《瓦尔登湖》的文体学分析.docx

1、瓦尔登湖的文体学分析英语文体学结课论文对梭罗的瓦尔登湖的文体学分析班级：英语07-2班姓名：李晓璐学号：310714010207 AbstractThis paper will introduce the background of Henry David Thoreau. His masterpiece Walden, or Life in the Woods is honored to be as Green Bible. The book embodies his philosophy and reflects his independent character. The paper w

2、ill adopt stylistic analysis, which will be helpful for us to better understand the theme and aesthetic effect of the book and at the same time the stylistic analysis of the book also has strong social influence. At present, our Chinese modern construction comes to a new step, it has some similariti

3、es with America at the time of Henry David Thoreau, so how to keep balance between the economic growth and the natural protection is not the desire of citizens, but also the demands of harmonious society. So the analysis of the book can benefit us a lot.Key Words: Thoreau H.D; Walden, or Life in the

4、 Woods; Stylistic Analysis Chapter 1 Introduction1.1 The significant Place of Henry David Thoreau in American Literature Henry David Thoreau, American writer, philosopher, and naturalist who believed in the importance of individualism. When he was young, he heard a speech of Ralph Waldo Emerson whic

5、h was called The American Scholar and this speech was thought to be the guide for young Thoreau, it led him to the transcendentalism. He showed great interest in transcendentalism and oriental books which were full of mysterious philosophy. In a commercial, conservative, expedient society that was r

6、apidly becoming urban and industrial, he upheld the right to self-culture, to an individual life shaped by inner principle. He demanded for all men the freedom to follow unique lifestyles, to make poems of their lives and living itself an art. In a restless, expanding society dedicated to practical

7、action, he demonstrated the uses and values of leisure, contemplation, and a harmonious appreciation of and coexistence with nature. Because of his prolific talents in literature, he was honored to be as American environmental pioneer and mental master of philosophy.Chapter 2 The Stylistic Analysis

8、ofWalden, or Life in the Woods2.1 A General Overview of the BookWalden was published in 1854, seven years after Henry David Thoreau ended his stay in a small cabin near Walden Pond. In Walden, Thoreau condensed events of his twenty-six month sojourn into one year, for literary purposes. The eighteen

9、 chapters celebrate the unity of nature, humanity, and divinity-a central idea of transcendentalism-and portray Thoreaus life at Walden Pond as an ideal model for enjoying that unity. Thoreau was very critical of modern civilization. He felt that man should seek truth directly by himself and not thr

10、ough imitation of others. This book does not attract the corresponding attention at that time: As time goes by, it becomes hotter and hotter. Walden, or Life in the Woods was honored one of the 25 masterpieces which shape peoples life; In 1985, it was bestowed one of 10 books which had the ability t

11、o construct Americans character.2.2 Stylistic Analysis Stylistic analysis of Walden, or Life in the Woods will be divided into four parts. They are lexical level, grammatical level, figures and speech, cohesion and context.2.21 Lexical Level Geoffrey N. Leech and Michael H. Short in Style in Fiction

12、 (2001) have explain such theory that the words are the bases of a paragraph, a chapter, even a book. Special employment of special words can get special effect, for example, they can enhance the descriptions and protrude the theme. Thoreau is a special man, so his thoughts, such as his affection fo

13、r nature and life, his independent style, his positive ideas, his innocent and naughty characteristics often appear in his book. Let us appreciate them one by one.A. Employment of Adjectives Example 1: “Bread I at first made of pure Indian meal and salt, genuine home cakes, which I baked before my f

14、ire out of doors on a shingle or the end of a stick of timber sawed off in building my house, but it was wont to get smoked and to have a pine flavor” (2004:52). In the passage, he tries his best to make pure Indian meal and salt, genuine home cakes, there are two adjectives “pure” and “genuine”, wh

15、ich can fully make us imagine that “how does the writer do? Where does he do? What he would use?” and so a series of interesting questions which can largely enhance our appreciation.Example 2: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and s

16、ee if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not ,when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (2004:77). Let us pay special attention to the adjectives “deliberately, essential”, from which we can see the hard life of Thoreau, though when he meets his difficult days, he does not give up.

