美国文学欣赏WashingtonIrving.ppt

Washington Irving(1783-1859)“Rip Van Winkle”（瑞普凡温克尔),Washington Irving(1783-1859),I.Position in American literatureII.Life III.WorksIV.Literary AchievementsV.StyleVI.Contributions,I.Position in American literature,Father of American literature1.the first American(true)literary writer2.the first American man of letters3.Americas first genuine internationally best-selling author,4.the first belletrist in American literature,writing for pleasure at a time when writing was practical and for useful purposes-belletrist n.纯文学作者,5.the first American writer to earn his living solely by his pen6.the first American literary humorist7.the first modern short story writer8.the first to write history and biography as entertainment,9.His use of the gothic looks forward to Poe.10.the messenger sent from the new world to the old world11.“the American Goldsmith”,Mark Twain also is called the Father of American Literaturethe true Father of American Literature,II.life and literary career,Born:3 April 1783Birthplace:New York,New YorkDied:28 November 1859named for George Washington;his parents were admirers of General Washington.,Irving was born in 1783,the year in which Benjamin Franklin signed at Paris the treaty of peace with England after the Revolutionary War.,Irvings mother was born in Englandstudied lawamused himself by writing for periodicals From 1804 to 1806 his older brothers financed his tour of France and Italy.,Under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker,he published A History of New York(1809),a satire that has been called the first great book of comic literature written by an American.,In 1820,Irving published The Sketch Book under the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon.The hit book made Irving the first American author to gain real fame in Europe.,The stories(including“Rip Van Winkle”and“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”)appeared serially in 181920.,Their enthusiastic reception made Irving the best-known figure in American literature both at home and abroad.,In search of colorful material,he made a journey to the frontier and wrote about the American West in A Tour of the Prairies(大草原游记,1835).,Late life:a colossal 5-volume biography of George Washingtona biography of Christopher Columbus is still considered a classic.,Irvings grave,III.Major Works,(1809:A History of New York纽约外史 1820:The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon,Gent.见闻札记 Two folktales:“Rip Van Winkle”and“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”(睡谷传奇)1822:Bracebridge Hall布雷斯勃列奇庄园 1824:Tales of a Traveller 游客谈 1835:A Tour of the Prairies大草原游记,Style,graceful,refined,fluent and dignified sentimental,romantic,IV.Comment,The first American author to win international recognition The first prose stylist of American romanticism In his Sketch Book appeared the first modern American short stories.His essays are models of perfect English.Irving created humor by the way he said things:1)He delighted in making ironic remarks which say just the opposite of what he meant.2)He used dignified words to produce a half-mocking effect.3)He was also fond of exaggerating the seriousness of situations.He not only provided a young nation with humorous,fictional accounts of the colonial past but also helped create an American mythology which is made up of stories about the American past so widely read as to be familiar to nearly every American.,short story,a prose narrative that is brief in naturealso has many of the same characteristics of a novel including characters,setting and plot.,However,due to length constraints,these characteristics and devices generally may not be as fully developed or as complex as those developed for a full-length novel.,The short story usually deals with a single episode and often a single character.The short story frequently also lacks denouement(n.结局),ending instead at its climax.,many authors well known for it including Edgar Allan Poe,埃德加爱伦坡O Henry,欧亨利Ernest Hemingway,海明威Poe first theorized on the structure and purpose of the short story.,Rip Van Winkle,2.“Rip Van Winkle”,(1)introduction(2)Rip Van Winkle:the protagonist(3)The plot,(1)introduction,similar to a 3rd-century Chinese tale of Ranka retold in Lionel Giles in A Gallery of Chinese Immortalspart of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon,The story is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War.,(2)Rip Van Winkle:the protagonist,a villager of Dutch descentlives in a nice village at the foot of New Yorks Catskill Mountainsan amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglecthe is loved by all but his wife,(3)The plot,One autumn day he escapes his nagging wife by wandering up the mountains.There he encounters strangely dressed men,rumored to be the ghosts of Henry Hudsons crew,who are playing nine-pins.,After drinking some of their liquor,he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep.He wakes and returns to his village,where he finds twenty years have passed.He finds out that his wife has died and that his close friends have died in a war or gone somewhere else.,He immediately gets into trouble when he proclaims himself a loyal subject of King George III,not knowing that the American,Revolution has taken place.,An old local recognizes him,however,and Rips now grown daughter takes him in.Rip resumes his habitual idleness,and his tale is solemnly believed by the old Dutch settlers,with certain hen-pecked husbands wishing they shared Rips good luck.,VI.Topics for Discussion,1.Compare the different situations in the village for Rip Van Winkle before and after his 20-year sleep.1)changes in his family his daughter grew up and married;his wife died;his dog no longer recognized him.2)changes in the village When Rip returned,children hollered at him and at first no one recognized him.The portrait of King George was replaced by that of Washington;a harangue about citizens rights 3)change in the life style:peaceful in the past but noisy after Rips long sleep,2.What is the authors opinion of Rip Van Winkle?And what is yours?Do you agree with Rips view as to the changes of states and empires?Why?,3.This selection is a good illustration of the humor characteristic of Irving.Analyze how Irving creates humor.,4.Do you think Rips wife is also a well-developed figure?How does this figure impress you?,The protagonist Rip Van Winkle,good-natured,well-oiled,carefree,happy-go-lucky,showing no interest in political affairsa lazy farmer a hen-pecked husband;an irresponsible head of his family a good neighbor,ready to help others,V.Style,Conservative e.g.Rip felt into sleep before American Independence and woke after itlove of old worlds tradition“an old gentleman speaking English not American Aim of writing:entertainment,not moralizing,master of a graceful and unobtrusively(不引人注意的)sophisticated prose styleGentle,refined,lucid,beautiful Classical in form though romantic in subjectsGood at creating atmosphere,Humorous Finished(精致完美的)and musical language vivid characters,VII.Contributions,A.He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame.B.The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irvings The Sketch Book.,C.Irving popularized the nickname“Gotham”(哥谭镇,愚人村)for New York City.He is credited with inventing the expression“the almighty dollar”(万能的美元).,D.The surname of his Dutch historian,Diedrich Knickerbocker,is generally associated with New York and New Yorkers,and can still be seen across the jerseys of New Yorks professional basketball team,albeit in its more familiar,abbreviated form,reading simply Knicks.,In Brooklyn,a neighborhood of New York City,there are two parallel streets named Irving Avenue and Knickerbocker Avenue;the latter forms the core of the neighborhoods shopping district,