1、Ernest Hemingway,1899-1961,He started his career as a writer in a newspaper office at the age of seventeen. After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian Government, an
2、d spent considerable time in hospitals. After his return to the United States, he became a reporter for Canadian and American newspapers and was soon sent back to Europe to cover such events as the Greek Revolution.,In Europe in the 1920s , Ernest learned from avant-garde writers like Gertrude Stein
3、 and Ezra Pound their literary spareness and compression.,Hemingway in Italy,During the twenties, He became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris, which he described in his first novel, The Sun Also Rises (1926). Hemingway used his experiences as a reporter during the civil war in S
4、pain as the background for his most ambitious novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Among his later works, the most outstanding is the short novel, The Old Man and the Sea (1952), the story of an old fishermans journey, his long and lonely struggle with a fish and the sea, and his victory in defeat
5、.,Hemingway - himself a great sportsman - liked to portray soldiers, hunters, bullfighters - tough, at times primitive people whose courage and honesty are set against the brutal ways of modern society, and who in this confrontation lose hope and faith. His straightforward prose, his spare dialogue,
6、 and his predilection for understatement are particularly effective in his short stories, some of which are collected in Men Without Women (1927) and The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938).,Main works,The Sun Also Rises (1926)A Farewell to Arms (1929)For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)T
7、he Old Man and the Sea (1952),Ernest Hemingway Home, Key West, Florida 恩斯特海明威與美國作家珍妮福藍那在法國巴黎的合影,Lost Generation,Group of U.S. writers who came of age during World War I and established their reputations in the 1920s; more broadly, the entire post World War I American generation. The term was coined
8、by Gertrude Stein in a remark to Ernest Hemingway. The writers considered themselves “lost“ because their inherited values could not operate in the postwar world and they felt spiritually alienated from a country they considered hopelessly provincial and emotionally barren. The term embraces Hemingw
9、ay, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, E.E. Cummings, Archibald MacLeish, and Hart Crane, among others.,“Lost” Generation,World War I seemed to have destroyed the idea that if you acted virtuously, good things would happen. Many good, young men went to war and died, or returned home either physic
10、ally or mentally wounded (for most, both), and their faith in the moral guideposts that had earlier given them hope, were no longer valid.they were “Lost.“,These literary figures also criticized American culture in creative fictional stories which had the themes of self-exile, indulgence (care-free
11、living) and spiritual alienation. For example, Fitzgeralds This Side of Paradise shows the young generation of the 1920s masking their general depression behind the forced exuberance of the Jazz Age. Another of Fitzgeralds novels, The Great Gatsby does the same where the illusion of happiness hides
12、a sad loneliness for the main characters.,Who are involved in the Lost Generation?,Ernest Hemingway F. Scott Fitzgerald John Dos Passos Gertrude Stein T. S. Eliot Ezra Pound,Two Types of Hemingways Characters,One of the foremost authors of the era between the two world wars, Hemingway in his early w
13、orks depicted the lives of two types of people. One type consisted of men and women deprived, by World War I, of faith in the moral values in which they had believed, and who lived with cynical disregard for anything but their own emotional needs. The other type were men of simple character and prim
14、itive emotions, such as prizefighters and bullfighters.,Hemingways Style,Hemingways novels pioneered a new style of writing which many generations after tried to imitate. Hemingway did away with the florid prose of the 19th century Victorian era and replaced it with a lean, clear prose based on acti
15、on. H also employed a technique by which he left out essential information of the story in the belief that omission can sometimes strengthen the plot of the novel. The novels produced by the writers of the Lost Generation give insight to the lifestyles that people lead during the 1920s in America, a
16、nd the literary works of these writers were innovative for their time and have influenced many future generations in their styles of writing.,Writing Style,Journalistic, lean, simple, short sentences; hardly any adjectives Principle of iceberg(7/8 under for every 1/8 showing)forces readers to “read
17、between the lines”; also called “hard-boiled” style Critical acclaim-Nobel Prize in 1954,Writing Style,Literary techniquesFlashbackVivid imageryUnique symbolism,Unique Symbolism,Light=warmth, security, order/balance Wetness=evil, disaster, impending doom LandscapesHighlands=clear, clean, peaceful,or
