美国文学简史常耀信版讲义8

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The Southern Renaissance & William Faulkner

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The Southern Renaissance

I. HeritageAmerican southern literature can date back to Edgar Allen Poe, and reach its summit with the appearance of the two ―giants‖ – Faulkner and Wolfe. There are southern women writers – Katherine Anne Porter凯瑟琳.安.波特 , Eudora Welty尤朵拉· 韦尔蒂 , and Flannery O‘Connor弗兰纳里· 奥康诺 .

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Features of Southern literature prior to this renaissance--- focus on historical romances about the "Lost Cause" of the Confederate States of America. --- glorified the heroism of the Confederate army and civilian population during the Civil War and the supposedly "idyllic culture" that existed in the South before the war (known as the Antebellum South).

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The Southern Renaissance was the reinvigoration of American Southern literature that began in the 1920s and 1930s with the appearance of writers such as William Faulkner, Wolfe, Tennessee Williams, etc.

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Three major themes in Southern Renaissance--- the burden of history in a place where many people still remembered slavery, reconstruction, and a devastating military defeat. --- focus on the South's conservative culture, specifically on how an inpidual could exist without losing a sense of identity in a region where family, religion, and community were more highly valued than one's personal and social life. --- the South's troubled history in regards to racial issues.

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William Faulkner ---One of the greatest writer in 20th century ---initiator of Southern Renaissance ---one of the most influential modernist novel writers in the west

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William Faulkner (1897-1962) William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897 and began to write poetry as a teenager. During World War I, he joined the Canadian Royal Flying Corps but never fought; the day he graduated from the Flying Corps, the Armistice was signed. The only war injury he received was the result of getting drunk and partying too hard on Armistice Day, wherein he injured his leg.

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literary career:three stages (1) 1924~1929: training as a writer The Marble Faun Soldier’s Pay Mosquitoes (2) 1929~1936: most productive and prolific period Sartoris 《萨托里斯》 The Sound and the Fury 《喧哗与骚动》 As I Lay Dying 《在我弥留之际》 Light in August 《八月之光》 Absalom, Absalom 《押沙龙，押沙龙！》

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(3) 1940~end: won recognition in America Go Down, Moses 《去吧，摩西》

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Yoknapatawpha 约克纳帕塔法

Yoknapatawpha County: --- A county in northern Mississippi, the setting for most of William Faulkner‘s novels and short stories, and patterned upon Faulkner‘s actual home in Lafayette County, Mississippi.

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William Faulkner: Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech--- I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work -- a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human

spirit something which did not exist before. ---我感觉，这个奖不是授予我这个人，而是授予我的工作， 它是对我呕心沥血、毕生从事的人类精神探索的工作的肯定。 我的这项工作不为名，更不图利，而是要从人类精神的原始 素材里创造出前所未有的东西。

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The Sound and the FuryThe Sound and the Fury was published in 1929. Many critics and even Faulkner himself think that it is the best novel that he wrote. Its subject is the downfall of the Compson family, the offspring of the pioneer Jason Lycurgus Compson.

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Plot: 小说的故事发生在杰弗生镇上的康普生家。这是一个曾经显赫 一时的望族，祖上出过一位州长、一位将军。家中原来广有田 地，黑奴成群，如今只剩下一幢破败的宅子，黑佣人也只剩下 老婆婆迪尔西和她的小外孙勒斯特了。一家之长康普生先生是 一九一二年病逝的。他在世时算是一个律师，但从不见他接洽 业务，他整天醉醺醺，唠唠叨叨地发些愤世嫉俗的空论，把悲 观的情绪传染给大儿子昆丁。康普生太太自私冷酷，无病呻吟， 总感到自己受气吃亏，实际上是她在拖累、折磨全家人。她时 时不忘南方大家闰秀的身分，以致她仅仅成了一种“身分”的 化身，而完全不具有作为母亲与妻子应有的温情。家中没有一 个人能从她那里得到爱与温暖。女儿凯蒂可以说是全书的中心， 虽然没有以她的观点为中心的单独的一章，但书中一切人物的 所作所为都与她息息相关。物极必反，从古板高傲、规矩极多 的旧世家里偏偏会出现浪荡的子女。

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凯蒂从“南方淑女”的规约下冲出来，走过了头，成了一个轻 佻放荡的女子。她与男子幽会，有了身孕，不得不与另一男子 结婚。婚后丈夫发现隐情，抛弃了她。她只得把私生女(也叫 昆丁)寄养在母亲家，自己到大城市去闯荡。哥哥昆丁和凯蒂 儿时感情很好、作为没落的庄园主阶级的最后一代的代表者， 一种没落感始终追随着昆丁。 他极其骄傲，极其敏感，却又 极其孱弱(精神上、肉体上都是如此)。他偏偏又过分重视妹 妹的贞操，把它与门第的荣誉甚至自己生与死的问题联系在一 起。凯蒂的遭遇一下子使他失去了精神平衡。就在妹妹结婚一 个多月后，他投河自尽了。对昆丁来说，“未来”是看不见的， “现在”则是模糊不清的一片混饨，只有“过去”才是真实清 晰的。昆丁本也想与妹妹“一起进地狱”,因为只有这样才可 以与蔑视、鄙视他们的世界隔绝开来。这一点既然办不到，他 只得采用结束自己生命的办法，免得自己看到事态朝他不喜欢 的方向发展。表面上他是为妹妹而死，实际上则是为家庭的没 有前途而亡。

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Character List:Jason Compso

n III - The head of the Compson household until his death from alcoholism in 1912. Mr. Compson is the father of Quentin, Caddy, Jason IV, and Benjy, and the husband of Caroline. Caroline Compson - The self-pitying and selfabsorbed wife of Mr. Compson and mother of the four Compson children. …… 此处隐藏：2853字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……