美国文学简史完全笔记 Chapter 4
Chapter 4 American Naturalism I. Background 1.Darwin*s theory: ※natural selection§ 2.Spenser*s idea: ※social Darwinism§ 3.French Naturalism: Zora II. Features 1.environment and heredity 2.scientific accuracy and a lot of details 3.general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the society III. significance It prepares the way for the writing of 1920s* ※lost generation§ and T. S. Eliot. IV. Theodore Dreiser 1.life 2.works (1)Sister Carrie (2)The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic (3)Jennie Gerhardt (4)American Tragedy (5)The Genius 3.point of view (1)He embraced social Darwinism 每 survival of the fittest. He learned to regard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the ※fittest§, the most ruthless, survive. (2)Life is predatory, a ※game§ of the lecherous and heartless, a jungle struggle in which man, being ※a waif and an interloper in Nature§, a ※wisp in the wind of social forces§, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will. (3)No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure. 4.Sister Carrie (1)Plot (2)Analysis 5.Style (1)Without good structure (2)Deficient characterization (3)Lack in imagination (4)Journalistic method (5)Techniques in painting |