最新完TheodoreDreiserPPT课件.ppt

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1、完完TheodoreDreiserMajorWorksvSister CarrievJennie GerhardtvAn American TragedyvThe Genius(autobiographical)vThe Trilogy of Desire:Financier,The Titan,The Stoic金融家金融家巨人巨人斯多葛斯多葛5)Though his visit to the Soviet Union had left him skeptical about communism,the Great Depression(from 1929)caused him to rec

2、onsider his opposition.His autobiographical Dawn(1931)is one of the most candid self-revelations by any major writer.6).By the time Dreisers second novel,Jenny Gerhardt,was published in 1911,his work had found influential supporters,including the British novelists H.G.Wells and Sir Hugh Seymour Walp

3、ole,and he was able to devote himself entirely to literature.Dreisers writings continued to excite controversy.In The Financier(1912)and The Titan(1914),he drew harsh portraits of a type of ruthless businessman.In The“Genius”(1915),he presented a study of the artistic temperament in a mercenary唯利是图的

4、society.This novel increased his influence among young American writers,who acclaimed him leader of a new school of social realism.7)Real fame,however,did not come to Dreiser until 1925,when his An American Tragedy had great popular success.The novel,based on an actual murder case and concerned with

5、 the efforts of a weak young man to rise from pious poverty into glamorous society,was dramatized and made into a motion picture.The novels of Theodore Dreiser were deeply imbued灌输with an understanding of the brutal injustices of social class,and they rank as magnificent examples of 20th-century Ame

6、rican naturalism.Sister Carrie(1900)depicts the downfall of a young woman who moves from small-town America to Chicago and then to New York City.An American Tragedy(1925)shows the downfall of a weak young man who tries to rise from poverty into glamorous societyAn American TragedyThe novel relates,i

7、n great detail,the life of Clyde Griffiths,a boy of weak will and little self-awareness.He grows up in great poverty in a family of wandering evangelists福音传道者,but dreams of wealth and the love of beautiful women.A rich uncle employs him in his factory.When his girlfriend Roberta becomes pregnant,she

8、 demands that he marry her.Mean while,Clyde has fallen in love with a wealthy society girl who represents success,money,and social acceptance.Clyde carefully plans to drown Roberta on a boat trip,but at the last minute he begins to change his mind;however,she accidentally falls out of the boat.Clyde

9、,a good swimmer,does not save her,and she drowns.As Clyde is brought to justice,Dreiser replays his story in reverse,masterfully using the vantage points of prosecuting and defense attorneys to analyze each step and motive that led the mild mannered Clyde,with a highly religious background and good

10、family connections,to commit murder.vTherelevantevaluation:1)This novel explores the dangers of the American dream and displays crushing authority.Its precise details build up an overwhelming sense of tragic inevitability.2)It is a scathing损伤的portrait of the American success myth gone sour,but it is

11、 also a universal story about the stresses of urbanization,modernization,and alienation.Within it roam the romantic and dangerous fantasies of the dispossessed.3)An American Tragedy is a reflection of the dissatisfaction,envy,and despair that afflicted折磨many poor and working people in Americas compe

12、titive,success-driven society.As American industrial power soared,the glittering lives of the wealthy sharply contrasted with the drab无生气lives of ordinary farmers and city workers.The media fanned rising expectations and unreasonable desires.Sister Carrie:“the first book free of English literary inf

13、luence.”-Sinclair Lewis vThe 1900 publication of the novel Sister Carrie by American author Theodore Dreiser met with a poor reception due to its perceived vulgarity and loose morals.vThe novel tells the story of a small-town girl who moves to Chicago and eventually becomes a Broadway star in New Yo

14、rk City.It also traces the decline and eventual suicide of her lover.As a result of public outcry强烈抗议against the novel for its depiction of unrepentant顽固不化的and unpunished characters and for its frank treatment of sexual issues,the publisher withdrew the book from public sale.v The story of the rise

15、to fame and fortune of a showgirl and her subsequent disillusionment runs counter to the popular“rags-to-riches”stories that idealize the American dream of material success.vWhile living with one man,Drouet,she begins an affair(with the promise of marriage)with another,Hurstwood.Carrie and Hurstwood

16、 move to New York City,where Hurstwood fails in business and commits suicide while Carrie rises to the heights of fame as a stage performer.PointofView vSocialDarwinism:man as merely an animal driven by greed and sexual desire in a struggle for existence in which only the“fittest”survivevPessimistic

17、view of human helplessness in the face of instinct and social forces.vDeterminism:No one is ethically free.Everything is determined by a complex of internal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.(P300,P303)WritingStyle(Why?)vWithoutgoodstructurevDeficientcharacterization(P303)vLackinimaginat

18、ionvJournalisticmethodSister Carrievthestoryofakeptwoman,themes(P303)vCarolineMeeber,Drouet,HurstwoodThemesvNaturalistic pursuit by explaining the purposelessness of life and impotence(无能为力)of men.vMaterialism,including the desire for money,is an important theme in Sister Carrie.Evaluationonhim1)Dre

19、iser has been a controversial figure in American literary history.His works are powerful in their portrayal of the changing American life,but his style is considered crude.He showed a new way of presenting reality and inspired the writers of the 1920s with courage and insight.It is in Dreisers works

20、 that American naturalism is said to have come of age.2)Dreiser believed in representing life honestly in his fiction.He accomplished this through accurate detail,especially in his descriptions of the urban settings in which many of his stories take place.In his naturalistic portrayals Dreiser saw h

21、is characters as victims of social and economic forces,and of fate,all of which conspire against them.3)He embraced social Darwinism.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.Human tragedy com

22、es as a result of the collision between mans biological needs and societys ruthless manipulation.4)It is Dreisers announced intention to report the coarse and the vulgar and the cruel and the terrible in life in defiance of无视the genteel and evasive逃避的current literature with which he had absolutely n

23、o patience and sympathy.5)Dreisers writings reveal a tremendous vital lust for life with a conviction定罪that man is the end and measure of all things in a world which is devoid of purpose and standards.6)Although Dreisers novels are formless at times and awkwardly written and his characterization is

24、found deficient and his prose pedestrian缺乏想像力and dull,yet his very energy proves to be more than a compensation.7)He is good at employing the journalistic method of reiteration to burn a central impression into the readers mind.His interest in painting is reflected in his taste for word-pictures,sharp contrast,truth in color,and movement in outline.结束语结束语谢谢大家聆听！谢谢大家聆听！25