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106Theodore Dreiser is an outstanding representative
of realism and naturalism in American literature. His creative work represents the highest achievements of American realism. Dreiser is also remembered as the pioneer of American modern novels and is considered as one of the three great writers in America apart from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. It is Dreiser who breaks through the Victorian “genteel tradition” and gives stinging criticism to what Howells described as the “smiling aspects” of life typifying America. His writing style leads to a new field to American literature, and creates a path for other writers followed behind. Sinclair Lewis used to say “It is Dreiser who portrays the real life in American society and leads to a new field of faithful, bravery and passion of life.”1
A proverb said that: “As a man thinks, so is he.” In other words it means that thinking affects one’s behavior and character. But what affects a writer’s thinking? A writer’s experiences could deeply influence his thinking, his writing style, and moreover, be reflected in his works. And a successful writer cannot get any achievement without the influence of other great writers or thinkers. So by the effect of his own experiences and the influence of other writers and thinkers, Dreiser gains his own position in American literature, and gets a reputation as one of the most important novelist of realism in America.
1. Effects of family background
Theodore Dreiser had a kind of suffering experience in his childhood. That was a painful memory to him.
The ninth of ten children in his family whose father, a German immigrant used to be very successful in the woolen business. But after his factory was burned to the ground by a terrible fire, the whole family never recovered from this economic fall. Because of poverty, Dreiser’s elder brothers and sisters had to drop out of school to find jobs. Dreiser and his younger brother were in rags and had to sneak coal from the tracks of the railroad. When grew older, Dreiser also had to go out of home to Chicago and to work at whatever jobs he could find. Because the family moved from town to town, Dreiser did not receive a systematic education. He used to go to a German American parochial school and a public school, and only had one-year college life.
Poverty and unstable life left a deep impression on young Dreiser. Many years later when he saw the poor in the street, he still felt “a kind of unknown fear …and this kind of painful feeling is just as the real pain on body”.2 Such suffering experience in Dreiser’s life let him always pay more attention to the poor and lower-class people who struggled to live, and he also always concerned himself with the social problems.
Lack of systematic education also brought pains to Dreiser and affected him a lot. Although he used to go to a German American parochial school, he learnt nothing there. The boring preachments and the strict Roman Catholic training let Dreiser fear to go to that school, and then made him dislike it very much.
Lack of education also made Dreiser have some shortcomings in his writing, although his later experiences——being a newspaper reporter strengthened his ability of writing. He never mastered the grammar or developed a rich vocabulary. So in his works, he had to put much of his energy on materials and facts instead of the genteel wording.
2. Experiences of his career in journalism
In the year 1897, Dreiser found a job on “Chicago Globe” and began his life as a newspaper reporter. Later he worked for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, St. Louis Republic, Pittsburgh Dispatch, Globe-Democrat and Republic and he used to be editor of several women magazines. Dreiser’s sensitivity and intense curiosity about life made him fit for the position of an investigative newspaper reporter. He got success in the press circles. He once believed that to interview those important and dignified people of upper-class meant that he was on equal term with them.
