lesson7plot情节.docx

lesson7plot情节Lesson Seven Plot 第七课 情节 E.M. Forster E.M.福斯特 New words sequence (n.) A number of things in or as if in line: series, chain, catena, course, order causality n. pl. causalities 1. The principle of or relationship between cause and effect. 2. A causal agency, force, or quality. preserve, keep overshadow (v.) To surpass in power, importance, or influence: predominate, dominate, govern, loom large, prevail Underline the keywords 1 Let us define a plot. We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. "The king died and then the queen dies," is a story. "The king dies, and then the queen died of grief," is a plot. The time-sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it. 译文 让我们给情节 下一个定义，我们已经把故事定义为按时间叙事。情节也是叙事，只是重点放在因果关系上。“国王死了后来王后死了”，是故事。“国王死了，而王后因悲痛国王而死”，是情节。时间顺序没有变，但因果关系使它显得不重要了。 没有变，译成被保存不好。 显得不重要，译成在阴影下不好。 New words suspend v. pause, hesitate, interrupt, delay, hold up, discontinue, break, wait, mark time, intermit, falter, rest: He suspend for a moment to allow late-comers to take their seats. Underline the keywords Or again; "The queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was through grief at the death of the king." This is a plot with a mystery in it, a form capable of high development. It suspends the time sequence, it moves as far away from the story as its limitations will allow. Consider the death of the queen. If it is in a story we say "and then?" If it is in a plot we ask "why?" That is the fundamental difference between these two aspects of the novel. 译文 或者说，“王后死了，没人知道为什么。直到最后人们才发现，是死于对国王驾崩的哀痛。”这是一个富有神秘色彩的情节，是一个能够向纵深发展的形式。它暂时不考虑时间顺序，把它悬了起来。它在故事允许的范围内，远离了故事情节。看看王后的死。如果是故事，我们说，“后来呢？”如果是情节，我们问，“为什么？”这是小说的两个方面的根本区别。 New words gaping Deep and wide open: a gaping wound; a gaping hole. cave 山洞 A hollow or natural passage under or into the earth with an opening to the surface. Sultan 苏丹 A ruler of a Moslem country, especially of the former Ottoman Empire. Underline the keywords A plot cannot be told to a gaping audience of cave men or to a tyrannicalsultan or to their modern descendant the movie-public. They can onlybe kept awake by "and then and then." they can only supply curiosity. But a plot demands intelligence and memory also. 译文 情节不能对那些只知道傻呆呆咧大嘴的原始穴居人讲，也不能给专制的君主苏丹讲，还不能讲给他们的后代，即那些现代影迷们听。因为这些人只知道问，“后来呢，后来呢？”否则他们就会打瞌睡。他们只有好奇心。然而，读情节需要理解力和记忆力。 傻呆呆 原始穴居人 否则他们就会打瞌睡 Analysis of the text Story is narrative of events in their time-sequence. It asks “and then?” For example: the king died, and then the queen died. Plot is narrative of events with emphasis on causality. It has a mystery in it. It asks “why?” For example, the queen died, nobody knows why.” Cave men, sultan and modern movie public who can only supply curiosity cannot understand the plot because a plot demands intelligence and memory. New words sag 耷拉 To sink, droop, or settle from pressure or weight. bulge 突出 To stick out; protrude Underline the keywords 2 Curiosity is one of the lowest of the human faculties. You will have noticed in daily life that when people are inquisitive they nearly always have bad memories and are usually stupid at bottom. The man who begins by asking you how many brothers and sisters you have, is never asympathetic character, and if you meet him in a year's time he will probably ask you how many brothers and sisters you have, his mouth again sagging open, his eyes still bulging from his head. Analysis of the text 译文 好奇心是人类最低的一种能力。你会注意到在日常生活中，那些好奇的人，通常记忆力都很坏。他们蠢到了底。张口就问你有几个兄弟姐妹的人，永远不是富有同情心的人。如果你一年以后再碰到他，他还是会问你，你有几个兄弟姐妹。他问你的时候,还是嘴张得大大的，眼睛鼓得圆圆的。 New words Underline the keywords It is difficult to be friends with such a man, and for two inquisitive people to be friends must be impossible. Curiosity by itself takes us a very little way, nor does it take us far into the novel only as far as the story. If we would grasp the plot we must add intelligence and memory. 译文 和这样的人交朋友是很困难的。两个好奇的人几乎根本不能成为朋友。好奇只能使人对事物有肤浅的了解，对小说的理解也深不了，只是听听故事而已。如果我们想抓住情节，我们就要有理解力和记忆力。 précis Curiosity is the lowest human faculty. It takes us little way, not far into the novel. Inquisitive people have bad memory, and are stupid and not sympathetic, not sociable. Underline the keywords 3 Intelligence first. The intelligent novel-reader, unlike the inquisitive one who just runs his eye over a new fact, mentally picks it up. He sees it from two points of view; isolated, and related to the other facts that he has read on previous pages. Probably he does not understand it, but he does not expect to so yet awhile. The facts in a highly organized novel (like The Egoist) are often of the nature of cross-correspondences and the ideal spectator cannot expect to view them properly until he is sitting up on a hill at the end. 