American Literature (8)

• Edgar Allan Poe

•   "The Fall of the House of Usher"  
• 波的博物館(點入連結)/Poe's unity of effect(點入連結)

 Poe emphasized the unity of effect that one should strive for in any work of art.

 For example, words and phrases that occur and re-occur in Poe's various critical writings include the following: "to affect," "the totality of impression," "the unity of effect," "the novelty of the effect alone," and "the single effect," and these are only selected examples of his repetition of the value of this principle; Poe's writings contain many more examples of this emphasis.

By these statements, Poe meant that the artist should decide what effect he wants to create in the reader's emotional response and then proceed to use all of his creative powers to achieve that particular effect. 

( http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070206213508AAAOS40)

• Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822)

• Ode to the West Wind

                      v

V

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth;
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawakened earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, 
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

• plot

 Every plot should have an exposition, rising and falling action,climax and resolution.

1. exposition
2. conflict：character v.s.society/nature/character/themselves
3. rising action
4. climax
5. falling action
6. resolution

(http://www.slideshare.net/guest6bbfe8d/elements-of-plot)

•  Vocabulary

American Literature(7)

• Edgar Allan Poe(1809 – 1849)

was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Born in Boston, he was the second child of two actors.

 Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.

•  Selected list of works

1.  "The Fall of the House of Usher"  (Tales)
2.  "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846) – Essay

              Poetry

1.  "Annabel Lee"
2.  "The Raven"
3.  To Helen"

• American Renaissance (literature) 

 In American literature, the American Renaissance was a period during which many of the literary works most widely considered American masterpieces were produced. The period is generally defined as the mid-19th century but especially the years roughly from 1850 to 1855.

Major works from those years include Ralph Waldo Emerson's Representative Men (1850, ), Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850) and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854), and Walt Whitman's first edition of Leaves of Grass (1855).

The notion of an American Renaissance has been criticized for overemphasizing a small number of white male writers and artifacts of high culture.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne ( 1804 – 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer.

1.  The Scarlet Letter (1850)    (Novels)

                              * Dimmesdale/Chillingworth

•   short stories

     1."My Kinsman, Major Molineux" (1832)

 ....... Robin, a youth, arrives by ferry in Boston seeking his kinsman, Major Molineux, an official in the British Colonial government, who has promised him work. ............

Disillusioned, the youth asks the old gentleman the way back to the ferry. Yet the latter restrains him, saying that it is still possible for him to thrive without his kinsman's protection.

 *initiation journey/*river styx(冥河)/*charon冥衛(ferryman擺渡者)
 

2. "Young Goodman Brown" (1835)

The story takes place in 17th century Puritan New England, a common setting for Hawthorne's works, and addresses the Calvinist/Puritan belief that all of humanity exists in a state of depravity, except those who are born in a state of grace.

Hawthorne frequently attempts to expose the hypocrisy of Puritan culture in his literature. In a symbolic fashion, the story follows Young Goodman Brown's journey into self-scrutiny, which results in his loss of virtue and faith.

*allegorical name/the betrayal of the trust/faith /believe

• Vocabulary

踏上啟蒙之旅後我們頓悟。

癸巳年 初秋 

我是從詹姆斯‧喬伊斯(James Joyce)的《都柏林人》(Dubliners)中〈Araby〉得到關於『epiphany』以及『initiation journey』的感悟。

以往閱讀時，並不會特意去分析故事的情節象徵與閱讀層的分類，我只不過是一股腦的執著於偏好作品中，某些有所共鳴的部分。 個人尤其喜愛主人公通過某種旅程、經歷事物的考驗逐漸成長，最終使當初不得不踏上旅途的原因，或是原先生命中令人難以忍受、甚至是無法理解的事物，都變得迎刃而解。而獲得內心的榮耀與一種寬容態度的主人公，得以邁入一個嶄新的世界。

就像是文化人類學中不斷提及的「通過儀式」。透過這項儀式切斷與縫合自我，使心境的轉變更加深刻明顯，然後揮別昨日的自己。

踏上啟蒙之旅後我們頓悟。

〈Araby〉的尾聲，男孩在即將落幕的市集中，紛亂吵雜的環境與低俗的男女交談調笑，霎時使他了解到，一切不過只是他的幻想。他自認為擁有的聖杯不過只是代表他心中對未知事物的一種渴望。

然而有時頓悟的並不是那麼美好的事物。

在宮部美幸的《勇者物語》裡，平凡的少年小宣就因為家庭變故，而踏入「幻界」尋找從回幸福時光的辦法。而同樣也進入幻界的美鶴，其促使他踏上啟蒙之旅的原因，竟是這般慘烈的人倫悲劇......。
Nathaniel Hawthorne的"My Kinsman, Major Molineux"，對我而言，也同樣如此。


吞下這苦澀的經歷，發現我們活著的地方，是現實，是人間。 

然後繼續向前。

純真年代(The Age of Innocence)

ARCHER
　　
You gave me my first glimpse of a real life. Then you told me to carry on with the false one. No one can endure that.
　　
ELLEN
　　
I'm enduring it. 

