美国文学简史常耀信版chapter5-7课件.pptVIP

Section III Late Romanticism His first novel, Fanshawe, was unsuccessful. However, his most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter, which was an immediate success and allowed Hawthorne to devote himself to his writing. Hawthorne passed away on May 19, 1864 in Plymouth, New Hampshire after a long period of illness. Emerson described his life as painful solitude. His works remain notable for their treatment of guilt and the complexities of moral choices. If in the first collected edition they were twice-told, of course now they are thrice-told. May we live to hear them told a hundred times! In the second place, these compositions are by no means all Tales. The most of them are essays properly so called. Major ingredients for the tale of the infamous and famous letter: secret Sin and public scorn and personal tragedy which becomes somehow admirable. 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. 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. 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 Little education Do odd jobs Sea experience, which furnished him with abundant material in creation. By happy luck his brother found a publisher, Typee(1846) became a success, and Melville found himself a write