美国文学史课件9 Jack London
美国文学史PPT课件
present 1)modernism; 2)postmodernism
— John Updike: “Bitter Bamboo”
What is the implication of Updike’s comment ? Do you agderstanding about American literature and culture at present?
B) Simple, fresh, direct, plain, a touch of nobility
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Periodization of American Literature Key Themes in American Literature
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Periodization of American Literature
A General Introduction to American Literature
1
Discussions
China, experts agree, is the nation of the future […] The commercial and intellectual success its emigrants have enjoyed in nations from Malaysia to the United States all augur (预示) impending global dominance. In literature, however, the Chinese mainland, as far as Western ears go, is pretty quiet. […] Bookstores, the Times reports, are bustling, but nearly half the purchases consist of textbooks and half the translations are of American books.
杰克 伦敦ppt课件
那时正是美国大萧条的1904年，他参加了从旧金山到华盛 顿去请愿的失业者队伍，向东海岸进发。他途中因故脱离 了队伍，便偷乘火车在北美大陆流浪，跟车警、乘务员捉 迷藏，周游全国，以此为乐。他曾经被捕，罚作了三十天 苦役，亲眼见到了美国监狱里骇人听闻的现实。出狱后他 偷乘西去的列车到了加拿大西海岸，再从那做水手南下， 回到旧金山。这次特别形式的旅游给了他丰富的人生体验， 尤其是贫困的流浪汉的体验。他明白了一个道理：最能够 关心穷苦人的往往是穷苦人。他对读书一直就有兴趣，就 连在做蚝贼时也在他的小艇上读过许多书。流浪归来他开 始大量阅读。他读过圣西门、傅立叶、蒲鲁东的作品，明 白了私有财产的罪恶；他甚至读马克思的《共产主义宣 言》，大体懂得了共产主义是怎么回事。为了读书他十九 岁时进了奥克兰中学，准备考大学，同时加入了社会党。 他参加工人集会，发表激烈的演说，主张破坏现有的社会 秩序，并曾经因此被捕。在奥克兰中学读书时他在学校的 报纸上发表了小说《小笠原群岛》，连载了两个月，这样， 他从事文学的兴趣更浓厚了。
人物评价
列宁认为他的文章富有激情，带者原始的活力，并在临终 前对《热爱生命》《墨西哥人》作出高度评价。同时这两 篇小说被认为是世界上最杰出的短篇小说之一，杰克 伦敦 也由于《铁蹄》一书授予”美国无产阶级之父“的光荣荣 誉。 美国传记小说家伊尔文·斯通在他的《马背上的水手》里 称他是美国无产阶级文学之父。
角度一理论依据
逆境给人宝贵的磨炼机会，只有经得起环境考验的人,才能算 是真正的强者。自古以来的伟人,大多是抱着不屈不挠的精神, 从逆境中挣扎奋斗过来的。 ——松下幸之助 逆境展示奇才，顺境隐没英才。——霍勒斯 人的生命似洪水在奔流，不遇着岛屿、暗礁，难以激起美 丽的浪花。——奥斯特洛夫斯基
美国文学史及作品选读(级)PPT
● When he was born, his family declined. He was aware of his ancestors’ misdeeds and thus “blackness of Hawthorne” formed. He thought that the reason of his family’s decline is his ancestors’ misdeeds. And he didn’t agree with the optimism held by Transcendentalists towards human nature. He wrote lots of works on everlasting evil side in human nature.
● Like Emerson, Hawthorne thinks that man’s eyes should pierce the veil of surfaces to discover the human nature.
● For Hawthorne, as for Emerson, external reality, nature, objects, tangible forms are merely symbols of a deeper, more inward, ultimately spiritual reality, and Hawthorne’s language, like Emerson’s, is an attempt to extract the secret meaning from reality.
● He graduated from Bowdoin College. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Mr. Pierce, the 14th American president were his classmates.
美国文学史课件9 Jack London
Fiction
Before Adam 幻想小说 《亚当以前》 Jerry of the Islands 《群岛猎犬杰瑞》 The House of Mapuhi 《马普希的房子》 The White Silence 《沉寂的雪原》 Lost Face 《丢脸》
An Odyssey of the North 北方的奥德赛
Martin Eden Call Of the Wild The Sea lf
Questions
Naturalism (1890s)
The historical background of Naturalism a. the spread of industrialization created extremes of wealth and poverty. slum
Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is the first American naturalistic work. Norris’s McTeague is the manifesto of American naturalism. Dreiser’s Sister Carrie is the work in which naturalism attained maturity. These writers’ detailed description of the lives of the downtrodden and the abnormal, their frank treatment of human passion and sexuality, and their portrayal of men and women over-whelmed by blind forces of nature still exert a powerful influence on modern writers.
美国文学史及作品选读PPT9
2 Francis Se has been an outstanding novelist in his life time and admired by lots of people. He was once an idol signifying success, wealth, beauty and youth. However, his life was not as happy as the public imagined. He never failed to remain detached and foresee the failure and tragedy of the ―Dollar Decade‖. He is the spokesman of ―the roaring 1920s‖, ―the Jazz Age‖—―Inside he knew it well, outside he saw it ironically.‖)
◆ ―Tales of the Jazz Age‖ : a legend of ―Americans adolescence before pain set in‖ (The 1920s was called ―the Jazz Age‖ because of this book; Fitzgerald became ―the angel of the twenties‖) ◆ ―All the Sad Young Man‖ ◆ ―Taps at Reveille‖
2.1 Works
● Novels
◆ ―This Side of Paradise (life in Princeton, frustration of young men): representing the triumph of matter over form
Jack London.ppt
请你们认真听啦!
