英美文学 第四章.docx

1、英美文学 第四章Part Four The Age of RealismChapter I Historical Background of the Age of RealismPolitical and social events influence writers in both theme and technique. We are dealing with the period following the most important single influence on American literature the Civil War (1861-1865). The indus

2、trialized North fought the agrarian South like two separate countries for supremacy. The factory defeated the farm, and the United States headed toward capitalism. The war led many to question the assumptions shared by the Transcendentalist natural goodness, the optimistic view of nature and man, be

3、nevolent God. It taught men that life was not so good, man was not and God was not. The war marked a change, in the quality of American life, a deterioration of American moral values.In post-war America, commerce took the lead in the national economy. Railroads tripled and petroleum was discovered i

4、n sizeable quantities. By 1880 half the population in the east lived in towns, and movement away from the farm became obvious. Increasing industrialization and mechanization of the country, now in full swing after the war, soon produced extremes of wealth and poverty. Wealth and power were more and

5、more concentrated in the hands of the few “captains of industry” such as Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan. These people avoided service during the war and made fantastic profits in the booming war-time economy. Now they became dominant in the social and economic life of the nation. The spirit of sel

6、f-reliance that Emerson had preached became perverted into admiration for driving ambition, a lust for money and power. Children were brought up on success stories which said that a person with ambition could make his own world. When Rockefeller claimed in all seriousness that his money had been giv

7、en him by God, nobody laughed. In the meantime, life for the millions was fast becoming a struggle for survival.Added to this was the fact that the frontier was closing. The frontier had been a factor of great importance in American life. As long as the frontier was there, people could always hope t

8、o escape troubles over the next hill and have a better life ahead. Now that the frontier was about to close, a reexamination of life began. The worth of the American dream, the idealized, romantic view of man and his life in the New World, began to lose its hold on the imagination of the people. Ben

9、eath the glittering surface of prosperity there lay suffering and unhappiness. Frustration was widely felt. What had been expected to be a “Golden Age” turned out to be a “Gilded” one.By the 1870s New England Renaissance has waned. Hawthorne and Thoreau were dead. Emerson and other New England celeb

10、rities, though still writing, were old and feeble. Melville had ceased to publish. Of the older generation Whitman alone remained active, a solitary singer in the field with his Leaves of Grass. The age of Romanticism and Transcendentalism was by and large over. Boston and New England ceased to be t

11、he cultural center of the country. Meanwhile, younger writers appeared on the scene. William Dean Howells, Henry James, Mark Twain, and a good number of “local colorists” like Bret Harte began to publish. The age of realism had arrived.As a literary movement realism came in the latter half of the 19

12、th century as a reaction against “the lie” of romanticism and sentimentalism. It expressed the concern for the world of experience, of the commonplace, and for the familiar and the low. William Dean Howells felt that he must write what he observed and knew. Mark Twain had, as his aim of writing, the

13、 soul, the life, and the speech of the people in mind. Mark Twain serves as a frontier humorist and working his way into polite society, while not forgetting where he came from. With Howells, James, and Mark Twain active on the scene, realism became a major trend in the 1870s and 1880s.Chapter Promi

14、nent Figures in the Age of Realism1. William Dean Howells. (1837-1920)A. His life.Howells was born in a small town in Ohio and brought up in the humble surroundings of American Midwest. He had little formal education but was widely read. He became a reporter and by 1860, had had three of his poems p

15、rinted in The Atlantic Monthly. He was appointed American consul in Venice, where he learned to know Europe and contrast it with America. On returning home at the end of the war, Howells moved to Boston and became editor-in-chief of the countrys most influential journal, the Atlantic Monthly. He mad

16、e friends with Lowell, Longfellow and Holmes, and married into an eminent New England family.Howells was a prolific writer. And he was generous, helping younger and more radical writers to get a hearing. Writers such as Garland, Crane, Henry James and Mark Twain all enjoyed his friendly advice and a