译文 先说理解力。聪明的读者,不象好奇的人，他不只是扫一眼新的事实，而是记住它。他从二方面看它。一方面，它是孤立的；另一方面,它又和从前几页看到的事实有联系。现在他可能还不理解它，而且也不企图马上就会理解它。在一个组织得很好的小说(如自私自利的人)中，事实多半是相互交叉的。理想的读者不期望在最后达到高潮前理解它。 New words crudely, Lacking tact, refinement, or taste. subtle, adj. sensitive, finely tuned, delicate, responsive, acute, reactive, receptive subtly adv. dawn, 1. To begin to become light in the morning. 2. To begin to appear or develop; emerge. 3. To begin to be perceived or understood: Realization of the danger soon dawned on us. appreciate, 1. To recognize the quality, significance, or magnitude of:appreciated their freedom. 2. To be fully aware of or sensitive to; realize:I appreciate your problems. 3. To be thankful or show gratitude for brood, 1. To sit on or hatch eggs. 2. To hover envelopingly; loom. 3. a.To be deep in thought; meditate. b. To focus the attention on a subject persistently and moodily; worry: Underline the keywords This element of surprise or mystery the detective element as it is sometimes rather emptily called is of great importance in a plot. It occurs through a suspension of the time-sequence; a mystery is a pocket in time, and it occurs crudely, as in "Why did the queen die?" and more subtly in half-explained gestures and words, the true meaning of which only dawns pages ahead. Mystery is essential to a plot, and cannot be appreciated without intelligence. To the curious it is just another "and then " to appreciate a mystery, a part of the mind must be left behind, brooding, while the other part goes marching on. 译文 这种惊奇和神秘的成分有时人们干脆空洞地叫它“侦探成分”对情节应是十分重要的。它打断故事发展的思路。谜是时间上的一个口袋、一个包袱(相声上叫甩包袱)。它出现得很唐突，就象“为什么王妃死了？”而在那有意安排，不讲明的动作和话语中，真正的意思在前几页就已经提到了。神秘对情节是必须的。没有理解力就不能鉴赏它。对好奇的人，只能是“后来呢”。而鉴赏神秘，一定要留一部分脑力来思索，而让其他部分继续往下看事实。 précis The intelligent novel-reader picks isolated facts, and relates them to the facts on the previous pages. Because the element of surprise is of great importance in a plot, he doesn't expect to understand it until at the end. To understand mystery, one needs intelligence and part of his mind must be left behind to search for relation while others march on to get new clues. New words Underline the keywords 4 That brings us to our second qualification: memory. 5 Memory and intelligence are closely connected, for unless we remember we cannot understand. for example If by the time the queen dies we have forgotten the existence of the king we shall never make out what killed her. The plot-maker expects us to remember, we expect him to leave no loose ends. Every action or word ought to count; it ought to be economical and spare; even when complicated itshould be organic and free from dead matter. 译文 这就把我们带到第二个条件上了：记忆力 记忆力和理解力密切相关。因为记不住，就懂不了。如果到王妃死时，我们忘记还有过国王的事，我们就永远不知道她是为什么死的。编情节的人希望我们能够记住。我们希望他把他讲的都能用上，不要留着断了的线头。情节应该简洁而留有余地。即使复杂，也必须是有机地联系着。不应该生拉硬扯。 New words unfold, develop 展开 aesthetically 美学上 compact, 紧凑 adj. short, shortened, brief, concise, compressed, compendious, compact, pocket, (Am.) vest-pocket; abbreviated, abridged, cut Underline the keywords It may be difficult or easy, it may and should contain mysteries, but it ought not to mislead. And over it, as it unfolds, will hover the memory倒装句，这是主语 of the reader (that dull glow of the mind of which intelligence is the bright advancing edge) and will constantly rearrange and reconsider, seeing new clues, new chains of cause and effect, and the final sense (if the plot has been a fine one) will not be ofclues or chains, but of something aesthetically compact, somethingwhich might have been shown 注意虚拟语态 by the noveliststraight away, only if he had shown it straight away it would never have become beautiful. 译文 它可以曲折, 也可以平淡。它可以也应该有神秘的色彩。但它不应该误导读者。当它展开的时候,记忆力应该围绕它转。记忆力要不停顿地重新组织、重新考虑，找新线索，找新的因果关系。最后的感觉,不应再是线索和一个个孤立的环节，而应是一种巧妙紧凑之美、是一种完全可以被小说家直接了当讲出来的、但是又不能直言的美。因为他要是讲破了,它就不成其为美了。(小说家不应该一味追求美，但是如果他没有把美表露出来，他却又失败了。) New words come up against inquiry: proper Botticelli Sandro . Originally Alessandro di Mariano dei Filipepi.1444?-1510 Italian painter of the Florentine school whose flowing draftsmanship is evident in his masterpieces, Primavera (c. 1477) andBirth of Venus (c. 1485). due prima donna n. 1. The leading woman soloist in an opera company. 