Jack London
——走进杰克·伦敦
六年级六班 韩宁芙
目录
• 杰克·伦敦不同时期的照片 • 初识杰克·伦敦 • 写作风格 • 最著名的作品 • 《热爱生命》节选·赏析 • 无与伦比的人生——走进杰克·伦敦 • 杰克·伦敦之死 • 总结
“斯拿克” 号上的
《野性的呼唤》
• 整个故事以阿拉斯加淘金热为背景，讲述了在北方险恶的 环境下，巴克为了生存，如何从一条驯化的南方狗发展到 似狗非狗、似狼非狼的野蛮状态的过程。巴克是一条硕大 无比的杂交狗，它被人从南方主人家偷出来并卖掉，几经 周折后开始踏上淘金的道路，成为一条拉雪橇的苦役犬。 在残酷的驯服过程中，它意识到了公正与自然的法则；恶 劣的生存环境让它懂得了狡猾与欺诈，后来它自己将狡猾 与欺诈发挥到了让人望尘莫及的地步。经过残酷的、你死 我活的斗争，它最后终于确立了领头狗的地位。在艰辛的 拉雪橇途中，主人几经调换，巴克与最后的一位主人桑顿 结下了难分难舍的深情厚谊。这位主人曾将他从极端繁重 的苦役中解救出来，而它又多次营救了它的主人。最后， 在它热爱的主人惨遭不幸后，它便走向了荒野，响应它这 一路上多次聆听到的、非常向往的那种野性的呼唤，并且 成为了狼群之首。
个人主义
• 个人主义反抗权威以及所有试图控制个人 的行动——尤其是那些由国家或“社会” 施加的强迫力量上。因此个人主义直接的 反抗将个人地位置于社会或共同体之下的 集体主义。个人主义经常被人与利己主义 相混淆，但事实上个人主义与利己主义是 不相同的。
《海狼》
“魔鬼”号船长“海狼”拉森，一个完全的利 己主义、达尔文主义者，有强壮的身体和灵活的 头脑，以野蛮人的方式与野蛮人殴斗，又以文明 人的方式与文明人交谈。他的头脑中满是野蛮的 思想，他读书只是为了从中找出可以支持自己观 点的论据：人为什么要活着？“按“海狼”的说 法：“生命像是酵母。酶母，一种活动的东 西……大的吞小的才可以维持他们的活动，弱肉 强食才能保持他们的力量。 水手为了要吃要喝而 活动，因为可以继续活动，就是这个样。他们为 吃饱肚子而生活，为生活而吃饱肚子，这是一个 循环。”
《美国文学》课件.ppt
• When he woke up, he noticed that his joints were stiff and that his beard had grown a foot long. Returning to his village, he found it changed almost beyond recognition.
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3) What does “this legendary superstition” refer to? (Para. 2) 4) What is “the general purport of this legendary superstition”? (Para. 3—Para. 4)
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5) Is the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” the story of the Headless Horseman? If not, what does the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” deal with?
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Literary Terms: 1.Protagonist: The leading character in a play or story, originally the leader of the CHORUS in the AGON (“contest”) of Greek drama, faced with the ANTAGONIST, the opposition.
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6) How many major characters are mentioned in the “legend”? Who are they? And what’s the relationship between them? Who is the protagonist? And who is the antagonist?
美国文学史第9部分
美国文学ppt课件
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
The Leatherstocking Tales were a series of novels about the frontier lives of American settlers.
The Pioneers was the first of The Leatherstocking Tales. The other four stories are The Last of the Mohicans, The
An Introduction to British and American Culture
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
The Sound and the Fury Light in August Absalom, Absalom! Go Down, Moses
An Introduction to British and American Culture
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
The Raven (1844) was one of his most enduring works.
The Fall of the House of Usher The Masque of Red Death Legia
An Introduction to British and American Culture
Charaters: Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, Arthur Dimmesdale
An Introduction to British and American Culture
美国文学史总结PPT课件
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John Winthrop
John Winthrop:《新英格兰历史》“The History of New England”. 1630年登上“阿贝亚”（Arbella）to Massachusetts并开始写日记keep a journal
其还是美国第一位主要作家the first major writer非凡表达能力，简洁明了，有点幽默，还是一位讽 刺天才as an author he had power of expression, simplicity, a subtle humor. He was also sarcastic.
美国早期文学主要为the narratives and journals of these settlements采用in diaries and in journals(日记和日志)，他们写关于the land with dense forests and deep-blue lakes and rich soil.
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Edward Taylor
清教徒诗人中最杰出的一位the best of the Puritan poets 他的作品遵循了十七世纪中期一些杰出诗人风格和形式his work followed they
style and forms of the leading English poets of the mid-seventeenth century。 他大部分作品关于宗教的，大部分诗歌直接以赞美诗为基础进行创作的most of
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(完整word版)整理 美国文学史作家作品(word文档良心出品)
The Nature of True Virtue(1765)
Images or Shadows of Divine Things
8.Ann Bradstreet(1612-1672)
The first American woman poet
The History of New England(two volumes, 1825, 1826; 1630 ---1649 indiary)
Model of Christian Charity（sermon）
4.John Cotton(1584-1652)
The most eminent and admired minister in the first generation of New England Puritans.
5.Philip Freneau(1752-1832)
Poet of the American Revolution (18thcentury)
The first American-born poet; Father of American poetry
Established the National Gazette in Philadelphia in 1791 with Thomas Jefferson’s support
Emily Dickinson
The Age of Realism
William Dean Howells
Henry James
Mark Twain
Stephen Crane
Benjamin Frank Norris
jack_london_ppt
The Call of the Wild: Background Certain purebred dogs are commonly used as sled dogs.
Siberian huskies
Alaskan malamutes Samoyeds
The Call of the Wild
Works
As an assiduous and prolific writer ,Jack London Kept writing at lest 1000words everyday .Though his writing career was less than 20 years ,he produced a large amount of literary works；
• Before 1900 ：To the Man on Trail 《为赶 路的人干杯》 The Odyssey of the North 《北方的奥德赛》1899 • 1900—1910 ：“ North Story” The Son of the Wolf 《狼之子》1900 etc. The Iron Heel《铁蹄》1908 The Sea-wolf《海狼》1904 Marti Eden《马丁 .伊登》1909 Burning Daylight 《天大亮》1910(turning point)
Novelettes 19 Short Stories 150 Plays 3 Reportages ，Essays and Thesis 47 Total :9million words
Works
• Of which ,the 150 short stories cut a new epoch for American short story .They can be roughly divided into “North story ”,“Pacific short story ”and“ Social problem novel”
美国文学史及选读6.1 Chapter 9
their way; • But the river-god, with its “sunlight, space,
“the two adventures”
"all modern American literature comes."
