美国文学 realism and mark twain

Chapter Eight

The Age of Realism (came in the latter half of the 19thC following the Civil War)

Background:

1. Labor force: After the Civil War, with the abolition of the slavery system, black slaves were set free. Great number of immigrants arrived, farmers moved to towns. Those provided enough labor force. 2. Natural Resources: Petroleum was found in sizeable quantity. 3. Transportation: railroads developed quickly. 4. Advanced technology was applied. .

Features of Realism:

1. It expresses the concern for the world of experience, of the commonplace, for the familiar and the low.

2. The Realism writers wrote about what they observed and knew. They believed that representation of life should be the main object of the novel, and offered an objective rather than an idealized view of human nature and experience.

3. Realism reacts against Romanticism’s emphasis on intuition, imagination, a dreary sense of wonder, idealism, faith in nature and general optimistic belief in the goodness of things. William Dean Howells Henry James Mark Twain

William Dean Howells（豪威尔斯1837-1920）

(The most important realist, the champion of literary realism in America)

He was born in a small town in Ohio and brought up in humble surroundings. He was the first president of the American Academy of Arts and letters, once the editor-in-chief of the country’s most influential journal, The Atlantic Monthly. He wrote The Campaign Life of Abraham Lincoln, a book which helped Lincoln become elected and brought Howells recognition and an appointment as American Consul in Venice. Literary ideas as a realist:

1. Define realism as “fidelity to experience and probability of motive”.

2. Realism is the quest of the average and the habitual rather than the exceptional and the unique high or low. He preferred not to look upon man in his “heroic or occasional phases”, but to seek him in his habitual mood. Realism interprets “the common feelings of commonplace people

3. He wrote about “this happy continent”, about the smiling aspect of America. In his mind, the main trend of America is “healthy, joyful, and happy.”

The Rise of Silas Lapham (赛拉斯?拉帕姆的发迹) The Fall or Rise The Fall and Rise….

Relates the story of a new upstart in mid-19th-C in Boston. Comment on the novel:

1. Emphasis on ethics, stresses the need for sympathy and moral integrity and the need for different social classes to adapt to one another. (Coreys and Laphams overcame their prejudice and come together)

2. Not approve of competitive economic individualism. (Lapham handles his partner Rogers roughly and has squeezed him out of business. He was in turn treated in the same way by his own rivals)

3. Critical of the rise of materialism in American life. The burning down of the house represents the victory of his idealized view of man and society.

4. The gorgeous house is a symbol of both his material success and his moral fall. (His wife declares that there is blood on its timber because of his rough treating of Rogers. A Modern Instance （现代婚姻）

Henry James (1843-1916)

Literary views and contribution:

1. As a realist, he holds that art must be related to life, the aim of the novel is to represent life. He advocates an immense increase of freedom in novel-writing and argues for inclusion of the disagreeable, the ugly and the commonplace. So he was one of the three staunch advocates of 19th American realism.

2.He is considered the founder of psychological realism. He shifted the ground of realistic art from the outer to the inner world. We observe events and people filter through the consciousness of his characters. By emphasizing the inner awareness and inward movements of his characters in face of outside occurrence rather than merely portraying their environment in any detail, he became the first of the modern psychological analysts in the novel and anticipated in his works the modern stream-of-consciousness. His major fictional theme:

1. The international theme: His American characters (They all come from well-to-do family and do not have to work for a living, so they traveled to Europe) come to Europe, and encounter European culture in the form of European conventions. European were often over-refined (cultured, elegant ), degenerate and artificial by Americans. Americans were considered na?ve, vulgar and ignorant. He presented the superiority of some of the values of the New World, made a contrast between American moral innocence, inexperience and the European social sophistication.

2. His fictional world is peopled always by American heroes and heroines who, confronting European sophistication, either triumph over it or was overwhelmed.

3. He wrote about the wealthy, deep-rooted leisure class, and became its spokesman. The most famous two:

1. Daisy Miller （苔瑟?米勒 2. The Portrait of a Lady （淑女画像） 3.The American（美国人） 4. The Ambassadors （专使）5.The Golden Bowl （金碗）6.The Wings of the Dove （鸽翼）

Chapter Nine Mark Twain (1835-1910)

The humorist, the social critic, the pessimist

He was known as a local colorist concerning themselves with presenting and interpreting the local characters of their region. Mark Twain’s significant contribution to American literature lies in the fact that he made colloquial speech as accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of the country.

His frontier tales: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County（卡拉维拉斯县驰名的跳蛙）.

His first novel, The Gilded Age(镀金时代), was an artistic failure, but it gave its name to the post-bellum period. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer（汤姆.索耶历险记）: A story written for boys, full of horror and joys of childhood, and it has been banned for a long time in US.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn （哈克.费恩历险记）. His masterwork. The story relates how Huck, floating along with Jim and helping him as best as he can, changes his mind, his prejudice about Black people, and comes to accept Jim as a man and as close friend as well.

Life on the Mississippi (在密西西比河上) Another masterpiece. The first 20 chapters recall pre-war days of piloting on the river, especially Twain’s experience as a pilot. The last 40 are a rather dry description of the river and the town along it during the early 1880s. He writes about the new commercialism along the river. (In some people’s mind at that time, Dollar is their God; their religion is how to get it). The effect is to contrast the present with the past to communicate the author’s sense of loss.

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (败坏了哈德莱堡的人) The Mysterious Stranger (神秘的陌生人)

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court （在亚瑟王朝廷里的康涅狄格洲美国人）

The Prince and the Pauper （王子与贫儿）Attack upon class distinctions and hereditary advantages. The Treaty With China（与中国的条约）， To the Person sitting in Darkness （给坐在黑暗中的人）He made attacks on imperialist behavior, stood on the side of China in its struggle against foreign invasions. Differences between the three realists:

1. In thematic terms, James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, and Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle class life, whereas Mark Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society.

2. Technically, Howells wrote in the vein (manner, style) of genteel (polite or refined in an affected or exaggerated way) realism, James pursued psychological realism, and Mark Twain’s contribution lies in his theories of localism and his colloquial style.

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