美国文学导论课件PoundO'NeillHemingway

5. To produce a poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite.
6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration is of the very essence of poetry.
2. Imagist
Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), Amy Lowell, Richard Aldington, and F.S. Flint
3 Imagist Manifesto
1. To use the language of common speech, but to employ the exact word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word. 2. We believe that the individuality of a poet may often be better expressed in free verse than in conventional forms. In poetry, a new cadence means a new idea.
3. Absolute freedom in the choice of subject. 4. To present an image. We are not a school of painters, but we believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and not deal in vague generalities, however magnificent and sonorous. It is for this reason that we oppose the cosmic poet, who seems to us to shirk the real difficulties of his art.
inspired by the critical views of T.E. Hulme—in revolt against the careless thinking and Romantic optimism—seeking to evoke sensual imagery simultaneously with ideas and abstract thought— succinct verse of dry clarity and hard outline in which an exact visual image made a total poetic statement
3. And such tragedy is in its essence a comedy. The meaning of life exists in the struggle.
4. Real tragedy is cheap satisfaction and listlessness that follow it.
Eugene O‟Neill (1888-1953)
I Biography
One of the greatest American playwrights, restless and bold experimenter, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936.
III Brilliant Originality
the founder of modern poetry in English—chief figure of imagism—master of every poetic device— famous for density,complexity, compactness, and rich allusiveness.
Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
I Life
an expatriate American poet lived most of the time outside America—an unconscious racist and antiSemitist—hatred for American materialism—a true poet should save the world by showing it the right way—Confucius, an Italian obscure figure, and T. Jefferson best embodied the solutions he‟s after— Mussolini was the heir of the three
third marriage in 1929—long illness—Nobel Prize in 1936—no major plays after 1943—death 1953
II Major Works—45 plays
Beyond the Horizon (1920)—The Hairy Ape (1922)—Anna Christie (1922)—Desire under the Elms (1925)—Mourning Becomes Electra (1931)—The Iceman Cometh (1939, 1946)—Long Day‟s Journey into Night (1941, 1956)
“At the Station of the Metro”
30 lines—15 lines 6 months later—2 lines a year later
Oread
Whirl up, sea— Whirl your pointed pines. Splash your great pines On our rocks. Hurl your green over us— Cover us with your pools of fir.
IV Cantos
117 cantos—over 800 pages—epic like
V Imagism
1. Imagism
Name given to a movement in poetry, originating in 1912 and represented by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and others, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images.
accused for treason after War—saved by a defense committee of poets—sent to mental hospital in 1946 and released in 1958—last years in Pisa
II Profound Influence upon MoBiblioteka Baiduern Letters
born in New York into an Irish-Catholic theatrical family—father, an actor, The Count of Monte Cristo— mother's addiction to morphine and attempt to commit suicide —emotional scars—renouncing Catholicism in 1902—unsuccessful first marriage 1909—sea as an escape—suicide—tuberculosis—playwright—little theatre—2nd marriage in 1918—early success & death of his dear-and-nears around 1920
"I will always be a stranger who never feels at home... who must always be a little in love with death."
"I'm always acutely aware of the Force behind - (Fate, God, our biological past creating our present, whatever one calls it - Mystery certainly) - and the eternal tragedy of Man in his glorious, self-destructive struggle to make the Force express him instead of being, as an animal is, an infinitesimal incident in its expression. . . . This is the only subject worth writing about and . . . it is possible - or can be - to develop a tragic expression in terms of transfigured modern values and symbols in the theater."
III Thematic Concern
A tragic and naturalistic view of life
1. Life is tragedy 2. All tragedies result from the ceaseless searching for the “hopeless hope”. We strive for fulfillment but the mysterious forces beyond our understanding and control—God, destiny, personal flaws and history, and whatever—prevent us from reaching our goals.
hatred for materialism—hatred for Jewish bankers—Jewish usurers—the Jews—broadcasted appeals over the Italian radio for a revolt in the American army.
helped launch such writers as Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Ernest Hemingway, and innumerable others by begging or bullying aid for his proteges from wealthier friends
The Key to understanding his view is his lost of Identity.
The Hairy Ape—"it was a symbol of man, who has lost his old harmony with nature, the harmony which he used to have as an animal and has not yet acquired in a spiritual way. Thus, not being able to find it on earth nor in heaven, he's in the middle, trying to make peace."