17、 In our Chinese history, there are some people who would like to give up their money, their lands, even their lives in order to achieve their pursuits. Just as a Chinese man has once said that if a people wants to have a position in history, he must know what should be given up and what should be st

18、uck to. Henry David Thoreau has a firm belief in transcendentalism, he think that the people can have direct connection with the nature, so in order to complete his belief, in order to experience the nature, he leaves noisy world for the hug of nature, so these sentences express his purist for the r

19、eality of life.Example 3: “My residence was more favorable, not only to thought, but to a series of reading, than a university, and though I was beyond the range of the ordinary circulating library. I had more than ever come within the influence of those books which circulating round the world, whos

20、e sentences were first written on bark, and are now merely copied from time to time on to linen paper” (2004:85). As we know, when Thoreau lives in Walden, he comes into his land which he expects a lot before. He likes his house, even it is only a hut, because as far as Henry David Thoreau concerned

21、, this hut provides an ideal place for him to listen to the nature, When he puts himself in the nature, he finds that he comes into a huge library, the nature will tell people when to give seeds to land and how to work with the land in order to get a good harvest. The nature never advises people to

22、copy because everyday for itself is fresh and everyone has the ability to achieve himself. I think this passage also reflects the bad habit of copying in American literature at that time. Though he has to suffer the poverty of life and “solitude” of spirit, though he only lives in a simple hut, but

23、in the eyes of him, the life is “favorable” and he is absorbed in the reading of nature. This adjective exhibits a positive man.B. Employment of VerbsAccording to Geoffrey N. Leech, Style in Fiction(2001), verbs have strong expression to show the state and atmosphere, the adoptions of definite verbs

24、 can make the descriptions more impressive. Of course, Thoreau is good at composition, he has good ability to handle the verbs.Example 1: At the beginning of the book, he writes:” when I wrote the following papers, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in

25、 a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present, I am a sojourner in civilized life again. I see young men, my town men, whose misfortune is to have inher

26、ited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools, for these are more easily acquired than got rid of some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are some times, as it were, gasping for breath” (2004:21). From the sentences, we can see the words “wrote, lived, had built, earned”, wh

27、ich clearly show us two Thoreau: one is the present and the other is the past. The present Thoreau lives in a hut and he has to do everything by himself, but he is happy；The past Thoreau lives in city, he needs not to do everything by himself, but he is unhappy. So from the words we can see the inde

28、pendent and compassionate characteristics of him. Example 2: “I have thus surveyed the country on every side within a dozen miles of where I live, in imagination I have bought all the farms in succession, for all were to be bought, and I know their price. I walked over each farmer, tasted his wild a

29、pples, discoursed on husbandry with him, took his farm at his price on it. I took every, but him to some extent, I trust, and withdraw when I had enjoyed it long enough, leaving him to carry it on”(2004:69). In the sentences, “surveyed, tasted, discoursed” exhibit his affection for his residence str

30、ongly, when he goes into the nature, he finds all things belongs to him, the lands, the farms, the fruits, so these words deepen our understanding of Thoreau.C. Employment of Colloquial words Because when the writer wrote the book, he lived in concord, a village, so it is apparent for us to see a lo

31、t of colloquial words, which make the language style fresh. Let us see some examples. Example 1: “ When I return to my house I find that visitors have been there and left their cards, either a bunch of flowers, or a wreath of evergreen, or a name in pencil on a yellow want leaf or a chip”(2004:93).

32、Example 2: “ I planted about two acre sand a half of upland, and it was only about fifteen years since the land was cleared, and I myself had got out two or three cords of stumps, I did not give it any manure”(2004:138). From the two examples, the colloquial words “ I, evergreen acre” make the description of the passage more rustic, from the whole book, the adoption of local language is very often and the style makes the features of the language fresher, more accessible.2.2.2 Grammatical Level This part is divided into two parts, which are employment of parallelism sentences and questio