(2) The novel’s theme, characterization of “Huck” and the novel’s social significance:
Theme: The novel is a vindication of what Mark Twain called “ the damned human race.” That is the theme of man’s inhumanity to man---of human cruelty, hypocrisies, dishonesties, and moral corruptions. Mark Twain’s thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilization.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is best known for Mark Twain’s wonderful characterization of “Huck,” a typical American boy whom its creator described as a boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience,” and remarkable for the raft’s journey down the Mississippi river, which Twain used both realistically and symbolically to shape his book into an organic whole.
Through the eyes of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed and at the same time we are deeply impressed by Mark Twain’s thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilization.
(3)The selected chapter:
Huck and Jim are with the frauds. They decide to leave them in their raft when Huck learns that Jim is sold by the “King” to Mrs.Phelps. There is a very important description here of Huck’s inner conflict about whether or not he should write a letter to tell Miss Watsom where Jim is. Huck’s internal conflict between his sound heart and deformed conscience is obvious: On one hand, he feels that he ought to help return Jim to his owner, Miss Watson. On the other hand, his friendship for Jim makes such a course of action difficult for him. Huck instinctively knows the right thing to do. But his conscience dictates the conventional morality of the South. The whole episode is a subtle yet powerful condemnation of the society that makes Huck feel that he will go to hell for doing what his very instinct knows to be the right thing to do. Huck’s moral dilemma is brought about by a corrupt society that has institutionalized slavery.
Ⅱ. Henry James (1843-1916 )
Henry James was the first American writer to conceive his career in international terms. Today with the development of the
modern novel and the common acceptance of the Freudian approach, his importance, as well as his wide influence as a novelist and critic, has been all the more conspicuous.
(一) 一般识记 His life and writing:
Henry James was born in New York City. His father was a theological writer and his elder brother was the distinguished philosopher and psycho1ogist Wil1iam James, who made a great contribution to the theory of the stream-of-consciousness technique. James was one of the few authors in the American literary history who was not ob1iged to work for a living. He exposed early to an international society. In 1862, he entered Harvard Law School where he developed a lifelong friendship with William Dean Howells. There he read intensively Balzac, Merimee , George Sand, George Eliot and Hawthorne. Later, he toured Europe and met Flaubert, Maupassant, Zola and Turgenev, who exerted a great influence on him. While Mark Twain and William Dean Howells satirized European manners at times, Henry James was an admirer of ancient European civilization. The materialistic bent of American life and its lack of culture and sophistication, he believed, cou1d not provide him with enough materials for great literary works, so he settled down in London in 1876, and in 1915 he became a naturalized British citizen.
二．识记 His major works:
Henry James's 1iterary achievement is remarkable. His literary writings are bulky and voluminous, ranging from the book reviews, stories, travel accounts, autobiographies, novels, plays, to literary criticism. It is his novels and his literary essays that make him a fascinating case in the American literary history and a conspicuous figure in world literature.
The three periods in his literary career:
The literary career of Henry James is generally divided into three periods. In the first period (1865-1882), James took great interest in international themes: his treatment with the c1ashes between two different cultures and the emotional and moral problems of Americans in Europe, or Europeans in America. His early works include The American (l877), Daisy Miller (l878), The Europeans (l878), and The Portrait of A Lady (188l ) which is generally considered to be his masterpiece, which incarnates the clash between the Old World and the New in the life journey of an American girl in a European cu1tura1 environment.
James experimented with different themes and forms in his middle period. Nove1s include The Bostonians (1886), and The Princess Casamassima (l886 ) . His short stories The Private Life (1893), The Death of a Lion (1894) and The Middle Years (posthumously 1917) succeed in exploring the relationship of the artist to the society. Another group of short fictions includes The Turn of the Screw (1898), a story about the troubled and abnormal psycho1ogy of oppressed children and The Beast in the Jungle (1903), which focuses on the imaginative obsession of some haunted men and women with their personal disaster in future.
In his last and major period, James returned to his "international theme." From 1895 to 1900, he wrote some novellas and stories dealing with childhood and adolescence, the most famous of which is What Maisie Knows (l897). After that, he successively created the following great books: The Wings of the Dove (l902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904). These demanding novels are wide1y considered to be James's most influential contribution to literature. The treatment of the international theme is characrerized hy the richness of syntax and characterization and the originality in point of view, symbolism, metaphoric texture, and organizing rhythm. James is now more mature as an artist, more at home in the craft of fiction.
And he also wrote quite a number of literary criticisms, among which The Art of Fiction is the most famous.
