专八:美国文学简史(四)

Section 3 Late Romanticism

I. Nathaniel Hawthorne

1. life

2. works

(1)  Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse

(2)  The Scarlet Letter

(3)  The House of the Seven Gables

(4)  The Marble Faun

3. point of view

(1)  Evil is at the core of human life, “that blackness in Hawthorne”

(2)  Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation (causality).

(3)  He is of the opinion that evil educates.

(4)  He has disgust in science.

4. aesthetic ideas

(1)  He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition.

(2)  He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.

5. style – typical romantic writer

(1)  the use of symbols

(2)  revelation of characters’ psychology

(3)  the use of supernatural mixed with the actual

(4)  his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lesson

(5)  use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of view

II.  Herman Melville

1. life

2. works

(1)  Typee

(2)  Omio

(3)  Mardi

(4)  Redburn

(5)  White Jacket

(6)  Moby Dick

(7)  Pierre

(8)  Billy Budd

3. point of view

(1)  He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of “Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).

(2)  One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).

Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress

4. style

(1)  Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.

(2)  He tends to write periodic chapters.

(3)  His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised.

(4)  His works are symbolic and metaphorical.

(5)  He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)