But his career in journalism did have uses in his writing. First, Dreiser learnt all the aspects of American society when working as a newspaper reporter. Such experiences broadened his vision and enlarged his scope of knowledge. He accumulated many materials for his later creations from his observation as the big-city reporter who had traveled to many big cities. He tried to use the local settings, dialogues and character sketches to write some special feature stories which were more useful for his later creative works. As his eyes always “stared at” all kinds of adversities in the society, he could depict the lifelike wretched character in his works. That’s why Dreiser could create one of the most
浅谈西奥多?德莱赛的
人生经历对其作品的影响
程筱筱
（西安外事学院外国语学院 陕西 西安 710077）
【摘 要】一个作家一生的经历会给其思想，作品带来极深的影响，塑造了其自身的写作特点。而这些经历，思想也会在其作品中得到充分的体现。德莱塞做为美国现实主义和自然主义的杰出代表，其地位是非常高的，声望也是非常大的。他能取得如此的成就和他的成长经历以及其它作家，思想家的影响是分不开的。德莱赛的家庭背景，记者生涯以及其它伟大的作家，思想家对德莱塞的影响也在其作品中得到了充分的反映，这些经历也造就了德莱塞的写作风格，使其取得了伟大的成就。
【关键词】经历，影响，思想，写作特点
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memorable characters——George Hurst wood in American literature. And his meticulous observation could be perfectly reflected in the following part excerpted from his first novel “Sister Carrie”:
They (the vagrants) were all pale, flabby, sunken-eyed, and hollow-crested with eyes that glinted and shone and lips that were a sickly red by contrast. Their hair was but half attended to, their shoes broken in leather and ran down at heel and toe. They were of the class which simply floats and drift, every wave of people washing up one, as breakers do drift-wood upon a stormy shore.5
Second, from this job Dreiser formed a kind of journalistic style of writing in his works. He benefited a lot from his “on-the-scene” reporting style. He used to report a streetcar strike in Brooklyn by actually going out and riding the rails during the strike to see the chaotic scene, and later he adopted this scene of streetcar strike in the novel “Sister Carrie”. In his creative works, his journalist’s habit was always useful. He used the journalistic ways to collect information and material. When writing the “An American Tragedy”, he even went to the lake where the real crime occurred to do social investigation. And he also consulted the datum about several similar crimes and the court documents, local newspapers. So he could describe the crime authentically.
3 Influence of some great writers and thinkers
In Dreiser’s autobiography “A Book about Myself”, he told us his feelings when he first read Balzac,
It seems that a new door lead to life suddenly open in front of me…I am eating, sleeping, dreaming and breathing with the characters in Balzac’s works…My brain is full of his thinking, my eyes just see the cities depicted by him…So I have a new understanding to the world.6
Dreiser admired Balzac very much for he could depict the life penetratingly and profoundly. In Balzac’s works, all men’s fates were controlled by chance. Someone succeeded while someone failed, but they all pursued the same things——wealth, prestige and position. This kind of description of the real life “enlightened” Dreiser’s thinking. From then on, all the things in the world seemed like what Balzac described in his works. From Balzac’s works, Dreiser understood the true meaning of life——rich and colorful, resplendent and showy. “Life is beautiful, dramatic, tragic, pleased and splendid——life is the sum total of all these.”7 Balzac let Dreiser know how to write a novel. Dreiser decided to fully depict the real-life subjects by the ways Balzac used. Balzac’s masterpieces prepared a solid foundation for Dreiser’s later creation and deeply influenced his writing style. So Dreiser’s first novel “Sister Carrie” just used Balzac’s style of realism to create a new field for American literature. At that time Victorian genteel tradition was popular among American literature. Most of writers only wrote
the good aspect of life. Life in their works was full of happiness and pleasure. Men in novels were all tall, handsome, rich and kindhearted while women were all good wives and kind mothers, and neighbors were all friendly to each other. Only by this, could a novel be considered as a good and successful work. You could not see the hideous aspect of life at all. But Dreiser’s first novel “Sister Carrie” broke this tale by depicting a picture of how the lower-class woman tried her best to get success and glorious life. Life, only in his novel was the truth in the society. And those kinds of thinking and writing style came from Balzac’s works and his influence.
Spencer also affected Dreiser a lot. From Spencer’s thinking and conception, Dreiser understood all the things he found as a newspaper reporter. Spencer’s conception about morality and desire helped Dreiser to explain the confusion obsessing him for a long time. Spencer pointed out that “Desire is the spark plug of human engine. It lights the consciousness and drives men and women to pursue happiness. It is not important for what a person want to do, so it is no difference about whether he/she has morality or not.”8 From Spencer’s conception and his sisters’ affairs, Dreiser formed his own idea about morality and desire, and used these conceptions in his works, especially in “Sister Carrie”.