三．领会1. James’s international theme:
James's fame generally rests upon his nove1s and stories with the international theme. These nove1s are always set against a large international background, usual1y between Europe and America, and centered on the confrontation of the two different cu1tures with two different groups of peop1e representing two different value systems. American personalities of naivety, innocence, enthusiasm, vulgarity, ignorance, unsophistication, freshness, eagerness to learn, freedom, individuality are in contact and contrast with European personalities of over-refinement, degeneration, artificiality, complexity, high cultivation, urbanity. James admire European cultures. The typical pattern of the conf1ict between the two cultures wou1d be that of a young American man or an American gir1 who goes to Europe and affronts his or her destiny. The unsophisticated boy or girl wou1d be beguiled, betrayed, cruelly wronged at the hands of those who pretend to stand for the highest possible civilization. Marriage and 1ove are used by James as the focal point of the confrontation between the two value systems, and the protagonist usual1y goes through a painful process of a spiritual growth, gaining knowledge of good and evil from the conflict: However, we may misinterpret Henry James if we think he makes an antithesis, in his international novels, of American innocence versus European corruption.
2.James’s literary criticism (The theme of “The Art of Fiction”)
James's literary criticism is an indispensable part of his contribution to literature. It is both concerned with form and devoted to human values. The theme of his essay “The Art of Fiction” clearly indicates that the aim of the novel is to present life, so it is not surprising to find in his writings human experiences explored in every possible form: illusion, despair, reward, torment, inspiration, delight, etc. He also advocates the freedom of the artist to write about anything that concerns him, even the disagreeable, the ugly and the commonplace. The artist should be able to "feel" the life, to understand human nature, and then to record them in his own art form.''
3. James’s realism (psychological realism)
James’s realism is characterized by his psychological approach to his subject matter. His fictional world is concerned more with the inner life of human beings than with overt human actions. His best and most mature works will render the drama of individual consciousness and convey the moment-to-moment sense of human experience as bewilderment and discovery. And we observe people and events filtering through the individual consciousness and participate in his experience. This emphasis on psychology and on the human consciousness proves to be a big breakthrough in novel writing and has great influence on the coming generations. James is generally regarded as the forerunner of the 20th century "stream-of-consciousness" novels and the founder of psychological realism.
4.James’s narrative point of view
One of James's literary techniques innovated to cater for this psychological emphasis is his narrative “point of view.” James avoids the authorial omniscience as much as possible and makes his characters reveal themselves with his minimal intervention. So it is often the case that in his novels we usually learn the main story by reading through one or severa1 minds and share their perspectives. This narrative method proves to be successful in bringing out his themes.
5. His language
James is not so easy to understand. He is often highly refined and insightful. With a large vocabulary, he is always accurate in word selection, trying to find the
best expression for his literary imagination .Therefore Henry James is not only one of themost important realists of the period before the First World War, but also the most expert stylist of his time.
四．应用 Selected Reading: An Excerpt from the First Part of Daisy Miller
The story: Frederick Winterbourne, the narrator of the story, is an American expatriate. While visiting Switzerland, he meets the newly rich Mrs. Miller from New York, her son Randolph and her daughter Daisy. The Millers come from America that advocates freedom and individuality so when they live among the Europeans they do not pay any attention to the complex code that underlies behavior in European society. Winterbourne is shocked at Daisy’s innocence and her mother’s unconcern when Daisy accompanies him to the castle of Chillon.Later he meets the Miller in Rome, where Daisy has aroused suspicion by being seen constantly with Giovanelli, a third-rate Italian, without being engaged. Daisy is abandoned by her former friends, because they think she has gone too far. Spending all the evenings in the Colosseum, Daisy is infected with Roman fever. She falls ill with malaria, and a week afterward dies. At her funeral Giovanelli tells Winterbourne that Daisy was “the most beautiful young lady Iever saw, and the most amiable…and the most innocent.”
1.The theme of the novel
Daisy Miller is one of James’s early works that dealt with the international theme, i.e., to set against a large international background, usual1y between Europe and America, and centered on the confrontation of the two different cu1tures with two different groups of peop1e representing two different value systems: American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence and the moral and psychological complications arising therefrom.
2.Characterization of Daisy Miller
In this novel, the “Americanness ”in Daisy is revealed by her relatively unreserved manners. Daisy Miller, a typical young American girl who goes to Europe and affronts her destiny. The unsophisticated girl is cruelly wronged because of the confrontation between the two value systems. Miller has ever since become the American Girl in Europe, a celebrated cultural type who embodies the spirit of the New World. However, innocence, the keynote of her character, turns out to be an admiring but a dangerous quality and her defiance of social taboos in the Old World finally brings her to a disaster in the clash between two different cultures. In this novel James’s sympathy for Daisy could be easily felt when we think of a tender flower crushed by the harsh winter in Rome.
3.The content of this selection: Daisy has just arrived at Switzerland with her family and meets Winterborne for the first time. Two days later Daisy goes alone with Winterborne on an excursion to an old castle, which is soon in the air among the upper class in Rome. Daisy Miller’s tragedy of indiscretion is intensified and enlarged by its narration from the point of view of the American youth Winterborne.
