美国文学史PPT5

William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) was born in North Carolina. His father, Algernon Sidney Porter, was a physician. When William was three, his mother died, and he was raised by his paternal grandmother and aunt. William was an avid reader, but at the age of fifteen he left school, and then worked in a drug store and on a Texas farm. He moved to Houston, where he had a number of jobs, including that of bank clerk. After moving to Austin, Texas, in 1882, he married.
• Open ending (means real life is complex and cannot be fully understood)
• Focwenku.baidu.comse on the lives of the common people
• Emphasize objectivity
William Dean Howells
i. Truth is the highest beauty, it includes the view that morality penetrates all things. 真理是最美的， 真理蕴含一个观点：道德无处不在。
j. With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt
OA. Huetnhroyr(1862-1910) was a prolific American short-
story writer, a master of surprise endings, who wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York City. A twist of plot, which turns on an ironic or coincidenta circumstance, is typical of O. Henry's stories.
Chapter 5 The Age of Realism
Realist literature is based on the accurate, unromanticized observation of human experiences. It insists on precise description, authentic action and dialogue, moral honesty, and a democratic openness in subject matter and style.
“Dean of American Realism”
a critic and a prolific
writer wrote a campaign biography of
Lincoln to help him to win the
wrote 8 critical
Presidency
books and about
American life”.写作目的是讲述普通人的生活 c. Man in his natural and unaffected dullness
was the object of fictional representation. 人 自然流露出的呆板和迟钝是描写的对象
g. The “common feelings of commonplace people” was best suited as a technique to express the spirit of America.表现普通人的普通感情是表达美国 精神的最好方式
that the literary critic should follow the
detached scientist in accurate description, interpretation, and classification.使用科学的 方法，仔细描述、解读和分类
Works
The Rise of Silas Lapham 《塞拉斯•拉帕姆的发迹》 A Chance Acquaintance 《偶然相遇》 A Modern Instance 《一个现代例证》 Criticism and Fiction 《批评与小说》
more radical writers
to get a hearing
Howells’s realistic principles
P119 paragraph 2 P120 paragraph 2 a. Realism is “fidelity to experience and
probability of motive”.完全真实对待生活和素材 b. The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits of
Howells
1700 book reviews to spread the
principles of
realism
became the first president of
the American Academy of Arts
helped younger and
and Letters(美国艺术文学学院)
Major Features:
• Realism is the theory of writing in which familiar aspects of contemporary life and everyday scenes are represented in a straightforward or mother-of-fact manner.