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This is a Chinese-English blog (might plus a little German) which contains my reading, thingking, class-notes and some information of my interests.A lot of them are not from me, but definetly are not in any commercial use here. You're welcome to make any comments.
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I'm not here any more
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I stopped posting on this blog because of the GFW(Great Fire Wall)...
Blogger很早以前就被国内封锁 所以10年就停博了 转战WP
没想到现在WP也被封了
没精力再转了 暂时就现在WP 然后再备份吧
GFW = WTF...
a person, object, or event that suggests more that its literal meaning
not hidden
cannot be restricted to a single meaning
suggestive rather than definitive
literary symbols
traditional, conventional, or public meanings,
may be established internally by the total context of the work in which it appears
can be a setting,character,action,object,name,or anything else in a work that maintains its literal significance while suggesting other meanings
Conventional symbols: symbols that are widely recognized by a society or culture. They're used to reinforce meanings by writers.
How to do with symbols?
Keeping track of the total context of the story → decide whether the reading is reasonable and consistent with the other facts
be sensitive to the meanings that the author associates with people,places,objects & actions → a close reading of the story will allow us to see how & why the author constructs the symbolic meaning that way.
Allegory 寓言
a character, object, or incident which indicates a single, fixed meaning
the primary focus is on the abstract idea called forth by the concrete object
definitive rather than suggestive
Most modern writers prefer the exploratory nature of symbolsto the reductive nature of pure allegory.
Victoria becomes queen of England 1837.She opposed women's right to vote and believed that women's submission was God's will.
Others believed women were intellectually inferior. M.H. Abrams is especially helpful on this point:"A woman who tried to cultivate her intellect beyond drawing-room accomplishments was violating the order of Nature and religious tradition. Woman was to be valued, instead, for other qualities considered to be esp. characteristic of her sex: tenderness of understanding, unworldliness and innocence,domestic affection, and in various degrees, submissiveness"
Middle class women and upper middle class women suffered from boredom because they had no outlet for their energies.
¼ of England's female population in 1849 had jobs, either low-paying jobs, such as in factories or as domestics, or as governesses.
Early critics of the novel had different opinions on Bronte's treatment of the woman question. Margaret Oliphant called the novel "a wild declaration of the Rights of Women in a new aspect"（在一个新的视角上对女权主义野性的宣言）, and Elizabeth Rigby attacked its "pervading tone of ungodly discontent"(渗透着不虔诚的不满).
“I lived long ago with mama; but she is gone to the Holy Virgin. Mama used to teach me to dance and sing, and to say verses… Shall I let you hear me sing now?”
—— Adela met Jane for the first time,she thought her mother was dead
“It is in vain to say human being ought to be satisfied with tranquility(平静): they must have action; and they will make it if that cannot find it… nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment(骚动) in the masses of life which people earth.Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel.”
—— Jane's boredom before she decided advertise for herself to get a new job
“I have plenty of faults of my own… I have a past existence… I like to lay half of the blame on ill fortune and adverse circumstances… I might have been as good as you,—wiser,—al most as stainless. I envy your peace of mind, your clean conscience, your unpolluted memory.”
—— Mr. Rochester
“What have you done with me, witch,sorceress? Who is in the room besides you? Have you plotted to drown me?”
—— Mr. Rochester shouted at Jane after she saved his life from fire in his sleep
Chapter 16-20
“I always think it best to err on the safe side; a door is soon fastened, and it is as well to have a drawn bolt between one and any mischief(损害) that may be about. A deal of people, Miss, are for trusting all to Providence; but I say Providence will not dispense with the means,thought he often blesses them when they are used discreetly. And here she closed her harangue(长篇演说)… uttered with the demureness(严肃) of a Quakeress (贵格会教派女信徒).”
—— Grace Poole
“I have just one word to say of the whole tribe; they are a nuisance. Not that I ever suffered much from them; I took care to turn the table. What tricks Theodore and I used to play on our Miss Wilsons, and Mrs. Greys, and Madame Joubers!…”
—— Blanche's comment on governess
She bit me… She sucked the blood: she said she'd drain my heart.”
Bildungsroman=“novel of education”教育小说：the subject of this kind of novel is the development of the protagonist's mind and character in the passage from childhood and usually through a spiritual crisis into maturity and a recognition of his/her identity and role in the world. → “coming of age”个人成长 （In short, Bildungsroman is a novel whose principal subject is the moral, psychological, and intellectual development of a usually youthful main character. 以年轻主人公的道德心智发展为主题的小说 ）
Romance( Gothic: the red room, uncle's ghost, dream, moon)
the character undergoes adventures and/or inner turmoil in his/her growth and development as a human being.
Some characters come to grips with (开始搏斗)the reality of cruelty in the world--with war, violence, death, racism, and hatred--while others deal with family, friends, or community issues.