17、ssistance in time of need. He became the champion of literary realism in America. His works have been reprinted and he is now considered as a major figure in American literary history.B. His Literary Contributions and AchievementsHowellss literary-aesthetic ideas are influential on American realism

18、and all the following authors. 1 He defines realism as “fidelity to experience and probability of motive”, as a quest of the average and the habitual rather than the exceptional or the uniquely high or low. 2 To him realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals but includes a centra

19、l concern with “motives” and psychological conflicts. 3 Besides, he believes authors should minimize plot. A free and simple design must be their first choice. 4 In addition, characters must have solidity of specification and be real.5 As Howells saw it, realism, interpreting sympathetically “common

20、 feelings of commonplace people,” was best suited as a technique to express the spirit of America. 6 Howells emphasizes on ethics and morality. In his opinion, truth is the highest beauty, but truth lies on the side of high-minded people, while “the beast-man will besubdued.”C. Brief Introduction of

21、 The Rise of Silas LaphamHowells was a prolific writer. He wrote volumes of drama, poetry and novels in addition to criticism, travelogues and autobiography. The greatest of all his works is The Rise of Silas Lapham in which Howellss qualities as a novelist are shown at their best. The book relates

22、the story of a new upstart in mid-19-century Boston. Silas Lapham is a self-made man. He starts his paint business and becomes a millionaire. That is his material rise in the world. Aspiring to conquer Boston polite society, he spends a lot of money on building a gorgeous house in a “respectable” ar

23、ea of the town. But the business competition becomes keener. Silas is in danger. Some men from joint business companies offer a big sum of money for some property of his which he knows the railroad needs and would force any owner out at a ruinous price. Cheating, he would survive; but a greater numb

24、er of people would suffer. Being honest would be his undoing. He decides to be honest. He falls and suffers. Falling, he achieves his moral and ethical “rise”. Laphams moral rise begins with his financial fall. The Rise of Silas Lapham is a fine specimen of American realistic writing. There is nothi

25、ng heroic, dramatic or extraordinary. Howells is here so devoted to the small, the trivial, and the commonplace that he was even mocked on occasion for building “in the stones of the street when he might have built in more durable and beautiful material.”Howells emphasis has always been on ethics. H

26、e stresses the need for sympathy and moral integrity, and the need for different social classes to harmoniously adapt to their environment and to one another. In the story, the house which Lapham spends a fortune to build, was burned down in the end. To Lapham it is a symbol of his success and his a

27、spiration for the polite society which he dreams of conquering. But his wife sees it as an emblem of her husbands selfish individualism, declaring that there is blood on its timbers. Thus, the burning down of the house represents the victory of Howellss idealized view of man and society, for Howells

28、 was critical of the rise of materialism in American life. America at the time was building a house of the Carnegies and the Rockefellers at the expense of the miserable millions. Laphams house is a representation of the society Howells feared America was becoming. It is a representation of the evil

29、s which he felt were overtaking the culture he knew and loved. He would like to see his country become a more humane, a morally higher place. Placed in historical perspective, Howells is found lacking in qualities which would have made him great and eternal. In refinement, he is not up to Henry Jame

30、s; in rough and humor, he falls short of Mark Twain. In addition, by the turn of the century (the 19th century), naturalism had replaced his “smiling” brand of realism. His vogue had passed, and he became a “dead cult”. But time and history are just. The part which he played in the history of Americ

31、an literature will not be forgotten. If he is not great in the sense that Mark Twain and William Faulkner are great, he is at least a major figure in that literature. This much is certain.2. Henry James (1843-1916)A. His LifeHenry James was born into a wealthy cultured family of New England. He was

32、one of the few authors in American literary history who did not have to worry about money. His early upbringing was unusual: he was exposed to the cultural influence of Europe at a early age. Later he met and developed a life-long friendship with Howells, who became his “moral police”. For a while h

33、e attended Harvard Law School, where he read literature widely instead of law. He toured England, France and Italy. At first James tried to live and work as an art and drama critic in New York, but found the materialistic bent of American life and its lack of culture intolerable. He settled down in London except for some vis