In chapter one of “Sister Carrie”, Dreiser just showed his stinging sarcasm towards the rules of morality about girls’ fate in the city, which were very popular among people at that time. “When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and become better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse.”9 And in this novel he also told us that:
For all the liberal analysis of Spencer and own modern naturalistic philosophers, we have but an infantile perception of morals. There is more conformity to a law of evolution. It is yet deeper than conformity to things of earth alone. It is more involved than we as yet perceive.10
As for the desire, influenced by Spencer, Dreiser also formed his own explanation. He thought that it was really normal for talking about sex in life. He thought that men’s greatest appetite was sexual——the desire for women. In his own life, Dreiser played the life-long practice of his principles. He seemed never to be able to devote himself to one woman. He always involved with more than one woman at the same time. From his own experiences he concluded “It is true that the strength of enticement is inevitable for those people without strong will.”11
Thanks to the principle and conception about lust, Dreiser never avoided such things in his novels and also gave stinging sarcasm to those hypocritical people. In “Jennie Gerhardt” he sighed with emotion that: “The loveliness of seventeen is centuries old. That is why passion is almost sad. If all beauty were passing, and you were given these things to hold
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in your arms before the world slipped away, would you give them up?”12 And he also laughed at those hypocritical people with sarcastic tone in two of his novels:
Probably one could not attain to or retain one’s place in so remarkable a world as this unless one was indifferent to sex, a disgraceful position, of course. And hence in the presence or under the eyes of such people one had to act and seem as though such thoughts as from time to time swayed one were far from one’s mind. 13
It is curious that a feeling of this sort should spring up in a world whose very essence is generative, the vast process dual, and where wind, water, soil, and light alike minister to the fruition of that which is all that we are. Although the whole earth, not we alone, is moved by passions hymeneal, and everything terrestrial has come into being by the one common road, yet there is that ridiculous tendency to close the eyes and turn away the head as if there were something unclean in nature itself. “Conceived in iniquity and born in sin,” is the unnatural interpretation put upon the process by the extreme religionist, and the world, by its silence, gives assent to a judgment so marvelously warped 14
From these excerpts, Dreiser told us the truth——what most of us avoided to talk about did not mean that it did not exist. Everyone in the world had right to pursue his/her desire of all the beautiful things. That was normal.
Freud’s theories were used by Dreiser in his works in the early time. He compounded Freud’s theory of psychological analysis with the theory of social-background of realism to create his characters’ behavior and psychological activities. He used Freud’s theories of sexual, subconscious, hallucination and dreamland into his works. For example, when he wrote the plot that Clyde killed the poor woman, he used theories of subconscious and hallucination to “help” Clyde finished his crime. He also used the psychological analysis to create the character Clyde and made he fall into the trap of desire. Those made his works gain great artistic appeal.
Affected by his personal experiences and influenced by many great writers and thinkers. Theodore Dreiser got great achievements and gained his own position in American literature history. We could say that if he did not come from the bottom of the society, if he did not suffer from the painful experiences, if he were not affected by the great writers and thinkers, he could not gain his position, could not get any achievement and could not make great contributions to American literature.
At the end of this paper, I would like to conclude it by using H.L. Mencken’s statement upon Dreiser’s death on Dec. 28th, 1945.
…the fact remains that he is a great artist and that no other American of his generation left so wide and handsome a work upon the national letters;
American writing, before and after his time, differed almost as much as biology before and after Darwin. He was a man of large originality, of profound feeling, and of unshakable courage. All of us who write are better off because he lived, worked and hoped.
Notes
1
2 Jiang Daochao, Theodore Dreiser, 24. （蒋道超，《二十世纪文学泰斗——德莱塞》，24）
5 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie, 387-388.
