陶洁《美国文学选读》(第2版)复习笔记(第6单元 亨利

6.1复习笔记

I.Introduction to author（作者简介）

Henry David Thoreau(1917-1862)is a renowned New England Transcendentalist,essayist,philosopher and poet.

亨利·大卫·梭罗（1917-1862）是著名的新英格兰超验主义者、散文家、哲学家，诗人。

1.Life（生平）

Thoreau was a friend of Emerson and his junior by some fourteen years. Thoreau was born in Concord,Massachusetts.He went to Harvard at17.After graduation,he made friends with Emerson and embraced his ideas.In1845he moved in a cabin on Walden Pond and lived there in a very simple manner for a little over two years.During his stay in Walden,he went back occasionally to his village,and on one visit he was detained for a night in jail for refusing to pay a poll-tax he thought unjust.This inspired him to write his famous essay,“Civil Disobedience”.He wrote about his experience in the famous book,Walden,after he moved back to Concord.

He became a major voice for nineteenth-century America,now better heard perhaps than Emerson’s.His influence goes beyond America.His status was placed in the Hall of Fame in New York in1969.

梭罗是爱默生的好友，比爱默生小14岁。他出生于马萨诸塞州的康科德镇。17岁时

进入哈佛大学学习。大学毕业后跟爱默生成为好友并开始接受了爱默生的思想。1845年他搬进瓦尔登湖畔的一座小木屋，过了两年多简朴的隐居生活。这期间他不时去附近的村子，一次他因拒绝交税而被拘留了一夜。这激发他写成了著名的政论文《非暴力反抗》。回到康科德后，梭罗根据两年多在瓦尔登湖的生活经历写成了著名的《瓦尔登湖》。

现在梭罗被认为是19世纪重要的作家。文学评论家认为他的文学成就高于爱默生。1969年，梭罗的塑像被放进了纽约的“名人馆”。

2.Major Works（主要作品）

Walden《瓦尔登湖》

A Week On the Concord and Merrimack Rivers《在康科德和梅里马克河上的一周》

II.Selected works（作品选读）

◆Walden《瓦尔登湖》

1.Main content（主要内容）

Thoreau’s masterpiece,Walden,is a great Transcendentalist work.It is a faithful record of Thoreau’s reflections when he was in solitary communion with nature,an eloquent indication that he not only embraced Emerson’s Transcendentalist philosophy but went even further to illustrate the pantheistic quality of nature.Walden can be many things and can be read on more than one level.

It consist of18passages,recording the nature he observed and the living condition,including building the log,plowing the field and receiving friends.

梭罗的代表作《瓦尔登湖》是一部超验主义巨作。他忠实地记录了梭罗独自与自然界交流时的反思。它表明梭罗不仅接受了爱默生的超然主义哲学，而且进一步亲身实践阐明自然界的泛神特性。《瓦尔登湖》包罗万象，可以从多种角度去解读。

《瓦尔登湖》由18篇文章组成，记录了他所观察到的自然以及他建造木屋、耕种土地、招待朋友等生活情况。

2.Analysis of the work（作品分析）

(1)It is a book about man,what he is,what he should be and must be.Thoreau holds that the most important thing for men to do with their lives is to be self-sufficient and strive to achieve personal spiritual perfection.Thoreau has been regarded as a prophet of individualism in American literature.

(2)In this book,Thoreau was very critical of modern civilization.Modern civilized life has dehumanized man and placed him in a spiritual quandary.

(3)Furthermore,the book is full of ideas expressed to jostle his neighbors out of their smug complacency.He records how he tries to minimize his own needs on Walden Pond.He holds that spiritual richness is real wealth.One’s soul might not help one to get up in the world,but it will help make real progress in self-improvement.

(4)Thoreau went to the woods to experiment a new way of life for himself and for his fellowmen.And he felt that he came out of it a better man,reborn and reinvigorated.Thus,regeneration became a major thematic concern of Walden and it also decided its structural framework.