英語專業(yè)畢業(yè)論文Reading Stevie’s Life in Her Work

1、reading stevies life in her workwriter: supervisor: abstract: for most chinese readers, the name stevie smith must be very unfamiliar with and they will ask “who is stevie smith? is she a myth?” in this thesis, the author will first answer these questions to readers. stevie smith was born in hull, y

2、orkshire, england in september 1902. she was christened florence margaret, but always called peggy by the family. she acquired the name stevie when she was riding in the park accidentally (sternlicht, 1991: p4) retaining her nickname stevie throughout her adulthood, she shifted her poems from male t

3、o female; conformity to unconformity, simple to complex, adult to child, but only one theme is not changed: deathalways being the core of her poems and melancholy is the preponderant mood of the poem. through her life, stevie smith totally published 8 volumes of poetry, three novels, and a radio pla

4、y. she acquired reputation in britain and the united states. but what a pity is that few chinese pundits and readers research her and even just know about her. some people say stevies poems are elusive, while if we can have a thorough learning of her life, her poems will become easier alike the sent

5、ence saying “stevies life can be read in her work; and, indeed, her life was her work” (sternlicht, 1991: p3), because poems are universal. in this thesis, the author will introduce and analyze stevies life and works focusing on autobiographical view and find the relationship of them.key words: smit

6、hs life; smiths poems; melancholy mood; psychology contentintroduction1chapter one is stevie smith a myth? brief introduction to stevie smith2 1.1 first seventeenth years melancholy life2 1.2 stevie becomes a secretary and two unsuccessful love relationship4 1.3 stevies first novel and collection of

7、 poems is published6 1.4 difficulties in fifties8 1.5 rejuvenation again and deplorability in her late age9 chapter two why she loves death so much? 11 2.1 the influence of her father12 2.2 the influence of her mother14 2.3 the call from god15 2.4 catalyzing of secretary job17conclusion20notes23bibl

8、iographyacknowledgementsintroductionstevie smith was born in hull, england in september 1902, the second daughter of ethel and charles smith. she was christened florence margaret, but always called peggy by her family. she was described as “a nugget of genius” by some critics and “well on edge” by h

9、erself (kay, 1971: p44-45) retaining her nickname stevie throughout her adulthood, she shifted her poems from male to female; conformity to unconformity, simple to complex, adult to child, but only one theme is not changed: deathalways being the core of her poems. witnessing her father abandoned the

10、ir family and her mother died in desperation, experiencing the very lonely life in the nursery house after she was diagnosed tuberculosis, her first seventeenth years melancholy life and her parents accounted for the death notion. in addition, stevie was living in the queasy time which was entangled

11、 by world wars and the first wave of feminism movement. in the background of that time, this devotional anglican remained single in her whole life after two unsuccessful relationships and kept doing one secretary job for thirty years. by the end of fifties, many perplex reasons interweaved and resul

12、ted in her suicide. although she attempted suicide but failed, it still aroused the question to the author of this thesis: why did this gentle, quiet and student-like lady never forget the death note and attempt suicide in her fifties?despite publishing three novels throughout her life, stevie never

13、 considered she was a novelist, but it was through fiction that she first achieved the literary fame that enabled her to publish her poems. during 1960s when stevie smith almost sixties years old, she began to win the belated attention and love of public. more readers became addicted to her poems in

14、 britain and north america and her literary reputation had continued to grow after her death. however, for most chinese readers, she is more like a myth. “who and what is stevie smith? is she woman? is she myth?” we might ask the same questions at present as ogden nash did in 1964. currently, if rea

15、ders put her name in google search engine, they may feel disappointed because there is little information available. no chinese version of her works and even few english versions can be found in china; the author just wonders why this special, original poet cannot deserve her renown in china?“stevie

16、s life can be read in her work; and, indeed, her life was her work” (sternlicht, 1991: p3). the exotic personal life and bumpy career road left special footprints in her poems. in this thesis, the author intends to find the answers to the mentioning questions and gives readers an objective introduct

17、ion to stevie smith. the author will find out how the eccentric poets life influenced her poems and how these poems represented her innermost melancholy feelings vice versa by focusing more on biographical matters but less on textual matters.chapter one is stevie smith a myth? brief introduction to

18、stevie smith1.1 first seventeenth years melancholy life florence margaret smith (stevie smith) was born in hull, yorkshire, on 20th september 1902. as the second daughter of ethel spear smith and charles ward smith, she was called peggy by the family members. her mother was the daughter of a success

19、ful engineer and her father, a handsome young man, son of an affluent shipping family, who wanted to be a naval officer but married and tried to settle down instead. molly, stevies sister, preceded her into the world by twenty months and was thought smarter than stevie. stevie was born two months pr