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
«汤姆索耶历险记»
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
«哈克贝里费恩历险记»
Samuel Clemens’ Major Works
The Gilded Age 《镀金时代》 written
in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner
Life on the Mississippi 《密西西比河上》
A transition in his creation: from an optimist and a humorist to a despairing determinist
Samuel Clemens’ Major Works
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court 《亚瑟王朝里的康涅狄格州美国佬》
The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug 《败坏了哈德莱堡的人》
The Mysterious Stranger 《神秘的陌生 人》
tall tales (highly exaggerated)
jack london ppt全面版
Martin Eden
Social class - and Eden's perceptions of it - is a very important theme in the novel. Eden is a sailor from a working class background, who feels uncomfortable but inspired when he first meets the bourgeois Morse family. Spurred on by his love for Ruth Morse, he embarks on a program of self-education, with the aim of becoming a renowned writer and winning Ruth's hand in marriage. As his education progresses, Eden finds himself increasingly distanced from his working class background and surroundings. Eventually, when Eden finds that his education has far surpassed that of the bourgeoisie he looked up to, he finds himself more isolated than ever.
hero).
bourgeois family, a union Novelist, journalist, short story writer and essayist
Theme : Civilization vs.
jack london生平介绍PPT课件
The Call of the wild The Martin Eden
Writing style Notable saying
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Life and career
Born out of wedlock(非婚生子） on January 12, 1876 deserted by his father，raised by his mother and stepfather John London
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• Forceful, and colorful; Subjectivity and enthusiasm
• His characterizations were often stiff and his dialogue stereotyped.
• Themes: primitive violence, Anglo-Saxon supremacy, biological evolution, class warfare, and mechanistic [mekə'nɪstɪk] determinism
• considered as “Father of American Proletarian Literature”.
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Youth is always young and elderly will only grow old. 青年总是年青的，只有老年才会变老。
The only way to get smart is to buy with the youth . 得到智慧的惟一办法，就是用青春去买。
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Significance
美国文学课件(大学版本)NO.2
4.1 Historical Introduction
(1) The Civil War (1861 – 1865) • 1860 Abraham Lincoln supports the abolishment of slavery • 1865 Southern army surrendered (2) Industrialization • American economy developed very fast.
Theme of ―Leaves of Grass‖
• In Walt Whitman‘s masterpiece ―Leaves of Grass‖, he praised the ideas of equality and democracy and celebrated the dignity, the selfreliant spirit and the joy of the common man.
Leaves of Grass
• Famous poems: ―Song of Myself‖ ―O! Captain! My Captain!‖ ―I Hear America Singing ‖
• Nine editions and last edition includes more than 400 poems
Page 5-6
• Realism had orary doctrine that called for ―reality and truth‖ in the depiction of ordinary life. (P6) • They sought to portray American life as it really was, insisting that the ordinary and the local were suitable for artistic portrayal … (P5)
美国文学史
美国文学史Colonial Period1.Colonial America(1620-1763)In November 9,1620, the Mayflower ship lands at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with 101 colonists: the establishment of the first American colony and the beginning of the strenuous settlement in the new world.2.PuritanismPuritanism was a religious reform movement that arose within the Church of England in the late 16th century. Puritanism is a highly strict religious doctrine. The Puritans were determined to find a place on the new continent where they could worship God in the way they thought true Christians should.Influence of Puritanism:1)A group of good qualities—hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.2)It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth- garden of Eden.3)Symbolism: The Puritans’metaphorical mode of perception brought American literary symbolism into being, a literary symbolism which is distinctly American.4)With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.3.Captain John Smith约翰·史密斯the first American writer作品：A Description of New England 《新英格兰叙事》(1616)General History of Virginia《弗吉尼亚通史》（1642）4.William Bradford(1590-1657)作品：Of Plymouth Plantation5. Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)the first American woman poet作品：Tenth Muse“Contemplations”《沉思录》6.Edward Taylor (1642?-1729)the finest poet in colonial period；The greatest poet in American Colonial Period Work: Preparatory MeditationRevolutionary Period (1764-1815)一·The Literature of Reason and Revolution (1700-1800)“The Age of Reason”“American Enlightenment”1.Deism(自然神论）a complete new view of the universea whole set of new ideas and philosophiesinterested in man’s own nature, the natural world and the human world2.Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)one of the greatest founding fathers of the American Nation；a rare genius in human history；He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States:作品：The Autobiography《自传》Poor Richard’s Almanack《格言历书》Style of Franklin:a brilliant writer, with a definite gift for writinghas power of expression, simplicity, a subtle humor, sometimes sarcasticperfect the Puritan plain style, “smooth, clear and short writings”3.Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)a puritan writer, theologian, colonial American preacher and missionary to Native Americans. Edwards “is widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian"作品：The Freedom of the Will (1754)The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended (1758)The Nature of True Virtue (1765)“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”4.Thomas Jefferson作品：独立宣言Declaration of IndependenceAmerican Romanticism(1815-1865)1. Washington Irving华盛顿·欧文(1783-1859)为美国文学第一次赢得世界声誉; 以笔记小说和历史传厅闻名作品：The Sketch Book见闻札记（标志浪漫主义开始）A History of New York纽约史The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说（成为美国第一个获得国际声誉的作家）Rip Van Winkle里普·万·温克尔2.James Fenimore Cooper詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀（1789-1851）作品：The Spy间谍（独立战争间谍对抗英国）The Pilot领航者（sea novel）Leatherstocking Tales皮袜子五步曲：The Pioneers (the first true romance of the frontier in American literature)3.Transcendentalism超验主义As a philosophical and literary movement, transcendentalism flourished in New England from 1830s to the outbreak of the civil war. Its representatives were Emerson and Thoreau. Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit or oversoul, as the most important thing in the Universe. The transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. They also offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the spirit or God.4.Ralph Waldo Emerson爱默生(1803-1882)The father of American Literature; He believed that “ideal is truer than the actual”作品：Nature论自然-----新英格兰超验主义者的宣言书The American Scholar论美国学者;Self-reliance论自立Representative Men代表人School Address神学院演说5.Henry David Thoreau亨利·大卫·梭罗(1817-1862 )American essayist, poet,naturalist, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist作品：Walden瓦尔登湖(1854)Civil Disobedience (1849) 论公民的不服从6.Nathaniel Hawthorne纳撒尼尔·霍桑(1804-1864)作品：The Scarlet Letter 红字The House of the Seven Gables有七个尖角阁的房子The Blithedale Romance福谷传奇The Marble Faun玉石雕像7.Herman Melville赫尔曼·迈尔维尔(1819-1891)作品：Moby Dick/The White Whale白鲸8.Walt Whitman(1819-1892)Father of free verse自由诗之父作品：Leaves of Grass草叶集Song of Myself自我之歌Democratic Vistas民主的前景9.Emily Dickinson埃米莉·迪金森(1830-1886)女Them:love, nature, death, immortality; Language: plain, brevity, direct作品：This is My Letter to the World这是我给世界的一封信I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died我死时听到一只苍蝇叫Because I could not Stop for Death因为我不能等待死神I’m Nobody. Who Are You?我是无名小卒。