2.A temperamental, conceited person. Underline the keywords We come up against beauty here for the first time in our inquiry:beauty at which a novelist should never aim, though he fails if he does not achieve it. I will conduct to her proper place later on. Meanwhile please accept her as part of a completed plot. She looks a little surprised at being there, but beauty ought to look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face, as Botticelli knew when he painted her risen from the waves, between the winds and the flowers. The beauty who does not look surprised, who accepts her position as her due she reminds us too much of a prima donna. (From Aspects of the Novel) Analysis of the text 译文 在我们的研究中, 我们第一次谈到美。以后我们在适当的章节还会讨论美。现在请大家先把它作为情节的一部分接受下来。美有时看上去有点意外。但美感本来就应该有一点意外。意外是最适合她的颜面的一种面部表情。BOTTICELLI懂得这一点。所以他画的风与花簇拥的出水维那斯,就带着一种意外的神情。如果美看上丝毫没有惊奇的神情,如果美被当之无愧地接受,我们就不禁会联想到歌剧中高傲的女主角 précis Unless we remember we cannot understand. The plot-maker expects us to remember, we expect him to leave no loose ends. It may and should contain mysteries, but it ought not to mislead. We will constantly rearrange and reconsider, seeing new clues, new chains of cause and effect, and the final sense will be of something aesthetically compact. This beauty looks a little surprised at being there, but she ought to look a little surprised. Without surprise, in other words, if the novelist had shown her directly she would never have become beautiful. Reader and purpose This is a lecture to the students at Cambridge. He does not assume they know a lot about literature. They may know a lot about other fields and have read on other subjects, so he makes mere literary allusions, not details references. His purpose is also to teach the students to be intelligent novel readers, and to convince the reader that mere stories are low class. Ex. 2 The genus of plot is narrative. Narratives can be cyclical stories, myth or mystical stories, travel accounts, news reports, journals, and chronological records, etc. Causality differentiates plot from the others. Mr. Forster differentiates plot explicitly. Ex. 3 The last two sentences are organizing sentences. Curiosity: the second paragraph. Intelligence: the third paragraph. Memory: the fifth paragraph. Ex. 4 Curiosity, intelligence and memory are not directly related to a plot, but they are essential to the definition. They can be part of a definition of a plot. A plot is a narrative of events, the emphasis falling upon causality, which requires of a reader not only curiosity but also intelligence and memory. Ex. 5 The short sentence in line 50 serves as a transition. Ex. 6 The creation of the earth, King Yu conquers the floods (大禹治水）， The Arabian nights If particular novels had been named, they should have puzzled those students who haven't read them. Ex. 7 Because it is a lecture, Mr. Forester uses rather loose structure (ll 57-67), sentence fragment (e.g. Intelligence first), and short sentences (ll 1-18). Mr. Foster begins by saying, Let us define a plot.” Thus he declares right away the topic of his lecture, catching the audiences attention and helping them concentrate their minds immediately on the point. Without this imperative sentence, the audience would not know how to direct their attention. Mr. Foster varies his sentences by using hortatory ： let us; imperative: Consider the death; fragmentary: intelligence first; periodic sentence: ll 53-54; compound-complex: ll 51-52; and inverted sentence: ll 59-67 Look up faculties, natural powers or abilities cross-correspondence, a complicated pattern of relationships between a group of people. organic, of living things Botticelli, Italian painter Prima donna, a temperamental, conceited person. Ex. 10 Tyrannical sultan indicates the sultan in Arabian Nights, a narrative without a plot. This allusion, Mr. Forster thinks, is typically well-known to his listeners and needs no explanation. Although mystery is a key element of plot, a good plot is not just a mere mystery or a detective story, its final sense must be something beautiful. Mr. Foster uses some words of negative sense to describe those who have only curiosity. Ex.11 The tone of this article is highly discriminatory and elitist Mr. Foster writes it in the view point of an expert. Its advantage is that he does not have to justify what he says, e.g. he does not have to appeal to other authorities he himself is the authoritative expert.