20、emature and barely survived. her childhood was sickly. she remained a small, thin girl and woman until the last years of her life when she gained a little weight. she was just a little over five feet tall. in the early 1930s, while she was riding on horseback, some passing boys called to her:”come o

21、n steve” referring to a popular jockey of the day named steve donaghue and perhaps commenting on her small stature. a friend witnessing the incident began to call her steve, and other friends changed it to stevie. at home in the world of palmers green, she remained peggy or florence margaret. in lon

22、don, however, she was stevie from then on.her father, charles smith was quickly tired of marriage; and in 1906, his business as a shipping agent, which he inherited from his father, was failing and he then abandoned his family to become a ships purser. at that moment, little smith was only three yea

23、rs old. she seldom saw her father and only accepted some very brief postcards like off to valparaiso love daddy. stevies parents never divorced. mrs. smith continued to think of herself as married even though charles smith returned home rarely and did not support the family financially. (barbera and

24、 william, 1983: pp18-19)from then on, stevie, molly and their mother led a very simple life on a small legacy from her grandfather spear. unable to continue living in her home in hull, ethel took stevie and molly to london in the company of her unmarried sister, margaret annie spear, hoping to live

25、more economically and expecting to find greater educational opportunities for her daughters. the sisters found an acceptable semidetached red brick terrace house, 1 avondale road, palmer green, and made it their home for the rest of their lives and for stevies too. stevie called it “a house of femal

26、es habitation”, in which we can feel her attaching emotion, and the love for her mother and her aunt whom she described as the “brave” females. it was a house of female habitation, two ladies fair inhabited the house, and they were brave. for although fear knocked loud upon the door, and said he mus

27、t come in, they did not let him in. (smith, 1987: p98)when stevie was only five, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was sent to a convalescent home near broadstairs, where she remained for three years. (sternlicht, 1991: p9) it was at this age, she learned to love suicide and she made the dubio

28、us proposition that all children should be introduced to it at this age: “to brace and fortify the child who already is turning with fear and repugnance from the life he is born into, it is necessary to say: things may easily become more than i choose to bear” (smith, 1994: p44) when stevie came bac

29、k from the convalescent home, her mother was beginning to be ill with the heart disease and was to die of when stevie was seventeen. the untold suffering of her fathers abandon and mothers death left an indelible imprint on stevies tender mind. later the author of this thesis would analysis the infl

30、uence of them in chapter two.her great aunt, martha hearne spear clode, also lived with them from 1916 until her death in 1924. stevies family were regular churchgoers and stevie enjoyed the hymns and psalms. later her relationship with religion became ambiguous. although agnostic and often antagoni

31、stic to christianity she said there was always a danger that she would lapse into belief. and then, stevie went to a local girl school, but did not go to university; and her teachers did not feel she was suited for university. and perhaps, the author guesses, she did not want to become a teacher, wh

32、ich was about the only career open to a female graduate at that time. her mother died of heart disease when she was sixteen, which was really a harrowing experience for stevie. however her aunt madge continued to accompany and to take after stevie for the rest of her life, or at least until she beca

33、me so infirm that stevie had to look after her. stevie called her aunt “the lion of hull” or “the lion aunt”. in a word, in the first seventeenth years life, stevie smith endured an unsafe, always changing and much hurt life, which was best to make herself a servant of death, and she clung to safety

34、-her surviving aunt, the suburban home, a monotonous job as well as for most of her life as a writer.1.2 stevie becomes a secretary and two unsuccessful love relationships stevie smith preferred safety maybe because her first seventeenth years life gave her too much change. throughout her life, she

35、only changed her job once. from the first job with an engineering firm to a private secretary to sir neville pearson, chairman of the publishing firm pearson, newnes, for which she would work for the rest of her wage-earning career. actually, sometimes, her job is really full of trivial things, such

36、 as buying coffee for the wife of her boss and typing some letters. however, the other side of the coin is that the job gave her space to write and create the literary works, which, the author thinks, is the only benefit of that unchallenging job. so she was definitely very tolerant about the boring

37、 job. but this case does not fit for her love. she was a typical middleclass and a modest feminist. although stevie was not as radical as margaret sanger, she still appealed for the equal right of women. she was opposed to chattel marriage and the conventional idea that man had the ownship of his wi

38、fe at that time. her first lover was karl eckinger, a german-swiss graduate student, who was tall, blue-eyed, highly intelligent, and two years younger than stevie. they had met in london for a short time and encountered again in berlin. karl always bullied the virtues of german nationalism and the

39、weakness of british decadence. in his mind, german was superior to other nations. then, they met as planned in london and had their intimate moments while hiking in the english countryside. however, stevie became tired of his intellectual bullying. at beginning, stevie followed a fashionable prewar