论杰克·伦敦作品中的自然主义元素
内容摘要作为一种文学思潮自然主义在美国文学史上起过重要的作用根据自然主义理论人的行为是由环境遗传和机遇决定的自然主义承接了现实主义的写作特色同时又有所发展它又为文学现代主义做了铺垫作为伟大的美国作家杰克伦敦(Jack London,1876-1916)享有很高的国际声誉他的很多作品在国内外都广受欢迎在我国许多读者对伦敦的作品尤其是两部动物小说野性的呼唤1903和白牙1906都很熟悉到目前为止我国对于伦敦作品的研究大多是对其内容主题及写作方法的简单介绍和评议但伦敦不应该被看作是仅仅擅长于动物小说的作家要更好地了解伦敦我们有必要从更多的角度对其生平及作品进行研究从而给他一个更为客观公正的评价同时更好地认识他在美国乃至世界文学史上的地位作为伦敦著名的两部动物小说野性的呼唤和白牙为许多读者及批评家所喜爱这两个发生在荒原上的故事毫无疑问体现了丰富的自然主义元素而作为伦敦的代表作马丁伊登(1909)已经被很多评论家和读者所研读与评论并曾鼓舞了无数人努力奋斗以在学习或事业上取得成功但就我收集到的资料来看迄今为止还少有人从自然主义角度对其进行研究尽管并非所有伦敦的作品都表现自然主义但这几部主要作品还是体现了明显的自然主义倾向本文是对伦敦的几部主要作品如两部动物小说与其自传性作品马丁伊登中的自然主义元素的一次尝试性的研究意图通过分析这些元素来揭示自然主义的作品中遗传环境时机等是如何控制这些作品中人物的行动思想和命运的实际上伦敦唯一的一部海洋小说海狼1904也体现了自然主义倾向鉴于本论文的长度在此从略了我希望这份论文的研究结果能证明我们把伦敦看作是美国自然主义小说家的代表之一是完全有理的这将有助于我们全面正确地认识这位作家关键词自然主义美国自然主义自然主义小说杰克伦敦AbstractAs a literary trend, naturalism has played an important part in American literature. According to naturalistic theory, human beings are controlled by environment, heredity and chance. Naturalism has carried on and developed the writing features of realism, and at the same time it has helped lay the foundation of literary modernism. As a great American writer, Jack London (1876-1916) is well-known through the world and many of his works are very popular both at home and abroad. Many Chinese readers are familiar with London’s works especially his two animal novels The Call of the Wild (1903)and White Fang (1906). But up to now, the studies on London’s works are mainly introductory of t he contents, themes and writing skills. London should not be taken as a writer who is only good at depicting dogs and wolves. To know more about London, we must study his life and his works from more perspectives and then we can give him a comparatively e quitable and objective comment and recognize his proper status in the literary history of America and the world.The Call of the Wild and White Fang are loved by many readers and critics. As the stories take place in the wilderness, they obviously contain naturalistic elements in the narration. London’s masterpiece, Martin Eden (1909), has also been read and studied by many critics and common readers. It is a book which has encouraged many people to work hard to succeed in their study and their career. But as for the materials and comments I have collected about it, few have approached it from the naturalistic point of view. However, from these main works of London’s we can clearly see the naturalistic elements although not all his works show the naturalistic tendency.The present thesis is a tentative study of the naturalistic elements in London’s main works as mentioned above. It aims to analyze the naturalistic elements in these novels to illuminate how environment, heredity, and chance determine a person’s fate as London sees it. Actually, London’s only sea novel The Sea Wolf (1904) also demonstrates a naturalistic tendency. But due to the length of this thesis, I’d like to discuss it in another paper. From the result of my study, I hope we can have a better understanding of Jack London as one of the representatives of American naturalism.Key words: Naturalism; American naturalism; naturalistic novel; Jack LondonIntroductionLiterary criticism of Jack London has proliferated since the 1970s. Some critics appraise his works and some appraise his person; some analyze his works as realistic and some as naturalistic; some criticize him as a proletarian writer while the others praise him highly for this. London is a paradoxical figure and this is one of the many reasons why he and his works have been and are still been studied throughout the world besides his rich and colorful description, vivid characterization and accurate psychoanalysis of the characters in his works, especially of animals.Jack London has been in the forefront of the move toward naturalistic fiction and realism in America. He has been deeply influenced by Darwin’s ideas of constant struggle in nature and “the survival of the fittest”. His social fiction gives him credence as a spokesman for the working class because of his strong sympathy for the poor. As a folk hero, London has achieved a popularity which, along with Mark Twain, may make him a permanent figure in American mythology. London is also extremely popular abroad, especially in Europe and the former Soviet Union. London's reputation as a solid craftsman—especially of short stories—has now been established firmly, even among literary critics as more and more critics find London's works a subject worthy of discussion. London’s works are very popular in China and they have been praised and read by many Chinese people up to the present. Besides the vivid characterization and rich and colorful description in his works, his fame in China is also linked with his status as the spokesman of the working class and his sympathies towards the downtrodden in such works as The Iron Heel (1907) and The People of the Abyss (1903).Since the 1970s, more and more studies on London and his works have appeared and this gives us a great chance to read him, understand him and study him. Although there are many studies on London and his works in China, the studies are mainly introductory and commentarial without academic depth. There is only one page about London in the book A Survey of American Literature which is taken as a textbook for English majors in some universities and appointed as a reference book to those who pursue post-graduate studies in English language and literature. I especially feel unsatisfied because there are few systematic and detailed studies from the naturalistic perspective, because most critics and writers in China take London as a realisticnovelist. This gives us the opportunity to study his works from the naturalistic point of view, but at the same time it also makes it difficult to do so. In this thesis, I will attempt a detailed and systematic study of his main works from the naturalistic point of view.In general, naturalism is the literary movement that provides the best context for Jack London. The theme of naturalistic novels is often the escape from the civil society. A stock naturalistic device involves taking an “over-civilized” man from the normal society into a primitive environment where he must live by muscle and wit. London uses this device in The Sea-Wolf, The Call of the Wild and White Fang, although the hero in the two animal novels is a dog or a wolf.This thesis consists of three chapters: Chapter one is a general view of naturalism and American naturalism including two sections. Section one contains two parts. One is a brief introduction of the term “naturalism” and its social and philosophical backgrounds, and the other deals with the relation between naturalism and realism because these two trends have many