《英语短篇小说选读》讲义(第十四周给学生的)

Symbols
Related literary terms —allegory —metaphor —analogy
Symbols
柯尔律治曾说过：“一个思想，在这个词的最高意 义上，只有一个象征才能传达。”象征又分为寓言 式象征和非寓言式象征。寓言式象征是指象征物与 被象征物不是靠暗示和联想，而是靠固定的替代， 这样的象征往往形成一个固定的型式。非寓言式象 征则是在特定语境下，靠暗示和联想而实现的象征。 象征还可分为公共象征和私设象征：公共象征是某 种文化传统中约定俗成的，读者都明白是何所指的 象征。而私设象征则是指作者在作品中靠一定的方 法建立起来的象征。
Instructor: Esther Lv
2nd December, 2014
Week 14
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Created with Haiku Deck
Discussion on story 13
Historical background • The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a small settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads and other towns were built throughout California. In 1849 a state constitution was written, and a governor and legislature were chosen. Overnight California gained the international reputation as the "golden state". Generations of immigrants have been attracted by the California Dream.
Identify Symbols
Symbols in fiction are inanimate objects
—The Story of an Hour: sky; trees; rain; twittering sparrows The spring is not just a bit of detail added for realism. It is rich with suggestions of renewal, of the new life that Louise achieves for a moment.
Discussion on story 13
Historical background • The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848. All told, the news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. Of the 300,000, approximately half arrived by sea, and half came overland from the east.
Symbolism
• Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent things such as ideas and emotions.
Symbolism in Literature
Scarlet Letter—Nathaniel Hawthorne —Letter A conveys a multiple of senses Moby-Dick—Herman Melville —an amplitude of meanings
Identify Symbols
Symbols in fiction are inanimate objects —A Clean, Well-lighted Place: café An island of refuge from sleepless night, chaos, loneliness, old age, the meaninglessness of life, and impeding death
Types of Symbols
• Flowing water—time & eternity • Journey into the underworld and return from it—spiritual experience/ redemptive odyssey →universal symbols used widely & unconsciously
The rose as a symbol
• Simile: ―O my love’s like a red, red rose‖
• Metaphor: ―She was our queen, our rose, our star;/And then she danced—O heaven, her dancing!‖ the word ―rose‖ is used as a metaphor.
Identify Symbols
Characters are symbolic
—A Rose for Emily: Miss Emily “like the carven torso of an idol in the niche” She seems to personify the vanishing arstocracy of the South, still maintaining a black servant and being ruthless betrayed by a moneymaking Yankee.
Identify Symbols
Symbolic act —Moby Dick: the Captain deliberately snaps his tobacco pipe and throws it away before setting out He is determined to take his revenge and will let nothing ton distract him
Types of Symbols
• The other type of symbol (literary symbols) secures its suggestiveness not from qualities inherent in itself but from the way in which it is used in a given work, in a special context.
Discussion on story 13
Historical background • Gold rushes were typically marked by a general buoyant feeling of a "free for all" in income mobility, in which any single individual might become abundantly wealthy almost instantly, as expressed in the California Dream.
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Symbol
• What is symbol? • A symbol is a special kind of image, for it exceeds the image in the richness of its connotations. • Like images, a symbol can be an object, a sound, or a bodily sensation. It can also be a character, or an act.
Today’s Agenda
—Students Presentation
—Chapter 7 Symbol —The Luck of Roaring Camp
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Symbols
Discussion on story 13 The Luck of Roaring Camp —about the author —historical & literary background —close-reading
Discussion on story 13
About the author
background A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold deposits. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.
• In literature, a symbol is a thing that refers or suggests more than its literal meaning. • In literary works, symbols, unlike those in ordinary life, usually do not ―stand for‖ any one meaning, nor for anything absolutely definite, they point, they hint, and cast long shadows.
Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, fiction, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction. As he moved from California to the eastern U.S. to Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters into his stories, but his Gold Rush tales have been most often reprinted, adapted, and admired.
Symbol
• E.g. ring—eternity • cross—Christian religion • The Big Ben—London • The Great Wall—China • dove—peace • flag—country • ritualistic acts
Symbol in Literature
Identify Symbols
Symbols in fiction are inanimate objects —A Rose for Emily: watch; golden chain Passage of time; Time passes without even being noticed; Wealth and authority