6 Theodore Dreiser, A Book About Myself, 455. （西奥多?德莱塞，《谈我自己》，455）
7 Jiang Daochao, Theodore Dreiser, 94.8 Jiang, 102-103.
9 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie, 1.10 Dreiser, 73-74.
11 Jiang Daochao, Theodore Dreiser, 13.12 Theodore Dreiser, Jennie Gerhardt, 57.
13 Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy, 169.14 Theodore Dreiser, Jennie Gerhardt, 72.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. Washington D.C: Bantam Books, 1992.
Dreiser, Theodoue. An American Tragedy. New York: World Publishing Press, 1964.
Rubinstein, Annette T. American Literature Root and Flower. Beijing: Foreign.
Language Teaching and Research Press, 1988
德莱塞. 谈我自己. 上海: 上海译文出版社, 2003.德莱塞. 珍妮姑娘. 北京: 北京燕山出版社, 2003.
蒋道超. 二十世纪文学泰斗——德莱塞 四川: 四川人民出版社, 2003.
作者简介
程筱筱，（1982-） 女，西安外事学院外国语学院大英部高职系专职教师，研究方向为语言文学。
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德莱塞《嘉莉妹妹》中的城市、阶级与个体 摘要：美国现代小说先驱西奥多?德莱塞的《嘉莉妹妹》揭示了20世纪初美国城市的冷漠无情与残酷的阶级本性必然导致个体的精神危机与伦理失衡。在城市物质空间中，小说呈现的工厂街道、酒店餐厅、商场剧院、公寓会所等城市意象，不仅是人物活动的空间场所，更是人物生活遭际、社会地位的象征，反映了当时美国社会鲜明的阶级分层与贫富差距；人物的精神空间也随之失衡与异化，上层社会对下层社会充满排斥、轻视与鄙夷，下层社会则对上层社会表现出向往、敬畏与嫉妒交织的情感，体现出阶级之间难以跨越的鸿沟。城市空间对个体影响巨大，单纯质朴的打工妹嘉莉为物欲驱使而道德沦丧，异化成看似风光, 实则灵魂迷失的“空心人”；推销员杜洛埃是资本主义时代的产物，精明狡猾，爱慕虚荣。赫斯渥是典型的利己主义者,是美国生活方式的产物。美国城市工业化的飞速发展使个体在城市生活中迷失自我：个体的欲望无限膨胀，无休止地追求金钱、社会地位、爱情与性来满足自我，而传统的社会道德、家庭伦理和两性伦理却逐渐丧失。在《嘉莉妹妹》中，城市成为黑暗与不公、诱惑与堕落的象征，小说揭示了美国社会伦理道德的伪善性，阶级之间的对立、相差悬殊的物质差别最终导致了个人沦为阶级社会牺牲品的必然性。 关键词：德莱塞，《嘉莉妹妹》，城市，阶级，个体 一、引言 西奥多?德莱塞(Theodore Dreiser,1871-1945)是美国19世纪末20世纪初杰出的现实主义作家，在他的作品中，城市是一个永恒的创作题材，也是意蕴深刻的情结与背景。德莱塞敏锐捕捉到城市化这一现代性最重要的符号表征，在创作中率先呈现出工业化进程中美国城市生活的原生态，以文献记录般的逼真笔法凸现了工业化后的美国现实生活的残酷性，从而被誉为二十世纪美国城市小说的开拓者。德莱塞的第一部长篇小说《嘉莉妹妹》(1900)开辟了美国城市小说的新纪元。当时的美国社会是一个工业化和城市化迅猛发展的转型社会, 传统的农业社会在城市文明的召唤下迅速解体, 充满梦想与希望的大批的人们抱着改变命运的幻想涌入像芝加哥和纽约这样的大城市, 城市文明极大地影响着人们的社会价值观、伦理道德观以及生活方式。德莱塞用独特的视角描写城市生活, 分析男
德莱塞《嘉莉妹妹》读后感 刚刚看完《嘉莉妹妹》，美国作家西奥多德莱塞的作品。情难自禁的写下了一些文字：故事是这样的：18岁的嘉罗琳（嘉莉）离开自己的父母，到芝加哥找姐姐，想谋求一份适合自己的工作。虽然之前曾经去过姐姐家一次，但毕竟对城市生活非常陌生。在火车上，被推销员德鲁埃认识，互相交换了在芝加哥的地址。 到达姐姐家后，找工作十分的不顺利，曾经在一个每周收入只有四块半的鞋厂工作，但是，在给姐姐交完每周四块钱的食宿费后，只有五角钱的使用空间，而这些，并没有阻挡住对城市灯红酒绿生活的向往，富人生活的诱惑始终在吸引着她，但是，出路在哪里呢？ 由于工作的辛苦，淋雨病到后，这唯一的工作也就没有了。姐夫无法得到应得的食宿费补贴家用，让嘉罗琳产生回老家的念头。推销员德鲁埃在找到嘉莉后，了解她的情况，愿意资助她，又鼓起了她继续待在城市的念头。嘉莉给姐姐留了一张纸条后，就和德鲁埃一起在租住一个公寓里。 从此以后，嘉莉就在德鲁埃的影响下，开始去适应城市生活，去看演出、吃饭等，此时的她，认为有钱的日子真舒服，也感到非常的幸福。这是她到芝加哥之后第一次感到幸福，特别是透过阳台的窗户，看到路边走过的，曾和她在鞋店工作类似的女工时，她非常满足目前的物质生活。 通过德鲁埃，嘉莉也认识了酒店经理赫斯特伍德。相对对城市生活不太陌生的嘉莉发现，赫斯特伍德其实比德鲁埃更风趣幽默，更