Ⅲ. Emily Dickinson (1830-l886)
一、一般识记Dickinson’s life and writing
Miss Emi1y Dickinson was born into a Calvinist family of Amherst, Massachusetts. She attended Amherst Academy for seven years and suffered serious religious crisis. After affected by an unhappy 1ove affair with Reverend Charles Wadsworth, she became a total recluse, 1iving a normal New England village life only with her family. Her private life was pretty much in order. She wrote poetry, and read intensively by herself. Her favorite writers were Keats, the Brontes, the Brownings, and George E1iot; classic myths, the Bible, and Shakespeare were what Emily drew commonly on for allusions and references in her poetry and letters. She also drew intellectua1 resources from her contemporary American, Thoreau and Emerson. In general, Dickinson wanted to live simply as a complete independent being, and as a spinster.
Dickinson's poetry writing began in the early 1850s. Altogether she wrote 1,775 poems, of which only seven had appeared during her 1ifetime. Most of her poems were published after her death. Her fame kept rising. She is now recognized not only as a great poetess on her own right but as a poetess of considerable influence upon American poetry of the 20th century.
二．识记 Dicksinson’s poems:
(1) Her religious poems: she wrote about her doubt and be1ief about religious subjects. While she desired salvation and immortality, she denied the orthodox view of paradise. Although she believed in God, she sometimes doubted His benevolence.
(2)Her poems concerning death and immortality: These poems are closely related to her religious poetry, ranging over the physical as well as the psychological and emotional aspects of death. She showed her ambiguous attitude towards death and immortality. She looked at death from the point of view of both the living and the dying. She even imagined her own death, the loss of her own body, and the journey of her soul to the unknown. Perhaps her greatest rendering of the moment of death is to be found in "I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died --", a poem universally considered one of her masterpieces.
(3)Her love poems: Love is another subject Dickinson dwelt on. One group of her love poems treats the suffering and frustration love can cause. These poems are clear1y the reflection of her own unhappy experience, closely re1ated to her deepest and most private feelings. Many of them are striking and original depictions of the longing for shared moments, the pain of separation, and the futility of finding happiness. The other group of 1ove poems focuses on the physical aspect of desire, in which Dickinson dealt with, allegorically, the influence of the male authorities over the female, emphasizing the power of physica1 attraction and expressing a mixture of fear and fascination for the mysterious magnetism between sexes. However, it is those poems dealing with marriage that have aroused critical attention first and showed Dickinson's confusion and doubt about the role of women in the 19th century America.
(4)Her nature poems: More than 500 of her poems are about nature, in which her general skepticism about the relationship between man and nature is well-expressed. On the one hand, she shared with her romantic and transcendental predecessors who believed that a mythical bond between man and nature existed, that nature revealed to man things about mankind and universe. On the other hand, she felt strongly about nature's inscrutability and indifference to the life and interests of human beings. However, Dickinson managed to write about nature in the affirmation of the sheer joy and the appreciation, unaffected by philosophical speculations. Her acute observations, her concern for precise details and her interest in nature are pervasive, from sketches of flowers, insects, birds, to the sunset, the fully detailed summer storms, the change of seasons; from keen perception to witty ana1ysis.
三．领会 The thematic concerns and the original artistic features of Dickinson's poetry:
1．Themes: Dicksinson’s poems are usually based on her own experiences, her sorrows and joys. But within her litlle lyrics Dickinson addresses those issues that concern the whole human beings, which include religion, death, immortality, love, and nature.
2．Artistic features: Her poetry is unique and unconventional in its own way. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines. In her poetry there is a particular stress pattern, in which dashes are used as a musica1 device to create cadence and capital letters as a means of emphasis. Most of her poems borrow the repeated four-line, rhymed stanzas of traditional Christian hymns, with two lines of four-beat meter alternating with two lines of three-beat meter. A master of imagery that makes the spiritual materialize in surprising ways, Dickinson managed manifold variations within her simple form: She used imperfect rhymes, subtle breaks of rhythm, and idiosyncratic syntax and punctuation to create fascinating word puzzles, which have produced greatly divergent interpretations over the years. Dickinson’s irregular or sometimes inverted sentence structure also confuses readers. However, her poetic idiom is noted for its laconic brevity, directness and plainness. Her poems are usually short, rarely more than twenty lines, and many of them are centered on a single image or symbo1 and focused on one subject matter. Due to her deliberate sec1usion, her poems tend to be very personal and meditative. She frequently uses personae to render the tone more familiar to the reader, and personification to vivify some abstract ideas. Dickinson's poetry, despite its ostensible formal simplicity, is remarkable for its variety, subtlety and richness; and her limited private world has never confined the limitless power of her creativity and imagination.
