现代大学英语5-第五课课件1

The Achievements Of The Novel
• I. Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book written by an unknown writer but continuing to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. • II. It remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction. It won author the National Book Award in 1953. • III. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Invisible Man nineteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. • IV. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005
作品内容详细介绍
• “毫无经验的我在纽约过了一段想当悲惨的生活，甚至丧 失了记忆。最后在好心肠的黑女人玛丽帮助下慢慢地适应 环境，恢复了一部分“黑人身份”。在一次见义勇为帮助 黑人夫妇对抗白人警察的活动中，我”的行为引起了激进 组织“兄弟会”的注意，“我”被邀参加了这个组织和它 的活动，重新获得了自我。但是兄弟会的活动遭到了一帮 以拉斯为首的黑人民族主义分子的反对，双方剑拔弩张。 我被卷入争斗，但却阴错阳差成了莱因哈特先生，获得了 流氓、赌棍、情夫、牧师等多重身份。这就引起了“我” 的深思：“我”究竟是谁，究竟是什么身份？外在世界既 然遗弃我、不承认我，“我”也就只好把目光转向内心世 界，来自我发泄和自我发现。在一次拉斯挑起的骚乱中， “我”逃离险境时跌进一个地洞，于是就将计就计，以地 洞为家躲藏起来，作深刻的自我反省，翻来复去思考着自 己在宇宙中的地位，口述了这本书。
Symbolism
Symbolism is the main feature in this novel. Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. Symbolism was largely a reaction against Naturalism and Realism, anti-idealistic movements which attempted to capture reality in its gritty particularity, and to elevate the humble and the ordinary over the ideal. These movements invited a reaction in favour of spirituality, the imagination, and dreams; the path to Symbolism begins with that reaction. Distinct from the movement in literature, Symbolism in art represents an outgrowth of the darker, gothic, side of Romanticism; but where Romanticism was impetuous and rebellious, Symbolist art was static and hieratic.
作品内容详细介绍
“我是一个看不见的人，”这是小说主人公“我”回忆往事 的开宗明义第一句话。“请弄明白，别人看不见我，那只是 因为他们不愿看见我。”这个“我”躲在哈莱姆黑人区一家 白人公寓的地下室里，偷接电线安装1369盏电灯，想使自己 让人看得见。“也许正因为我是个看不见的人，才如此需要 光。光证实了我的存在，赋予我形体。”光象征“我”所追 求的自我和“身份”。全书主要写“我”成为看不见的人的 经过。“我”原是在美国蓄奴制南方土生土长的温顺黑小子， 一向对白人毕恭毕敬，高中毕业时在典礼上发表了一篇阐释 进步的秘诀在于谦卑的演讲，十分成功，结果被邀去本镇白 人头面人物的集会上再次演讲并再次获得成功，赢得了一份 上州立黑人大学的奖学金。读到三年级时，因得罪白人诺顿 并令其受伤，黑人校长勃然大怒，把“我”开除出学校，他 的临别赠言是“必须心狠手辣，假惺惺地讨好白人大人物， 装出一副黑鬼模样以便攫取权势。”我”在拿到推荐信之后 就去纽约谋生，却因校长的挑拨而被众多学校拒之门外。
• 19世纪末当时欧洲一部分知识分子对社会生活和官方沙龙 文化不满。他们不敢正视现实，不愿直接表述自己的意思， 往往采用象征和寓意的手法，在幻想中虚构另外的世界， 抒发自己的愿望，这样便产生了近代象征性的艺术。 • 象征主义重新回到以抒写个人感情为重点的老路。但它抒 写个人情怀和浪漫主义的抒情大异其趣。它抒写的是不可 捉摸的内心隐秘.象征主义不满足于描绘事物的明确的线 条和固定的轮廓，它所追求的艺术效果，并不是要使读者 理解诗人究竟要说什么，而是要使读者似懂非懂，恍惚若 有所悟；使读者体会到此中有深意。象征主义不追求单纯 的明朗，也不故意追求晦涩；它所追求的是半明半暗，明 暗配合，扑朔迷离。 • 象征主义者反对现实主义和自然主义者如实地描写客观现 实。他们认为现实的物质世界是虚幻而痛苦的，只有隐匿 在背后的内在的世界才是真实的。
Simple plot introduction
• The book is a passionate and witty masterpiece of style, strongly influenced by Dostoevsky(陀思妥耶夫斯基).The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. His character may have been inspired by Ellison's own life. The narrator may be conscious of his audience, writing as a way to make himself visible to mainstream culture; the book is structured as if it were the narrator's autobiography although it begins in the middle of his life.The story is told from the narrator's present, looking back into his ቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱast. Thus, the narrator has hindsight in how his story is told, as he is already aware of the outcome.
Features of The Novel
• ①The book's main theme is to never doubt the invisible. As the title suggests, the main character is invisible. While the narrator often bemoans (惋惜)his state of invisibility, he comes to embrace it in the end. Even when he is given a pseudonym(假名) for his work in the brotherhood, he does not reveal his identity to the reader. • ②Ellison uses the language of music throughout the novel to characterize the deeper meaning of a scene. • ③Motifs of blindness and darkness run through the novel, often alongside the metaphors of light and sight as truth and knowledge. • ④Invisible Man contains numerous references to Homer's books.
Symbolism in Invisible Man
In Invisible Man, the blindfold symbolizes man's inability to see who he is within society and the reality of society. Another example could be the contrast between light and dark. Light can symbolize understanding as well as the "good" of society, whereas dark can symbolize confusion and the "lower scale" of society.
Significance of the work
The novel addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans in the early twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity and Marxism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity. Invisible Man is certainly a book about race in America, but sadly enough, few of the problems it chronicles have disappeared even now. But Ellison's first novel transcends such a narrow definition. It's also a book about the human race stumbling down the path to identity, challenged and successful to varying degrees. None of us can ever be sure of the truth beyond ourselves, and possibly not even there. The world is a tricky place, and no one knows this better than the invisible man.