善解人意。其实要知道，他们两人的区别，主要是由于工作的不同，人物性格也就不同，而这些，嘉莉她不知道。 在德鲁埃外出工作时，她发现自己和赫斯特伍德非常谈的来，频频的约会，心中会时不时地想起赫斯特伍德。但是，这种变化被德鲁埃发现后，告诉她，赫斯特伍德是有妻子和孩子的，嘉莉发觉自己受到了欺骗，准备疏远赫斯特伍德。 赫斯特伍德是有妻子和孩子，但是追逐物质享受和交际的妻子，没有和丈夫有过多的交流，赫斯特伍德和妻子的生活没有激情。嘉莉的纯洁让他心动，可是自己的资产都在妻子名下，钱的问题让赫斯特伍德非常尴尬。 为了和心动的人在一起，为了不受到妻子的讽刺挖苦，逃。赫斯特伍德一心想和嘉莉远离这个让他痛苦和烦闷的家，让嘉莉离开德鲁埃和自己在一起。一天营业结束后，赫斯特伍德拿了酒店的营业款10000美元，当夜找到嘉莉，欺骗她德鲁埃受伤把她拉上了开往蒙特里尔的火车。 虽然离开了芝加哥，但是，侦探的到来还是让赫斯特伍德交出了大部分公款，同时，为了避免遇到昔日的熟人，他们到达纽约。 纽约的生活水平，让赫斯特伍德认为必须找到一份合适的工作，否则的话，留下的钱无法长久满足嘉莉日常的开销，毕竟嘉莉没有太多城市工作的经验，生活的压力目前不应该让她有。 赫斯特伍德把留下钱的一大部分与别人合伙开了一个酒店，他负责经营。工作忙碌的他，渐渐没有时间陪在嘉莉身边，嘉莉打发时
1.The Traditional Literature of the American Indians（17世纪中期以前）Three Stages：Traditional Stage；Transitional stage; Modern Stage 2．Literature of Colonial Settlements(16世纪末-17世纪中) John Smith——first author in the history of American Literature a) True Relation of Virginia(1608) 《关于弗吉尼亚的真实叙述》the first book b) A Map of Virginia with A Description of The County (1612) The Literature around the Revolution of Independence(17世纪中期-18世纪末) 1.Benjamin Franklin a)Poor Richard’s Almanac《穷查理历书》 b)The Autobiography《自传》——self-improvement 2．Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩——political pamphleteer; rhetorician（修辞学家） a) Common Sense 《常识》 b) The American Crisis《美国危机》——series of 16 pamphlets c) Rights of Men《人的权利》 d）The Age of Reason《理性的时代》 3．Philip Freneau 菲利普·弗伦诺——poet of the American revolution; The most outstanding poet in American of the 18th century satirist, polemicist(辩论家) a) The British Prison Ship 《英国囚船》 b) The Rising Glory of America《美国的荣耀蒸蒸日上》 c) The Indian Burying Ground《印第安人殡葬礼》 d) The Wild Honey Suckle《野金银花》 3．American Romanticism（18世纪末——19世纪中后期） 1.Washington Irving 华盛顿·欧文——The first prose stylist of American Romanticism； The first American achieve international literary reputation；“Father of American Literature” a) A History of New York《纽约史》 b) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow《睡谷的传说》 c) The Sketch Book《见闻札记》——beginning of the American Romantic ism；first work won financial success d) Rip Van Winkle 《瑞普·凡·温克尔》——social conservation e) Tales of a Traveler《旅行者的故事》 f) The Alhambra《阿尔罕伯拉》 2．