A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around two individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel.
An Emotionally-Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love. Romance novels may have any tone or style, be set in any place or time, and have varying levels of sensuality—ranging from sweet to extremely hot. These settings and distinctions of plot create specific subgenres within romance fiction.
key words of Romance :
What is lost and found
and then, and then……
2 formats
Series or "category" romances: books issued under a common imprint/series name that are usually numbered sequentially and released at regular intervals, usually monthly, with the same number of releases each time. These books are most commonly published by Harlequin/Silhouette.
Single-title romances: longer romances released individually and not as part of a numbered series. Single-title romances may be released in hard cover, trade paperback, or mass-market paperback sizes.
About Bronte Father: Patrick Bronte—Irish curate(助理牧师) 1821 Mother died Clergy Daughters' school fantasy life—Angria 1831 governess 1842 studies in Brussels fell in love with a married man 1846 Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell 1847 Jane Eyre 1848 Brother died, Emily died 1849 Anna died
《简爱》的第一版封面…… 被当时的评论家认为相当粗俗，大部分的焦点反而在于猜测库瑞尔·贝尔是谁与他是男人或女人这些疑问上面。夏洛蒂的弟弟布伦威尔·勃朗特在1848年9月因慢性的支气管炎与过量饮酒造成的衰弱而去世，虽然夏洛蒂相信他是死于肺结核。艾米莉与安妮也分别在1848年12月与 1849年5月因肺结核而去世。所以只剩下夏洛蒂与父亲帕特里克一起生活。 在《简·爱》获得巨大成功的情况下，Charlotte的出版商说服她偶尔前往伦敦。夏洛蒂在伦敦显露出真正的个性，她开始参加高贵的社交圈，结交了Harriet Martineau、伊丽莎白·盖斯凯尔、William Makepeace Thackeray 与George Henry Lewes等作家。但是夏洛蒂仍然没有离开哈沃斯超过几个礼拜的时间，因为她不想离开父亲帕特里克的身旁。 Charlotte与父亲的牧师Arthur Bell Nicholls于1854年6月结婚。在不到一年后，Charlotte怀孕了。不过在这段期间，夏洛蒂的身体却快速恶化，最后在1855年3月31日去世，死亡诊断书上认定夏洛蒂死于肺结核，不过有许多传记作者认为她的死因可能是在怀孕早期因为严重的害喜（Morning sickness）而导致剧烈的呕吐。不过也有证据显示夏洛蒂是死于斑疹伤寒，她有可能是被丈夫亚瑟的老仆人所传染的（比夏洛蒂还要早去世）。后来夏洛蒂被葬在哈沃斯圣马克教堂的家族墓穴中。 Charlotte的好友伊丽莎白·盖斯凯尔于1857年出版了夏洛蒂的传记《夏洛蒂·勃朗特的生平》（The Life of Charlotte Bronte），不过有关夏洛蒂对于黑格尔的感情则是草草带过，因为考虑到这件事可能会对夏洛蒂的朋友、丈夫与父亲带来痛苦。
the author's arrangement of incidents in a story (戏剧/小说)的构思/布局
the organizing principle that controls the order of the events.
Different types of plot arrangement：
a chronological arrangementbegins with what happens first, then second,and so on,until the last incident is related
stories begin at the end，then lead up to why or how events worked out as they did
stories begin in the middle of things— “in medias res”中间情节切入
flashback：a device that informs us about events that happened before the opening scene of work 倒叙，闪回: 一种文学或电影的表现手法，往往在一段按正常时间顺序记叙的叙事中插入一件以前发生过的事情
The elements of a conventional plot： fast-paced, action-packed mysteries, spy thrillers, westerns, adventure stories
Given the 4 types of plot , which type is Jane Eyre?
Jane Eyre's arrangement of plot is kind of complicated, it is a combination of the 1st and 3rd type of plot.
mainly a chronological arrangement : story begins with what happens first, then second,and so on,until the last incident is related.
partially is narrated from the end: stories begin at the end，then lead up to why or how events worked out as they did. (“Ere long, …”Pg. 165 at the end of Chap. 16)
Character 角色：an imagined person in the story 艺术作品中塑造的人物
essential to plot
influenced by events just as events shaped by characters
usually a person but not always；whatever it is, the only possible qualification to be placed on character is -- some recognizable human qualities
Characterization 角色塑造:
the methods by which a writer creates people in a story so that they seem actually to exist.
在舞台上或作品中对一个人物或几个人物的艺术再现，尤指通过模仿或描写他们的动作、手势或讲话来表现
Why is character important to plot?
The action of the plot interests us primarily becausewe care about what happen to character(people）and what they do.
We may identify with a character's desire and aspirations, or may be disgusted by his/her viciousness(邪恶) and selfishness.
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."
"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.
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