里丢弃的书籍、杂志和唱片带回家给他。埃利森十分尊敬崇拜他那个时代的音乐家。在道格拉斯高中时，他满足了自己的音乐爱好。他从那里获得了去往塔斯克基学院的奖学金，并梦想着写一首交响乐曲。面临选择，埃利森为了节省学费毅然北上。到达纽约后，他发现找工作很困难，而找一份音乐家的工作更难。最后，他和一位精神病医生在哈莱姆基督教青年会干一些杂活。他在那里当过档案管理员、接待员，也在城镇周围做各种工作。期间，埃利森遇到作家理查德·赖特，赖特鼓励他放弃音乐从事写作。从那时起，埃利森开始写作，并获得许多奖项。

2. Major Works（主要作品）

Invisible Man (1952) 《看不见的人》

Shadow and Act (1964) 《影子与行动》

Going to the Territory (1986) 《走向领域》

Ⅱ. Selected works（选读作品）

◆Invisible Man《看不见的人》

(1) Invisible Man tells an archetypal existential story of modern times. The protagonist-narrator is nameless apparently because he is invisible.

(2) The concluding section of the book is important, particularly in view of the fact that when the narrator thu s speaks for “you”-humanity at large, he

transcends the physical limits of an African American individuality, becomes, all of a sudden, anyone, an Everyman, and his dilemma, thus generalized and magnified, assumes a universal magnitude.

(3) In addition, the formal and technical resourcefulness that the novel exhibits is simply amazing. It begins with a language more or less naturalistic and moves to something like expressionistic, and ends with a surrealistic texture.

（1）《看不见的人》是一个典型的有关现代存在主义的故事。叙事者主人公无名无姓，显然是因为人们对他视而不见。

（2）书的结尾十分重要，尤其是叙事者对“你们”说话这一观点，此时的“你们”广指全人类，他超越了美国黑人个体身份的界限，骤然成为所有人的代表，他的困境推及到全人类，放大到了全世界的层面。

（3）此外，这部小说的写作方式和技巧令人震撼。小说的语言开头多少有些自然主义的特征，后来转为表现主义，最后则是以超现实主义结尾。

21.2 课后习题详解

1. Why do you think the protagonist is invited to make his graduation speech before the town’s big shots?

Key: Because that the protagonist is a gifted speaker. He is very excellent and makes a good speech at his graduation; the office decides to award him a scholarship to the state college for Negroes.