南開大學(xué) 外國語學(xué)院 美國文學(xué) The-Age-of-Realism課件

1、 The Age of Realism 現(xiàn)實(shí)主義文學(xué)時(shí)期 The year 1865 is considered as an important year in the shift from Romanticism （浪漫主義）to Realism （現(xiàn)實(shí)主義）in American literatureRealism had always existed in literature，but yet not until the late nineteenth century did realism dominate in American LiteratureThe American soci

2、ety after the Civil War (18611865) provided rich soil for the rise and development of RealismThe Civil War was a turning point in American historyIt brought Americas great change from an agrarian （農(nóng)業(yè)的）to an industrial societyThe principal issue of the war was the conflict between industry and capita

3、list dermocracy （民主） in the North and agriculture and slavery in the SouthThe war ended with the overwhelming triumph of industrialism over agrarianism. The War brought many great changes to every aspect of American people.The Civil War destroyed the romantic concept of war. In the eyes of romantici

4、sts，wars were always glorious, grand，and noble encounters，something heroic. However, the amazing number of dead soldiers made it hard for people to have a noble vision of mankind any more. Therefore, Mark Twain once described man as “the only animal who indulged in one after another of the atrocity

5、（兇惡，殘暴） of war” This statement is a representative attitude of the post-Civil War writers in AmericaTo them，there is nothing romantic about war Moreover, the Civil War also changed American peoples views on values, morality and religionBefore the Civil War，the puritan ethic （清教的價(jià)值觀）was the dominant

6、morality in AmericaPuritans believed in the principles of evil and“salvation”. They considered perseverance （堅(jiān)持不懈），stark （全然的）simplicity，and strenuous （艱苦，繁重的）good works as virtue，and regarded idleness，drunkenness and sexual immorality as depravity （墮落）. However，materialism had shaken the religious

7、conviction of the Puritans. Stimulated by materialism，people were eager to pursue money and enjoyed the pleasures of lifeThey became dubious about human nature and Gods benevolence （仁慈）. The Civil War marked a deterioration （惡化）of American moral values Nevertheless, industrialization and the urbaniz

8、ation were accompanied by the incalculable sufferings of the laboring peopleBeing attracted by higher pay, many farmers flocked （蜂擁至）to the industrialized citiesTherefore, in the cities there were an oversupply of labor，which kept wages down and allowed the industrialists to offer workers adverse （惡

9、劣）working conditionsWealth was more than ever in the possession of the few - bankers and industrialists -with the poor poorer and the rich richerIt was the beginning of what Mark Twain called“The Gilded Age（鍍金時(shí)代）”，an age of extremes（充滿極端和對(duì)立的時(shí)代）of decline and progress，of poverty and dazzling wealth，o

10、f gloom and buoyant （持續(xù)上漲的） hopeThe post-Civil War years were a period of great plunder （掠奪）and exploitation，of greedy materialism and political corruptionAll the accompanying social diseases，especially slum （貧民窟）conditions，child labor，poverty，crime，and labor strikes became reflected in American lit

11、erature.We can see this in the true-to-life descriptions of Bret Harte，William Dean Howells, Hamlin Garland，and Mark TwainBret Harte is the first American writer of local color to achieve wide popularityHe presents stories about western mining town involving colorful gamblers，outlaws，and scandalous

12、（丑惡可恥的）womenThereafter editors ever sensitive to public taste （大眾的閱讀興趣）demanded such works，and writers including Harte, Harriet Beecher Stowe，and Mark Twain provided regional stories and tales of the lives of Americas Westerners，Southerners，and EasternsLocal-color fictions reached its peak of popula

13、rity in the 1880s，but by the turn of the century it has begun to decline as its limited resorces were exhausted and as its most popular writers grew tediously repetitious or turned to other literary modes.Realism is a direct contrast to RomanticismAs a movement，American Realism started during the Ci

14、vil War period and evolved in the second half of the 19th centuryAmerican Realism has realistically-flawed （有缺陷的）heroes instead of the idealized characters in Romanticism. certain artistic choices:The language has to be equally natural or at least give the impression of being so；not only are charact

15、ers made to speak in the intonations of everyday life but the author himself or herself strives to make the language as invisible as possible，a neutral （不偏不倚的） reflector of impersonal （客觀）realityIn conclusion，realism employs a straigilt forward presentation or matter-of-fact manner to express“the tr

16、uthful treatment of material” The characters created by realist writers must be life-like and recognized in real 1ifeThe actions and speech of the life-like characters must be consistent with their personalities and positions in lifeAnd it focuses on the common lives of common people，real places and

17、 everyday things that are often ignored by the artsIn realistic fiction characters of all social classes are examined in depthThe characters are more complex，not just good or badRealism emphasizes the function of the environment in shaping the characters and has a tendency to explore the psychology

18、of the charactersRealism stresses objectivity and offers an objective view of human nature and human experienceOpen endings （開放式結(jié)局）are often used in realistic writing to indicate that society is so complicated that readers cannot make one conclusionOf all the American realistic writers，the three dom

19、inant ones are William Dean Howells，Mark Twain，and Henry JamesAlthough Howells，Twain，and James all strive for realism，there are obvious differences among them Thematically （從主題的角度分析），James focuses on the upper class，and Howells is concerned more about the middle class，whereas Twain is interested in

20、the lower classTechnically，Howells writes in the vein of genteel realism，while James pursues an“imaginative”treatment of reality (psychological realism 心理現(xiàn)實(shí)主義)Twains contribution to the development of realism and to American literature as a whole is partly through his theories of localism （地方色彩主義）an

21、d partly through his use of colloquial styleWilliam Dean Howells ( 18371920) is unquestionably the most influential American literary realist of the last quarter of the nineteenth centuryAs a representative realistic writer，he does his best to portray the American middle class as faithfully as possi

22、bleHowells defines realism as“nothing more and nothing less than truthful treatment of material”In addition to a good number of social novels, Howells has written eight books of criticism and about 1,700 book reviews to spread his creed of realism Howells novels focus on the rising middle class and

23、their way of livingHis first novels，Their Wedding Journey (1782)，A Chance Acquaintance (1873)，and A Foregone Conclusion (，1875) reflect skillful and convincing characterization， a keen ear for colloquial dialogue， and a sense of morality-all of which are aspects of realistic fictionHis observation i

24、s satiric, and his subject matter concreteBy making the conscious part of the artist the final measure of the experience，James shifts the ground of realistic art from the outer to the inner worldWhat he sees is，in so far as its function as the artist is considered，the only reality to which he owes any allegiance （忠誠）（他強(qiáng)調(diào)作家要 “汲取生活中那些最最幽微、最最朦朧的暗示”，小說就是要把“太空中的這些微妙信息轉(zhuǎn)化成為看得見的東西”。） Mark Twain represents localismHe prefers to r