similarities as well as differences. Some critics treat naturalism as one kind of realism or of an extremity of realism and some treat naturalism and realism as two separate literary trends. Section two is about naturalism in American literature which also consists of two parts. Part one is about the three traits of American naturalist writers and part two deals with difference between American naturalism and European naturalism. Chapter two is an introduction of London’s life and analysis of his two animal novels The Call of the Wild and White Fang. From this introduction we can know how London’s life experience provides him with a great deal of materials for writing and how this experience affects his character, his mind and hence his works. This can help to prove the theme of the naturalistic novels that environment plays an important part in controlling one’s behavior and thoughts. London is a prolific writer who has written about 50 novels and more than 150 stories, but those which show the naturalistic tendency are only his main works as the animal novels The Call of the Wild and White Fang, his autobiographical novel Martin Eden and also his sea novel The Sea Wolf. Section one of this chapter is a brief introduction of London’s life and section two is the analysis of the controlling power of environment in these two novels, while section three is about the significance of the two novels. Chapter three is a detailed analysis of the naturalistic elements in Martin Eden. The first three parts of this chapter are about the controlling power of environment, the controlling power of heredity and thecontrolling power of chance in this novel, while the last part is about the significance of this novel. By this analysis, we can see how environment, heredity and chance affect and control the thoughts, behavior and speech of the characters, especially Martin and Ruth. The last part of this thesis is the conclusion which discusses London’s contribution to literature and his status in the world now.Chapter 1A General View of Naturalism and American Naturalism1.1 Naturalism1.1.1 NaturalismIt seems that many can answer the question what naturalism is but few can give the term a precise definition acceptable to all. Webster’s Dictionary gives a concise definition:A made of thought (religious, moral or philosophical) glorifying nature and excludingsupernatural and spiritual elements/ close adherence to nature in art or literature, esp. (inliterature) the technique, chiefly associated with Zola, used to present a naturalisticphilosophy, esp. by emphasizing the effect of heredity and environment on humannature and action (p667).And in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, we find a comparatively more detailed definition:Naturalism, late 19th- and early 20th- century aesthetic movement, inspired byadaptation of the principles and methods of natural science, especially the Darwinianview of nature, to literature and art. In literature it extended the tradition of Realism,aiming at an even more faithful, unselective representation of reality, a veritable “sliceof life”, presented without moral judgment. Naturalism differed from Realism in itsassumption of scientific determinism, which led naturalistic authors to emphasizeman’s accidental, physiological nature rather than his moral or rational equalities.Individual characters were seen as helpless products of heredity and environment,motivated by strong instinctual drives from within, and harassed by social andeconomic pressures from without. As such, they had little will or responsibility for theirfates, and the prognosis for their “cases” was pessimistic at the outset (p559).In the 19th century, the industrial revolution spread over the entire face of Western Europe and North America. In 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published and his theory of evolution was on everyone’s lips. The scientific discoveries gave people of that age a new way of viewing and understanding themselves. Darwin’s evolutionary theory gave naturalism its theoretical basis. Donald Pizer points out that Darwin’s evolutionary theory is the comparatively mostimportant theory to naturalism. “Darwin’s On the Origin of Species would prove more important for naturalism, though it came out as early as 1859” (Pizer, 2000:27).But before Darwin’s ideas were available in a literary form, they were first transformed by Emile Zola (1840-1902), the French writer and theorist, in his Le Roman experimental (1880). As it is, Zola is universally labeled as the founder of literary naturalism. In his early literary theory, Zola put great emphasis on trueness. He repeatedly said that trueness was the precondition of literary creation. “Trueness is the foremost important thing” and “All artists must study and present the true nature” (Liu Mingjiu, 1989:13-14). Zola beli eved that the nove list should function like a scientist, observing nature and social data, rejecting absolute standards of morality and free will, and depicting nature and human experience as a deterministic and mechanistic process. All reality could be explained by a biological understanding of matter subject to natural laws. Besides his emphasis on “trueness”, Z ola advocated the original creation of writers and this is another important trait of early naturalistic theory. Zola also called for the method of ob serving and analyzing the society from the biological and hereditary points of view. In his eyes, controlled by heredity and environment, man was the product of his temperament in a social context.So naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity to its study of human beings. For naturalists, since human beings are, in Zola’s phrase, “human beasts”, characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. Through this objective study of human beings, naturalistic writers believe that the laws behind the forces which control one’s behavior may be studied and understood. Naturalistic writers thus use a scientific method to write their novels by studying human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the characters’ lives are governed by forces of heredity and environment. Although they use the techniques of accumulating detail advocated and practiced by the realists, the naturalists thus have a specific object in mind when they choose the aspect of reality that they wish to convey.Naturalism is closely related to determinism because it depicts characters who are driven not by personal will or moral principles but by natural forces that they do not fully understand or control. Human beings are living in a natural environment like animals. They can react toward the exterior and interior forces but they are helpless before these forces (Lin Xianghua, 1989:528). In contrast to other views of human experience, the naturalistic view makes no moral judgments on the lives of thecharacters. Their lives, often bleak or defeating, are determined by social, environmental, instinctive, and hereditary forces. “People in naturalistic works don’t act by their reason and thought. Their behavior is determined by their instincts, biological and hereditary elements” (Jiang Chengyong, 2002:193). Naturalism is in part a reaction by writers against the nineteenth