40、anti-semitism among british intellectuals, but later she changed her mind and quickly denounced german barbarism. her anti-german feelings, developed in the late 1930s, remained with her all the rest of her life. karl, however, did force stevie to think about political philosophy he held. these ambi

41、valent thoughts ruined their relationship finally. stevies second serious lover was eric armitage, whom she first met at a church social in 1932, just after her break with karl and his return home. eric was a tall handsome stammerer. they engaged and were quite compatible physically, but soon stevie

42、 realized that a marriage between them would not succeed. the problem was that eric wanted stevie being a conventional housewife, just cooking, cleaning and staying at home, but stevie, in her thirties, did not want her life with that kind of drudgery. so they parted in an amicable way. from then on

43、, she never gave any commitment to a man and refused any intimate relationship with a male. (sternlicht, 1991: pp7-8) in her poem freddy, we can learn smiths value to marriage and reasons of her remaining unmarried. starting that freddy was “my own hearts best” (line 11) he speaker then admitted ano

44、ther side of the relationship that precluded the possibility of marriage:people who say we ought to get married ought to get smacked:why should we do it when we cant afford it and have ourselves whacked?thank you kind friends and relations thank you, we do very well as we do.but all the same i dont

45、care much for his meelyooi meani dont anheimate mich in the ha-ha well-off suburban scenewhere men are few and hearts go tumptytumin the tenis club lub lights poet very dumb.but there never was a boy like freddyfor a haystacks ivory tower of blisswhere speaking sub specie humanitatisfreddy and me ca

46、ll kiss. (smith, 1988: p13)1.3 stevies first novel and collection of poems is publishedin one interview made by peter orr in 1961, stevie said she wrote one or two poems when she was a child and then she had a long period of not writing poems again until she was about twenty. (orr, 1961: p226) her j

47、ob gave her time to write. in order to publish her poems, she attempted many times but seldom success. in 1935, stevie finally found a sympathetic and prescient editor, the writer-critic david garnett, literary editor of the new statesman. he accepted six poems for publication. later, stevie tried t

48、o attract the interest of other publishers for book again. ian persons, a young editor at chatto and windus who admired the poetry agreed stevies requirement but urged her to write a novel. he felt that prose narrative was a better medium for her. six week later, the autobiographical novel was finis

49、hed. smith typed it on the yellow office paper so this manuscript was called novel on yellow paper. in 1936 smiths first book finally published. its an unusual stream of consciousness novel closely based on stevies own life, and was immediately popular. later her first book of poems, a good time was

50、 had by all, appeared in 1937. in 1938 her second novel over the frontier and her second book of poems, tender only to one were published, and more poems mother, what is man? published in 1942. seven years later, on 20 february 1949, stevies father died in kidderminster, worcestershire. his second w

51、ife had died previously, and he had named molly and stevie as executors. but the estate was worth less than 500 pounds. stevie refused to attend the funeral; she excused she was reading a poem for the bbc that day. the author thinks maybe this is the revenge she did on her father. the same year stev

52、ies third and last novel, the holiday, was published. if you have read her novels, you can easily found that all her novels having some clues of her life, which thus got her into trouble sometimes. because stevie said two of the male characters in her last book were different aspects of george orwel

53、l, the person who was very close to stevie. frances spalding in critical autobiography wrote that one of stevies lesbian friends told her that stevie had a short lived affair with her not long after the war. stevie has been claimed by lesbians as one of them but its impossible to know whether this l

54、esbian affair was true or not. (civello, 1997: pp18-24)during those years, stevie acquired many friends from literary field, but they have little influence on stevies writing. she still lived in parmer and many of her friends found it was difficult to visit her on weekends after a long time of drivi

55、ng. (sternlicht, 1991: p17) so stevie kept her lonely character and led a simple, self-centered life. 1.4 difficulties in fifties to stevies dismay, her poetry slipped from fashion quickly in 1950s. she had convinced chapman and hall in 1950 to bring out another volume of her verse, harolds leap, wh

56、ich stevie thought, contained her best work to date. but this volume of poems, full of running away, deserting, opting out, and letting go, did not sell well. the publishing house regretted the enterprise. with her literary career declining, she grew unhappy as she entered her fifties. aunt margaret

57、, approaching eighty, was beginning to need her care. meanwhile, stevie came to hate her secretarial job; it was stifling. she wondered whether she could get a job somewhere as an editor? ironically, she worked for a large publishing house but no one in the firm had thought to offer her a more chall

58、enging position, and one more worthy of her writing talent. however, stevie was afraid just to leave on the employ of sir neville pears. she had come to believe or had been conditioned to believe that she could not handle the fierce competition during the world war ii. she had only to keep doing the boring job. in such kind of ambivalence and desperation, she wrote one of the most famous poems not waving but drowning, a poem about unheard cries for help, to express her unbearable feeling:nobody heard him, the dead man,but still he lay moaning:i was much furt