James Fenimore Copper 詹姆斯·菲尼摩尔·库珀 Three kinds of novels：novels about the revolutionary past, sea novels, and the American frontier novels. a) The Spy《间谍》 b) The Pilot《领航者》 c)The Pioneer《拓荒者》——The first true romance of the frontier in American Literature d) The Last of the Mohicans《最后的莫西干人》 e) The Prairie 《大草原》 f) The Pathfinder《探路者》 e) The Deerslayer《杀鹿者》 3．Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 亨利·沃慈沃斯·朗费罗——first American poet to be honored in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey
就职演说 1905年3月4日* *西奥多·罗斯福于1901年9月第二十五任总统威廉·麦金莱遇刺身亡后继任总统，1904年正式当选总统。这里刊登的是他正式就职时发表的演说。 同胞们： 世界上没有哪一个民族比我们更有理由感到欣慰，这样说决无炫耀我们自己的实力之意，而是满怀虔诚地向上帝表达感激之情，感谢他为我们创造条件，使我们能够获得如此巨大的物质财富和如此美好的幸福生活。我们作为一个民族，已经得到上帝许可，在这片新大陆上奠定我们国民生活的基础。我们是过去一切时代的继承者，但我们却几乎不必承受那些古老国家中由某种以往文明的传统势力所强加的惩罚。我们从未为生存所迫而与任何异族作战，但我们的生活却仍然一直在呼唤活力和奋斗，因为舍此我们那些更加雄健刚毅的美德就会丧失殆尽。在这样的条件下，倘若我们仍然遭到失败，那就是我们自己的过失；我们在过去已经获得的成功，以及我们确信未来将带给我们的胜利，不应在我们心里激起狂妄自大的情绪，而毋宁应使我们对生活赋予我们的一切，保持深刻而恒久的意识，使我们充分认识自己肩负的责任，并以坚定不移的决心展示，一个处于自由政府之下的强大民族一定能够兴旺发达，无论在物质生活还是在精神生活方面都会如此。 赋予我们的东西既然很多，那么期望于我们的理所当然也就不少。我们对他人和对自己都负有种种责任，对此我们都不能逃避。我们已成为一个伟大的国家，我们在同世界上其他国家交往时，这一事实促使我们的行为举止必须像一个负有这种责任的民族。我们对其他所有的国家都应抱有真心实意的友好态度，而不问其国家的大小强弱。我们不仅应当用言辞而且应当用行动来显示，我们热切地期望本着公正和宽厚地承认其一切权利的精神对待他们，从而博得他们的好感。但公正和宽宏大量之于一个国家正如对个人一样，只有由强者而不是弱者表现出来才最有意义。我们从来都小心地避免损害他人，因而我们同样应当分毫不减地坚持自己不受虐待。我们盼望和平，但我们盼望的是正义的和平，是光明正大的和平。我们盼望和平，是因为我们认为和平乃是正确的，而绝非出于胆小怕事。任何处事果敢正当的弱国，绝对不应有畏惧我们的情由，我们也决不允许任何强国得以唯独挑选我们作为蛮横人侵的对象。 我们与世界其他强国的关系固然重要，但更具重要意义的是我们自己之间的各种关系。在过去的一又四分之一个世纪①里，美国的国民生活在财富、人口和国力各个方面均有极大的发展；但与此同时，每一个走向强盛的国家都曾遇到的各种问题，也不可避免地随之兴起。力量始终同时意味着责任和危险。我们的先辈曾经面临的某些危机，随着时光推移我们已不复可能再度遇到。但目前我们却面临其他一些危机，②它们的出现乃是先辈们无法预见的。现代生活既复杂而又紧张，最近半个世纪工业的超凡发展，带来种种巨大的变化，对此我们社会和政治肌体的每根神经末梢都有感觉。在民主共和制的形式下来管理一个大陆的事务，这是一个前人从未尝试过的巨大而艰难的实验。我们获得了惊人的物质财富，并且把我们的能量、自立能力和个人首创精神发展到很高的程度，这得益于一些条件，而这些条件同时也带来了与巨大的财富向工业中心集中密不可分的关切和焦虑。许多的事情都取决于我们实验的成功，因而它不仅关系到我们自己的幸福，而且关系到整个人类的幸福。如果我们遭到了失败，那么全世界自由的自治政府的根本将从基础上发生动摇，因此我们不仅对自己、对当今的世界，而且对那些尚未出生的子孙后代都负有重大的责任。我们决无正当的理由惧怕未来，但我们却有充分的理由认真地面对未来，既不隐瞒我们面前问题的严重性，也不害怕处理这些问题，而要用不屈不挠、毫不畏缩的意志来正确地加以解决。 ①指美国自1776年独立至1905年的一个多世纪的时间。
