美国文学简史（十）

Chapter 3   The Age of Realism(现实主义)
I. Background: From Romanticism to Realism
II. Characteristics
III. Three Giants in Realistic PeriodWilliam Dean Howells Henry JamesMark Twain – Mississippi
IV. Comparison of the three “giants” of American Realism

美国文学简史之现实主义时期

 Three Giants in Realistic Period

William Dean Howells –“Dean of American Realism”

Realistic principles♦ Realism is “fidelity to experience and probability of motive”.
♦ The aim is “talk of some ordinary traits of American life”.
♦  Man in his natural and unaffected dullness was the object of Howells’s fictional representation.
♦ Realism is by no means mere photographic pictures of externals but includes a central concern with “motives” and psychological conflicts.
♦  He condemns novels of sentimentality and morbid self-sacrifice, and avoids such themes as illicit love.
♦Authors should minimize plot and the artificial ordering of the sense of something “desultory, unfinished, imperfect”.♦ Characters should have solidity of specification and be real.
♦ Interpreting sympathetically the “common feelings of commonplace people” was best suited as a technique to express the spirit of America.
♦ He urged writers to winnow tradition and write in keeping with current humanitarian ideals.
♦ Truth is the highest beauty, but it includes the view that morality penetrates all things.
♦  With regard to literary criticism, Howells felt that the literary critic should not try to impose arbitrary or subjective evaluations on books but should follow the detached scientist in accurate description, interpretation, and classification.

Works
♦ The Rise of Silas Lapham
♦ A Chance Acquaintance
♦ A Modern Instance

Features of His Works
♦ Optimistic tone
♦ Moral development/ethics
♦  Lacking of psychological depth

Henry James

Literary career: three stages
♦ 1865~1882: international theme
The American
Daisy Miller
The Portrait of a Lady♦ 1882~1895: inter-personal relationships and some plays
Daisy Miller (play)♦ 1895~1900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence, then back to international theme
The Turn of the Screw
When Maisie Knew
The Ambassadors
The Wings of the Dove
The Golden Bowl

 Aesthetic ideas♦  The aim of novel: represent life
♦  Common, even ugly side of life
♦  Social function of art
♦  Avoiding omniscient point of view(上帝视角)
Point of view♦  Psychological analysis, forefather of stream of consciousness（意识流）
♦  Psychological realism
♦  Highly-refined language

Style – “stylist”♦  accurate
♦  Vocabulary: large
♦  Construction: complicated, intricate

Comparison of the three “giants” of American Realism

ThemeHowells – middle class
James – upper class
Twain – lower class

TechniqueHowells - smiling/genteel realism
James – psychological realism
Twain – local colourism and colloquialism 

本文为节选，来源：沪江英语

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