美国成长小说PPT课件

• This hypothesis is controversial in as much as it is difficult to define ritualistic behavior in everyday life.
• Ritualistic initiation stories include "adult society deliberately testing and indoctrinating the young”
--describes an episode which leads the protagonist to gaining insight and gaining in experience, in which this experience is generally regarded as an important stage towards maturity.
• The ritual aspects: be replaced by other characteristics
• some definitions : also find parts of rituality in literary realizations of the initiation-theme
American initiation story
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What is a `story of initiation′?
• An initiation story is a fiction in which the protagonist undergoes an experience that is lifechanging, and usually that character is a young person who gains a measure of maturity from the experience.
--This means, that by an initiatory experience the protagonist is enabled to become a full member of an existing society.
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Good examples of initiation in short stories
• James Joyce's "Araby" • John Updike's "A & P" • Sarah Orne Jewett's "A White Heron," • Alice Munro's "The Found Boat."
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• 3. In contrast to the approaches presented above, which focus on the individual’s experiences and their consequences, the third one emphasizes the sociologic aspect of initiation
• In general, four aspects of initiation can be found in literature .
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• 1. --denotes the disillusioning process of the discovery of the existence of evil, which is depicted as a confrontation of the innocent protagonist with guilt and atonement and often has the notion of a shocking experience.
--only found in a "very small proportion of works
called initiation stories".
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Views on the characteristics of stories of initiation
• As mentioned, `initiation′ in literature focuses on different aspects of the passage from childhood or adolescence to adulthood than the anthropologic term denoting mainly rituals of primitive societies.
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• 2. the result of the initiatory experience
--This includes the loss of original innocence concerning the protagonist and is often compared to the biblical Fall of Men. Furthermore, this approach generally stresses the aspect of duality in the initiation process, which is the aspect of loss of innocence as a hurtful but necessary experience as well as the aspect of profit in gaining identity.
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Origins of the term
• First appears: after World War II
• `initiation′ borrowed from anthropology
• initiation rites are seldom found—the term be adapted