American Literature(6)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hathorne;  1804 – 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer.

 His ancestors include John Hathorne, the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials who never repented of his actions. Nathaniel later added a "w" to make his name "Hawthorne" in order to hide this relation.

 His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, Dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity.  

• The Scarlet Letter (1850)

 The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus.

 Set in 17th-century Puritan Salem, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

•  Vocabulary

1. metaphor  比喻
2. mansion  邸
3. armor  盔甲
4. vigils   守夜儀式
5. executed  執行
6. acknowledge  認知
7. seamstress  裁縫
8. encounter  遭遇
9. manual  手冊
10. script/describe/description/transcript腳本/說明/描述/成績單
11. illicit  非法的
12. botanical  植物
13. customs offocer   稽查

• American Dream

 The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work.

• second to none： better than everything else.

This is an excellent car—second to none.
 Her suggestion was second to none, and the manager accepted it eagerly.

• Make Way for Ducklings

 Make Way for Ducklings is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey.The book tells the story of a pair of mallard ducks who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden, a park in the center of Boston, Massachusetts.

The book's popularity led to the construction of a statue by Nancy Schön in the Public Garden of the mother duck and her eight ducklings, which is a popular destination for children and adults alike.

Make Way for Ducklings statue in Boston's Public Garden 

 

• The Omni Parker House

 The Omni Parker House (built 1927) is a hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, currently owned by Omni Hotels.

The hotel was home to the Saturday Club, also referred to as the Saturday Night Club, which consisted of literary dignitaries such as Charles Dickens, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. John Wilkes Booth was also once a guest at the hotel. 

The Parker House invented Massachusetts’ state dessert – Boston cream pie – and the Parker House roll; and coined the term "scrod".

American Literature (5)

• The university motto

 Harvard University ──Veritas(拉丁文─真理)   

 National Hsinchu University of Education──

	博雅弘達

 National Taipei University of Education──

 TO LOVE TO ACT (親愛篤行)

•  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807-1882)

1. ''Paul Revere's Ride''
2. ''A Psalm of Life''

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
     And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
     Funeral marches to the grave.

•  Henry David Thoreau ( 1817 – 1862) 

was an American author, poet, philosopher, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.

•  Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement that was developed during the late 1820s and 1830s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society.Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people and nature.
Transcendentalists believed ：
They had faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. 

•  Walden

1.  I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
2. Thoreau insists on telling us that his Walden project is not a life decision or a commitment to a set of ideals, but an experiment in alternative living that is unambiguously amateurish. It is more like casual play than like solemn ideology. This informality explains why, when he leaves Walden Pond in 1847, Thoreau does not admit failure; rather, he says simply that he has other lives to live. Having learned the lessons that Walden Pond had to offer him, he turned to other scenes and other occupations, thus proving rather than undercutting his philosophy of life.

     Hamlet:
                    —Frailty, thy name is woman!—
                                                        Hamlet Act 1, scene 2, 142–146

• "O Captain! My Captain!" 

"O Captain! My Captain!" is a poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865. The poem is classified as an elegy because it is a mourning poem that was written in the memory of someone. The poem was written to honor Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. 

• 推薦電影： 2012

• 三大電子書網站： Gutenberg/Barleby.com/University of Virginia Library

• Vocabulary

American literature(4)

South Dakota, Black Hills, USA Mid West

•  Washington Irving(1783－1859)

an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. 

• jonathon edwards

• 推薦電影：Sleepless in Seattle(1993)
•  Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
•  Rest in peace 「願死者安息」
• 單字
• Long Fellow
• 獨立宣言

《轉瞬為風》─閱讀題記(5)

《轉瞬為風》──佐藤多佳子

 

盡情奔跑吧！於迎風而來的衝刺中，去伸展你們的靈魂。

整整近600多頁，但就如同書名一般，我以轉瞬為風的速度將它閱讀完畢(笑)。

而在閱讀時，我一邊徹底投入其中，又一邊哀號：快看完了耶，真不想結束，這樣猛烈敲擊在我心上，一種讓我將要喘不過氣來的衝動與希冀。

並不是血液在沸騰這種短暫的衝動，而是肉體與靈魂全心一致的追求，沉浸於峰頂般的感動。就像是進入到心流(Flow)的一種境界。

我真的希望，新二和春野台的眾人們能不斷的以運動員自居，然後在屬於自己的跑道上，盡情奔跑。

在瞬間化為勁風，衝破一切形體的障礙，直至夢想邊際。