century Romantic view of man as master of his own fate.1.1.2 Relation between naturalism and realismWhen discussing naturalism, we have to mention realism because these two literary trends have many similarities as well as differences. “Almost without exception critics have been in the habit of grouping the two terms together or at least of writing about both, irrespective of whether their work was supposed to be about Realism or about Naturalism” (Furst, 1971:5-6).Some critics take naturalism as an extension or continuation of realism with the addition of pessimistic determinism because naturalism has developed from realism and they have some similarities. “Both naturalism and realism emphasize the importance of writing about reality and truth and this is their most important similarity. The similarity of realism and naturalism is that both of them have a basic belief that the essence of art is the imitation and objective reproduction of reality (opposite to the imaginative, idealized and subjective method of romanticism)” (Xie Dongbing, 1999:1). While some take naturalism and realism as two separate literary trends. However, naturalism is a movement considered to be beyond realism. Pizer points out that “More specifically, though naturalism could have arisen only after absorbing the insights of realism, it insisted on subjects, attitudes, and techniques that bewildered and often offended its forerunners” (Pizer, 2000:21). Both movements try to portray real-life, but naturalism is based more on scientific studies. Realism is a manner and method of composition by which the author describes normal, average life, in an accurate, truthful way and it puts its emphasis on typical setting and typical characters. While naturalism is a manner and method of composition by which the author portrays “life as it is” without the writers’ personal feelings and comments.In his Responsibilities of the Novelist (1903), Norris points out that the real rival of naturalism is not romanticism but realism. Here he takes naturalism and realism as two completely opposite literary trends. Therefore naturalism is regarded as quitedifferent from realism. Mentioning the relation between naturalism and realism, Jiang Chengyong says “From the angle of understanding human beings, it is obvious that naturalism derived from realism, but what is more important is that it has its own development and enrichment” (Jiang Chengyong, 2002:9). In naturalism, the subject matter deals with those unpleasant experiences which reduce characters to “degrading” and “animalizing” behavior in their struggle to survive. These characters are mostly from the lower class and the environment is the commonplace. Realism usually depicts people who are living a happy life. It offers an optimistic picture of reality and although characters in such works will also have some trouble and difficulty, they will finally succeed and reach their goal. In contrast to a realist, a naturalist believes that a character is fundamentally an animal without free will. In naturalism, characters do not have free will; external and internal forces control their behavior. Both naturalism and realism emphasize the importance of reality but one reality is different from the other. In naturalism, reality is objective and scientific while in realism, this reality is subjective and typical. Naturalism aims to depict every detail of the reality to show life as it is, and this description is objective without any sentiment of the writers. Realism chooses the typical person and event to describe while neglecting some details for the convenience and aim of description.1.2 Naturalism in American literature1.2.1 American naturalism and its difference from European naturalismBesides Darwin, Spencer and Zola have influenced American naturalism literature.Spencerian philosophy pervaded in the late nineteenth-century America and his works became a bestseller second only to The Bible. His theory of Social Darwinism was very popular in temporal America at that time. Crane, Dreiser and London all earnestly read his First Principles and Synthetic Philosophy and they got the conclusion that “human beings are only some atoms and cosmic dust” (Zhang Hezhen, 42). Their former philosophical opinions fell apart and some naturalistic points of view took their place.In terms of literary theory and writing skill, Zola is the most influential figure on American naturalism. In the American literary field of that time, one would beseverely attacked as soon as he mentioned Zola, but he still had many readers and potential influence. Many writers, including the so-called American “founder of realist literature” Howells, all tried to get Zola’s works to read.Through the course of the 19th century America progressed from an agricultural economy to an industrialized nation and in the-post-civil war America, industry developed rather rapidly. Along with the industrialization came the rise of the towns, rapid increase of population in the city, the appearance of the numerous slums and the spread of crimes. The whole America was facing the threat of a series of problems such as unemployment and poverty. In the last ten years of the nineteenth century, the wide gap between the rich and the poor was amazingly great and this sharp contrast could be seen in every big city. The severe reality broke the “American dream” which was often boasted in the press so most people felt disillusioned and desperate. “The collapse of this predominantly agrarian myth brought Americans up against harsh realities with a very sharp shock” (Furst, 1971:34). In this term, the rise of naturalism in American literature is an inevitable result.Literature is the reflection of society. At the end of the nineteenth century the American literary field was disappointing because at that time the elegant European tradition pervaded in the field. That was h ypocritical tradition whic h aimed t o beautify the reality to meet the need of the bourgeois and upper c lass. It was evasive in disclosing the crime and philistinism in the society and it went farthe r and farther from the reality. This was the so-called realism at that time. Some sensitive correspondents such as Dreiser, Norris and London who often lived with the lower class felt this tradition disgusting when they saw the bleak side of the real life. They were eager to write what they saw and heard to tell the truth they knew. The actual need forced them to explore a literary method which could best express the reality, and these young writers took the task. They bravely disclosed the conflict with the biting style of writing and raised some social problems of importance. “That is why among the serious writers, not a few regarded naturalism superior to realism” (Zhang Hezhen, 43). In conclusion, in the time of abrupt change and severe comparison, the American life called on these young writers to describe the reality and to show the bleak sides of American society. From the above analysis, we can see clearly that the American naturalistic literature of the late nineteenth century developed from a realistic basis but was rather different from the former “elegant tradition”. Thenaissance of American naturalistic literature indicated the end of a