18、derlyLowlands=evil, chaos,dirt,The Hemingways “Code”,A man can be destroyed, but not necessarily defeated. Man must face all life struggles with courage, intensity, honesty, and grace. The reward is dignity. Loss of hope and faith equals defeat.,The Hemingways “Code” contd,Concept of “nada” or “noth
19、ingness”:The outcome of life is death, with no life after death.the struggle is the only thing that matters. “we are all losers,” as the outcome of life is death.,The Hemingways “Code” contd,Notable Characters-all “manly men” who act “naturally” as nature intended them to BullfightersBoxersSoldiersH
20、unters Fishermen,Hero Archetypes,Tutor:Manly man who teaches the “code”Respects opponentsimple and confidentexpert at his tradealways calm,Hero Archetypes contd,Tyro: Student of the “code” Confused Wounded mentally/physically Insomniac Resembles Hemingway Fears “nada”/”nothingness”,Hero Archetypes c
21、ontd,Heroine “Bitch”: Tyros woman Greedy Unloving & unkind towards tyro Sarcastic and opinionated promiscuous-enjoys “wounding” tyro,Gertrude Stein,1954年获诺贝尔文学奖,海明威英勇地脱离了早期“残暴、犬儒和冷漠”的阶段，充满“对危险和冒险的刚毅热爱”，且具有“对现代叙事艺术强而有力、屡创新格的掌握能力”。,The Nobel Prize in Literature 1954,“for his mastery of the art of narr
22、ative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style“,A man can be destroyed but not defeated. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.,“Hemingway doesnt fill out his characters a
23、nd let them stand for themselves; he isolates one or two chief traits which reduce them to caricatures.”Allen Tate, The Nation“He doesnt describe. He lets the people enter, talk, travel, and the reader goes with them.” Bruce Barton, Atlantic Monthly,Lawrence S. Morris, New Republic,“He drops his cha
24、racters in and lets them live. He does not explain them, as a less complete artist would. He does not label their motives with generalizations of love, hate, ambition.” “Although Hemingway is objectifying the bewildered anguish of an aimless generation, he does not moon about it.”,“A Clean, Well Lig
25、hted Place”,The story presents a study in contrasts; discuss your view on the following,Youth and age,Belief and doubt,Light and darkness,Selfishness and Compassion,Discussion Questions,While aging brings, to most, an eclectic array of coping mechanisms for death, some people with little religious f
26、aith may seek to approach the impending void (death) by clinging to environments that offer solace in times of despair: such comfort may effect in them a keener sense of compassion, sensitivity to others, human connectedness, ritual, honor, stoic endurance, and dignity.,Possible Theme for A Clean, W
27、ell-lighted Place,Wth a focus on the Life vs Nadaconflict: old man vs impending nothingness old waiter vs impending nothingness,tone and style,Hemingways tone: unexcitable dispassionate impassive emotionless sober,Hemingways style: Laconic/ terse/ pithy/ concise简洁的monosyllabic,Nihilism,Nihilism is t
28、he belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy
29、. While few philosophers would claim to be nihilists, nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history. In the 20th century
30、, nihilistic themesepistemological failure, value destruction, and cosmic purposelessnesshave preoccupied artists, social critics, and philosophers. Mid-century, for example, the existentialists helped popularize tenets of nihilism in their attempts to blunt its destructive potential. By the end of
31、the century, existential despair as a response to nihilism gave way to an attitude of indifference, often associated with antifoundationalism.,Sisyphuss story,In Greek mythology, but also found in Roman Mythology Sisyphus (pronounced /ssfs/) was a king punished in the fields of punishment by being c
32、ompelled to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity. The word sisyphean means, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, “endless and unavailing, as labor or a task.“,“Sisyphean task“ or “Sisyphean challenge“,As a punishment from th
33、e gods for his trickery, Sisyphus was made to roll a huge rock up a steep hill, but before he could reach the top of the hill, the rock would always roll back down, forcing him to begin again.2 The maddening nature of the punishment was reserved for Sisyphus due to his hubristic belief that his clev
34、erness surpassed that of Zeus. Sisyphus took the bold step of reporting one of Zeus sexual conquests, telling the river god Asopus of the whereabouts of his daughter Aegina. Zeus had taken her away, but regardless of the impropriety of Zeus frequent conquests, Sisyphus overstepped his bounds by cons
35、idering himself a peer of the gods who could rightfully report their indiscretions.3 As a result, Zeus displayed his own cleverness by binding Sisyphus to an eternity of frustration. Accordingly, pointless or interminable activities are often described as Sisyphean. Sisyphus was a common subject for
36、 ancient writers and was depicted by the painter Polygnotus on the walls of the Lesche at Delphi.4,在古希腊神话中，有一个故事。 西西弗斯因为在天庭犯了法，被大神惩罚，降到人世间来受苦。对他的惩罚是：要推一块石头上山。每天，西西弗斯都费了很大的劲把那块石头推到山顶，但石头又会自动地滚下来，于是，第二天又要把那块石头往山上推。这样，西西弗斯所面临的是永无止境的失败。大神要惩罚西西弗斯，也就是要折磨他的心灵，使他在“永无止境的失败”命运中，受苦受难。 可是，西西弗斯还是不肯认命，每次，在他推石头上山时，大神都打击他，告诉他不可能成功。西西弗斯不肯在成功和失败的圈套中被困住，一心想着：推石头上山是我的责任，只要我把石头推上山顶，我的责任就尽到了，至于石头是否会滚下来，那不是我的事。 再进一步，当西西弗斯努力地推石头上山时，他心中显得非常平静，因为他安慰着自己：明天还有石头可推，明天还不会失业，明天还有希望。,
