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1、英美小说选读学习资料 Part I A Structured Approach to the Short StoryThe term structure as applied to a short story, or to any form of literary art, is a metaphorical expression referring to the architectural-like pattern of the work. Much like a building, a short story is an orderly arrangement of individual
2、parts put together to form a cohesive whole. In a building, the constituent elements are physical and exist in space; in a short story, the elements are intangibles, but they too are arranged in accordance with a carefully conceived plan. Instead of existing in space, these elements exist as ideas i
3、n the mind of the writer that are transferred to the mind of the reader through the medium of the printed page. The structure is then re-created in the readers mind as the story is read. Behind this concept of structure lies the assumption that the author has an awareness and understanding of the ne
4、ed for the structure in the work and that, in writing the story, has made deliberate choices in the selection of details and has carefully arranged these details into a meaningful, aesthetic pattern. A further assumption is that full of appreciation of a story by the reader demands some awareness an
5、d understanding of its structure.In its broadest sense, structure includes all the elements in a story: plot, character and characterization, point of view, language, which can be realistic, symbolic or allegory, and theme. In studying literature from a structural point of view, one may deal with th
6、ese elements separately, at first; however, the ultimate objective is to see the work as a whole and to become aware of how the parts are integrated to produce a composite effect.Elements of PlotSimply stated, plot is the arrangement of the events in a story into a causal sequences. Although the sho
7、rt story is one of the most flexible vehicles for the diverse elements of a plot, this flexibility and variety does not reduce the value of a systematic and even orthodox approach to plot construction. Among the formal elements of plot are: exposition, background; conflict, the opposition of forces,
8、 internal or external; complication, the development of predictable or unforeseen contingencies in the action; foreshadowing, a hint of what is to come; reversal, a change in fortune experienced by the protagonist; denouement, the final outcome of the sequence of events; and insight, recognition by
9、the protagonist of his or her nature or fate.Character and CharacterizationCharacter and characterization are closely related but essentially different concepts. Character refers to one of the persons in the storythe end result of the authors effort to create a fictional personality. Characterizatio
10、n, on the other hand, refers to the means by which the writer creates the sum of traits, thoughts, and actions which, taken together, constitute a character.At the simplest level, literary characters may belong to a number of stock types. . With creative imagination, however, a writer may start out
11、with commonplace characters and develop them into universal figures, far beyond the original cardboard dimensions of the stereotypes to which they are related. Don Quixote, Hamlet, or Huck Finn, to name a few, escape the confines of their typesthe impractical do-gooder, the slow-to-act intellectual,
12、 and the boy who rebels against the mores of his societyand transcend their literary confines to become symbols of human aspirations.Another concept relating to character is that of flatness, or its opposite, roundedness. If the story is a short one, the author may create only flat characters, that
13、is, characters whose essence may be summed up in a phrase. If the story requires it, as is usually the case, a writer may create a rounded character, that is, a character who is so complex as to require extended analysis. Both types of characters may appear in the same story, depending on their impo
14、rtance and the length of the story.Literary characters have also been described as being static or developing, depending upon whether they remain the same from the beginning to the end of the story or whether they undergo some significant, internal change in the course of the events. The concept of
15、developing suggests that the character achieves a different view of life as a result of some insight gained from conflict and is no longer quite the same person as before. The concept of static suggests the opposite.Point of ViewThe concept of point of view introduced in the discussion on character
16、and characterization requires a more detailed explanation because of its importance to the structure of a story. There are several questions about the way a story can be told that will help lead us to an understanding of exactly what point of view is, what varieties there are, and how different purp
17、oses are served by these different varieties. Chief among these questions are the following: through whose eyes and ears do we know what is going on? How much does this observer-spokesperson, or narrator, know about the people and events in the story? Does he or she know all there is to know about e
18、veryone and everything or is the knowledge possessed less than total? Does the spokesperson see into the minds of all the major characters or into the mind of just one? For ease of naming and for the subsequent identification, we may ask: in what person is the story being toldfirst or third? We also
19、 need to consider the degree of participation that the authors spokespersonobserver has in the action of the story. For example, is this spokesperson an agent in the events merely an observer at the periphery of the action, or an outsider reporting second-hand information? Finally we might inquire:
20、how does the point of view chosen serve the authors purposes and how is it better suited to the needs of the story than other options might have been when one considers the overall effect the author is attempting to produce? In asking all of these questions, and particularly the last one, one should
21、 keep in mind that the point of view selected by the author should unify and give a sense of direction to the story. At the same time, it should also blend smoothly with all the elements of the story.For the purpose of convenient reference, several different points of view have been traditionally di
22、stinguished and named. One of the earliest employed and most familiar is the first-person point of view, in which the narrator may be a major character, a minor character, or a bystander. The narrator may give a first-hand account, or one mixed with conjecture and hearsay. The narrator may be at the
23、 edge of the action and basically objective in attitude, as is the case in “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Or the narrator may be at the center of the action and highly involved emotionally, as is the young man in “Im a Fool.” On the other hand, the author may elect to use the third-person point o
24、f view, in which the reader sees and interprets everything through the mind of a single character, who may be at the center of the story, as with Miss Brill in the Mansfield selection; or at the periphery, as with the townsman-narrator in “A Rose for Emily” (who are totally operates from the third p
25、erson point of view, even though he employs the pronoun “we”); or outside the action entirely, as in “The Ministers Black Veil.” When a single character at the center of the action is used as the focus of impressions, the term central intelligence is often applied. In the central intelligence point