time and also foretold the new turn of American literature.According to Furst and Skrine, although greatly influenced by European naturalism, American naturalism has its own characteristics. American naturalism grew in direct response to the native social and economic problems. Often the struggles of the poor with the capitalists are the theme of naturalist writing as, for instances, in the novels of Dreiser or the short stories of Stephen Crane. “In this way American Naturalism owes much to local factors than to outside influences, and it is worth recalling the so-called ‘local colour’ tendencies of the 1870s and 1880s which carried on into Naturalism, though with certain shifts of emphasis” (Furst, 1971:34). Another difference of American naturalism from European naturalism is that American naturalism was much less of a movement and there were no clear groups united by common aims and manifestos. Furst thought that this was its advantage because “Thus American Naturalism, extending from the mid-1880s well into the twentieth century, had a far longer life-span than its European counterparts which strangled themselves with their own theories” (ibid.36).1.2.2 Three traits of American naturalist writersAccording to Zhang Hezhen, American naturalists mainly have three traits in writing.(1) American naturalists usually take human beings as victims, first as the victims of heredity, that is, biological force, and they try to explain human beings and the society by natural laws especially biological laws (Zhang Hezhen, 44).For the naturalists, heredity refers to human’s instinct which is a kind of strong desire and impulse inherited from the ancestors such as hunger, fear and sexuality. These desires and impulses are the animal instincts which drive animals. One theme of the American naturalists is the description of the animal instincts of human beings. In their stories, human beings are only animals that when they meet with danger or pressure they will show their most original crude animal nature. The most appropriate representative of this theme is Frank Norris’ McTeague. Another novel expressing this theme is Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage. The author shows the biological force controlling the protagonist Fleming by describing his horror when he is in the battles.(2) American naturalists usually take human beings as the victims of environment.Almost all naturalists believe environment is a powerful force which is unmeasurable, mysterious and inevitable. Human beings in this environment are no more than some “cosmic dust”. Or as what Frank Norris describes in Octopus, are just some ephemeras which will be forgotten soon. To them, human life is a meaningless dream. These naturalists believe the mysterious and inevitable force of the environment is the result of society and economy. Crane’s Maggie, Girl of the Street is an outstanding example of this theme. The world in which Maggie finds herself is indifferent to people’s suffering and misery. In this novel, Crane does not care about the fate of such girls as Maggie. His aim is to show the naturalistic theme that human beings are the victims of environment by describing the power of this force.(3) American naturalists usually take human beings as the victims of fate or chance.Romantics believe nature is beneficent and virtuous. The relationship between nature and human beings is harmonious. Human beings are the masters of the world and they can control their fate and do whatever they like and want. Romanticists usually beautify nature and in their works, nature is the fascinating paradise. Naturalists regard nature as neither beneficent nor vicious. It is absolutely indifferent to human beings. Human beings can never make their own choice. They can not control but accept the arrangement of the mysterious fate. Mentioning Henry Adams, Frank Norris, Jack London and Theodore Dreiser as young writers, E. Ronald Martin points out th at they are keenly aware of the in difference of the universe. “In their works we get the first clear intimations of how depressing, amoral, and absurd the universe can appear to man in such nontraditional, nonanthropomorphic conceptual frameworks; they give us our first strong taste of naturalistic alienation” (Martin, 1981:xiv-xv).Crane’s fictional world is a naturalistic one in which man is deprived of free will and expects no help from others whatever. “It is a world in which ‘God is cold’ as is adumbrated vividly in some of his poems” (Zhang Hezhen, 45). “A Man Said to the Universe” is revealing enough: “A man said to the universe:/ ‘Sir, I exist!’ /‘However,’ replied the universe, / ‘The fact has not created in me/ A sense of obligation’” (Stephen Crane, 1895).The greatest achievement of American naturalism is t he exploration and innovation of the subject matter. Naturalists are conc erned about the suffering and misery of the lower class and they gre atly enlarge the sco pe of the subject matter in American novels. American naturalists make great efforts in exploring the writing skill. They emphasize the importance of being honest to describe the reality and they especially a ttach i mportance to details. Many naturalists were b orn in the poor so they are rather familiar with the life of the lower class and they show sympathy towards their sufferings and misery. “Actually, some naturalistic works describe the writers’ own experiences or the experiences of one of the family members so the description is authentic and trustful” (ibid.46). For example, Crane’s early works which describe the misery of the farmers are ba sed on his own miserable experience of youth and his impression of Boston slums; London’s Martin Eden is a description of his own experience; Crane’s Open Boat is the recall of his miserable experience of a boat wreck. That is why most American naturalistic works are so authentic and appealing.Chapter 2Jack London’s Life and Analysis of His Two Animal Novels2.1 LifeJohn Griffith London (1876-1916) was born in San Francisco of an unmarried mother Flora Wellman. Flora had been stricken by typhus in her girlhood, and afterwards she was unstable if not unbalanced. His father may have been William Chaney, a journalist, lawyer, and major figure in the development of American astrology. Chaney was very strong and had the experience of sailing for many years. He spent much time in writing and reading. Here we can see the influence of heredity on London. He also had a strong build and he loved reading very much. A thirst for knowledge snatched young London and he read every book he could get. London was very ambitious that when reading Ouida’s Signa, a story of an Italian peasant’s rise to glory as a musician, he had the thought that he could also reach his goal by working hard. London inherited the paradoxical characteristics from his mother while he inherited his adventurous nature from his father. He got great interest in adventure and he took any chance to sail and do some risky things. “In all the exciting and dangerous things, what Jack was mostly interested in was his desire to prove that he was the greatest wandering prince” (Chu Lüyuan, 1999: 50).London grew up in poverty and worked at various hard laboring jobs. Realizing that he could never become great by doing odd jobs and determined to prepare himself for better than common labor, he attended Oakland High School at age nineteen. There he got known of Mabel, sister of one of his classmates. Mabel became the prototype of Ruth in London’s masterpiece Martin Eden (1909). Always a prolific reader, London consciously chose to become a writer to escape from the horrific prospects of life as a factory worker. He studied other writers and began to submit stories, jokes, and poems to various publications, mostly without success. He also read many philosophical books and his philosophical thoughts were greatly influenced by the four great teachers of him: Darwin, Spencer, Marx and Nietzsche (ibid.99). Londo n believed in Da rwin’s evolutionary theory of “survival of the fittest” and also Nietzsche’s supermanism. These theories were presented in many of his novels.。
