Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser

(2) Jennie Gerhardt (1911) archetype: one of Dreiser’s sisters; the eldest daughter of German immigrants; the mistress of a congressman; the mistress of a wealthy son; death. (3) The Trilogy of Desire: Financier (1912), The Titan (1914) The Stoic (1947) (4) The Genius (1915) (5) American Tragedy (1925)
octopus
railway
Theodore Dreiser
• The 9th child of German-speaking parents • Some months at Indiana University
• A reporter of the Chicago Globe • A member of the Communist Party
Frank Norris
• Born in Chicago then moved to San Francisco • Studied art briefly in Paris • Entered the University of California • Influenced the writers of the 1920s and 1930s, such as William Faulkner and John Steinbeck
Frank Norris
1. Life 2. Works
• McTeague (1899) “the 1st full-bodied naturalistic American novel” = “a consciously naturalistic manifesto”; McTeague.
• Trilogy
living with the homeless
running out of money
suicide
The Theme
• Dreiser: “It is not intended as a piece of literary craftsmanship, but as a picture of conditions done as simply and effectively as the English language will permit.” • The individual against universal forces and people caught up in forces beyond control
The Story
Caroline Meeker
old sister
Chwk.baidu.comcago sweatshop worker
living in a small apartment lovers
Druet
Hurstwood
living in a larger apartment
living in New York a great actress
(3) No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.
4. Style
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Without good structure Deficient characterization Lack in imagination Journalistic method Techniques in painting
5. Studies on Him and His Works
• Female Self-actualization under
Capitalistic Commodification
资本主义商品化氛围下的女性自我实现之路
• 美国20世纪文坛之魂——西奥多· 德莱赛
• 《美国悲剧》——美国社会的缩影 • 西奥多· 德莱赛：偶象破坏者
The Pit (1903) and the third one,
never written.
3. Studies on Him and His Works
• 论弗兰克· 诺里斯自然主义文学观的形成
• 论弗兰克· 诺里斯小说中的禁欲旋
• Mammonism in Frank Norris's McTeague 弗兰克· 诺里斯《麦克提格》中的“拜金主义” • Frank Norris on Novel Theory and the Idea of American Novel
• 弗兰克· 诺里斯的小说理论及其倡导的“美国小说”
• 自然主义在《章鱼》和《麦克提格》中的体现
“The Wheelhouse of American Naturalism”
Theodore Dreiser
1. Life 2. Works
(1) Sister Carrie (1900): ① maturity of Naturalism; ② being rejected; ③ the story, ④ the theme.
3. Point of View
(1) He embraced social Darwinism— survival of the fittest. (2) Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a jungle struggle in which man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.
The Octopus (1901):
his best work;
a long and complex book based upon an actual clash in 1880 between farmers in the San Joaquin valley and the South Pacific Railroad.