26、of view, the character is aware of all that occurs in the story and every significant thought he or she has is made known to the reader. Although a central intelligence character is involved in or witnesses all that is happening, the character may be temporarily confused, self-deluded, or nave enoug
27、h to be unaware of its full meaning. However, even in such instances, the reader may expect to be provided with the necessary information to allow a correct interpretation of the significance of what is going on. Sometimes this point of view is referred to as limited omniscience, since the author pr
28、ovides access to the mind of only one character in the story.Another possibility is the one in which the writer may choose not to invade the inner sanctum of the mind of any of the characters. Instead, the author may decide to function as the “camera-eye” and “tape-recorder” and abstain from any jud
29、gmental comment, relying only on the careful selection of significant details, as Hemingway does in “The Killers.” This ostensibly objective point of view is variously referred to as “the stage-setting” or “scenic” technique of telling a story because of its emphasis on straightforward representatio
30、n and deliberate avoidance of explicit interpretation of motives and actions.Opposed to these points of view with varying degrees of limited knowledge is the omniscient point of view, one in which the author provides the access to the thoughts of any and all the characters, in any place at any time
31、he or she chooses. Usually the author speaks in the third person, but the method may, once in a while, be used with a first-person narrator. Although writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who employed this point of view often indulged in comments made directly to the reader, modern writ
32、ers using this method usually refrain from such statements. Instead, they maintain an aesthetic distance through irony, scrupulous attempts at impartiality, or some other tonal device, as in the case with Fitzgerald and Maugham.LanguageLinked as it is to the pattern of action, character and characte
33、rization, and point of view, language, besides being the medium, is also another important element in the structure of the story. As the term is used here, language refers to the way in which words are put together for the creation of special effects. Among these effects are: attitude, tone, atmosph
34、ere and mood, setting, pace and rhythm, and dialogue.The attitude of a work is the relation the author assumes toward the subject, character, and action in the story. Usually it can be described on a continuum from sympathetic, through neutral, to antipathetic. Tone is the verbal stance the author a
35、ssumes toward the reader. It may be anything from sober earnestness to tongue-in-cheek levity. The authors tone may be straightforward and explicit or devious and ironic.The atmosphere is a feeling of “something in the air” that the author develops through either description or dialogue, to serve as
36、 a conditioning or motivating force in the action.The term mood is applied to the emotional content of a scene or entire story and it is created by the combined effect of atmosphere and setting, exposition and foreshadowing, dialogue and action. It can range from happiness to sadness, from complacen
37、cy to fear, from contentment to deep frustration, and so forth. Along with atmosphere and mood, the author may employ a spatial and temporal setting, which helps determine the outcome of the conflict and the protagonists fate.Language also helps to establish any underlying motif, as used in this con
38、nection, is any recurring idea, phrase, image, or action that unifies a story by repeatedly recalling its earlier occurrences.Language also helps to establish the pace and rhythm of a story. Pace and rhythm may be achieved through variations in the length of words and word groups, through contrastin
39、g or matching syntactic constructions, through the sense of pauses or the rapid flow of speech, through the deliberate selection of words for ease or difficulty of pronunciation, and through the verbatim repetition of words or phrases.Another function of language is the expression of character throu
40、gh speech, that is, dialogue. Symbolism and AllegoryIn a story employing symbolism, the literal element remains basic and is not merely a vehicle for ideas. In such a story, the emphasis is on the characters who exhibit varying degrees of roundedness, and on the pattern of action, which is usually r
41、ealistically oriented. Symbols are employed to amplify meaning and to extend the scope of meaning through metaphor, figurative language. Symbols express the relationship of the literal figure to its real world by establishing a parallel relationship on the non-literal level.In a story organized as f
42、ully developed allegory, which is like symbolism in that it, too, is a non-literal mode of expression, every character, object, and place stands more for abstract idea than for the literal figure in the narrative. It is the idea represented that is important, not the semi-realistic character, object
43、, or place. Since characters in allegory personify abstract concepts such as “Love,” “Mercy,” “Forgiveness,” “Sin,” and “Death” the characters are of necessity flat and undeveloped, having little real personality of their own apart from what they represent.ThemeThe theme of a story is the generaliza
44、tion about human life that can be drawn from the outcome of the conflict and from the support provided by the tone, attitude, atmosphere, setting, and symbolism and allegory. In attempting to come to grips with the meaning of a story, the reader should not be mislead into accepting the statement of
45、any of the characters as necessarily accurate or complete expression.Part II Literary Terms for Study1. point of view, （视角）the position or vantage-point from which the events of a story seem to be observed and presented to us. The chief distinction usually made between points of view is that between
46、 third-person narratives and first-person narratives. A third-person narrator may be omniscient, and therefore show an unrestricted knowledge of the storys events from outside or above them; but another kind of third-person narrator may confine our knowledge of events to whatever is observed by a si
47、ngle character or small group of characters, this method being known as limited point of view. A first-person narrators point of view will normally be restricted to his or her partial knowledge and experience, and therefore will not give us access to other characters hidden thoughts. Many modern aut
48、hors have also used multiple point of view, in which we are shown the events from the position of two or more different characters.2. first-person narrative（第一人称叙事）,a narrative or mode of storytelling in which the narrator appears as the I recollecting his or her own part in the events related, eith
49、er as a witness of the action or as an important participant in it . The term is most often used for novels such as Charlotte Brontes Jane Eye (1847), in which the narrator is also the central character. The term does not mean that the narrator speaks only in the first person, of course; in discussions of other characters, the third person will be used.3. third-person narrative，（第三人称叙事）a narrative or mode of storytelling in which the narrator is not a character within the events