英美文学欣赏最新版教学课件美国文学Unit 9 F. Scott Fitzgerald
英美文学欣赏（第四版）
《了不起的盖茨比》是一部关于美国梦的追寻及其幻灭的杰作。一 方面作者菲兹杰拉德在小说中写尽了爵士时代的风情与美国梦的堕落； 另一方面，他又非常崇尚主人公对梦想孜孜以求的顽强精神。盖茨比这 一形象在菲兹杰拉德笔下极具魅力，其了不起处在于他使自己的物质成 功绝对服从于自己的梦想，以及他追求自己梦想所具有的大无畏气概和 坚定不移的决心。小说的悲剧性在于：盖茨比的理想化身竟是一个“金 姑娘”。他的理想追求必须建立在物欲和金钱的基础上，而其物质成功 的基础又是那般脆弱至不堪一击。故事本身及主人公命运都是悲剧性的， 它是一个时代的寓言，也是一个把爱情建立在物质基础之上的悲剧。
英美文学欣赏（第四版）
菲兹杰拉德出生于美国中西部明尼苏达州一个商人家庭。 幼时家境 不佳，靠母亲方面亲戚的资助，在专为富人与贵族子弟办的学校上学。 第一次世界大战爆发后菲兹杰拉德应征入伍，他与泽尔达 ·赛瑞（Zelda Sayre）相爱并订婚。泽尔达才貌出众，向往奢华生活。菲兹杰拉德战后 曾到纽约谋职，但收入不能令他满意，他决定靠写作赢得他们未来生活 的保障。他的第一部书稿被出版商退还。泽尔达与他解除婚约。1920 年 3 月，小说《人间天堂》（This Side of Paradise）出版，菲兹杰拉德名声 雀起。两人完婚。成名后的菲兹杰拉德旋即携妻子跨入富人世界，成为 纽约和巴黎的社交名流，他甚至被冠以爵士时代“金童”的雅号。1922 年秋，他定居在纽约长岛的豪华别墅里，过着《了不起的盖茨比》中描 写的那种挥金如土的生活。他在《崩溃》（The Crack-Up，1945） 一书 中，曾坦白承认他一直不信任有钱人，自己却不停地为金钱而劳累。
英美文学欣赏（第四版）
作品简介
《了不起的盖茨比》是菲茨杰拉德最优秀 的作品，也是 20 世纪初美国现实主义小 说的杰作。盖茨比对他所结识的第一个 “大家闺秀”黛西一见倾心，以为在她身 上找到了完美理想的化身。但终因盖茨比 缺乏维持他们关系所必不可少的金钱保证 和家庭背景，她选择了世家子弟汤姆 ·布 坎农做她的丈夫。五年以后，盖茨比通过 非法经营成为巨富。他将自己的住宅选在 黛西家可以望见的对面，夜夜守望黛西家 里那盏通宵不灭的绿灯。他大排筵宴广纳 宾朋，只是为了换得黛西的回首一顾。盖 茨比的惊人财富又使她心荡神摇，旧情萌 动。
《美国文学》课件九
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Henry David Thoreau
1 Thoreau’s position in American literature A prose writer and poet, and another renowned New England Transcendentalist; for half a century after his death, he remained in obscurity, but he became one of the three great American authors of the nineteenth century who had no contemporary readers and yet became great in the 20th century (the other two being Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson).
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Nature
Emerson regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocates a direct intuition of a spiritual and immanent God in nature. Alone in the Woods one day, for instance, he experienced a moment of "ecstasy" which he records thus in his Nature:
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He went to live on Walden Pond just to experiment with a new way of life for himself, and felt that he came out of it a better man, reborn and reinvigorated. And in 1854, he published his masterpiece, Walden, one of the representative Transcendentalist works.
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b. farmers were still going westward, but frontiers ere about the close. They had to depend on the transcontinental railway to transport their products. c. the spread of Darwin’s theory of evolution changed people’s ideology.
Jack London 1876-1916
杰克伦敦
The Outline
Historical background Definition
Naturalism
Representative Writers
Characteristics The contribution of it
Life
Байду номын сангаас
of Jack London The works of Jack London Theme Style Subject Evaluation The
America’s
literary naturalists dismissed the validity of comforting moral truths. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by their environment and heredity. The pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism pervaded the works of such American writers as Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London and Theodore Dreiser.
Martin Eden
The novel is somewhat semi-autobiographical, Martin Eden is a sailor who works and reads hard so as to become rich and famous and break into polite society. He writes and repeatedly rejected by publishers, but, perseverance leads to final success. He reaches the top, only to find that his dream has not been worth realizing at all. In listlessness and despair, a death-wish, the desire for total annihilation, gets hold of him. He drowns himself when out at sea. Taken as a whole, Jack London’s works are a penetrating criticism of America of the time in which they were written.
Martin Eden Call Of the Wild The Sea Wolf
Questions
Naturalism (1890s)
The historical background of Naturalism a. the spread of industrialization created extremes of wealth and poverty. slum
c. Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) Jennie Gerhardt (1911) 《珍妮姑娘》 The Financier () 《金融家》 The Titan (1914) 《巨头》 The Genius (1915) 《天才》 Sister Carrie (1900) 《嘉丽妹妹》 An American Tragedy (1925) 《美国悲剧》
d. O’ Henry (1862-1910) “The Gift of the Magi” 《麦琪的礼物》 “The Whirligig of Life” 《生活的波折》
As far as genre is concerned, London belongs to naturalistic writer. He believed in individualistic struggle, too Born in San Francisco, reared by a family without fixed occupation or residence, he lived along Oakland waterfront described in Martin Eden, and attended school only until he was 14. Then he did some odd jobs: newspaper boy, worker, sailor …and once been a tramp trip through the U.S. and Canada. In 1896, he went to University of California pursuing his study for a semester.
The
Fiction
Before Adam 幻想小说 《亚当以前》 Jerry of the Islands 《群岛猎犬杰瑞》 The House of Mapuhi 《马普希的房子》 The White Silence 《沉寂的雪原》 Lost Face 《丢脸》
An Odyssey of the North 北方的奥德赛
The People of the Abyss 《深渊里的人们》a factual account of life in the slums of east London
The War of the Classes 《阶级战争》 The Iron Heel 《铁蹄》 Revolution 《革命》 The Law of Life 《生命法则》 The League of the Old Men 老头子同盟
The definition
Naturalism
was an outgrowth of Realism that responded to theories in science, psychology, human behavior and social thought current in the late nineteenth century. It had been shaped by the war, by the social upheavals that undermined the comforting faith of an earlier age, and by the disturbing teachings of Darwinism.
Representative writers
a. Stephen Crane (1871-1900) Maggie, A Girl of the Streets (1893) 《街头女郎玛琪》(the first Naturalism novel) The Red Badge of Courage (1895) 《红色英勇勋章》
Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is the first American naturalistic work. Norris’s McTeague is the manifesto of American naturalism. Dreiser’s Sister Carrie is the work in which naturalism attained maturity. These writers’ detailed description of the lives of the downtrodden and the abnormal, their frank treatment of human passion and sexuality, and their portrayal of men and women over-whelmed by blind forces of nature still exert a powerful influence on modern writers.
He
came from the bottom of society and through hard work and study and sheer will power, made his way up to the summit of the social hierarchy. He was well self-educated in natural law and determinism. He wrote in quick succession and sold well. He also wrote socialistic treatises. But when he became a millionaire, he found fashionable society life empty and distasteful. He died, exhausted and in despair.