作家简介：Writer, born in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA. Raised in poverty and in a German-speaking environment, he was a Catholic[?k?θ?lik] (天主教徒),he left home for Chicago at age 16. After a period of odd jobs and a year at the University of Indiana, he became a Midwestern newspaper reporter and, in New York after 1894, a magazine feature writer. In 1892, married Sara. White , but their married life wasn’t happy, even They have been separated since 1909, they never officially divorced婚后生活并不快乐。尽管从1909年起两人一直分居，他们从未正式离婚。In 1910, he quit job and became a professional writer. In 1945, joined in the United States Communist party , and on December passed away .Sister Carrie (1900), his first and still highly regarded novel, was withheld from general distribution because of its supposed amorality, and its commercial failure plunged him into financial distress and mental breakdown (1904). He later re-established himself as a magazine editor and self-published a second, successful edition of Sister Carrie (1907). The success of the novel Jennie Gerhardt (1911) allowed him to write full time, and The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914) followed. These novels were ungainly in style but ground-breaking in their naturalism and critique of American capitalist society. The withdrawal from distribution, on moral grounds, of his autobiographical novel, The Genius (1915), ignited a national anti-censorship campaign supported by most of the leading literary figures of the day. His next decade, marked by an energetic output of plays, stories, memoirs, and travel books, culminated in An American Tragedy (1925), a major popular success despite its bleak view of American values. He publicly supported left-wing causes through the 1930s and 1940s, and propounded Socialist ideas in his late works, joining the Communist Party shortly before his death. He had also returned to writing novels, two of which, The Bulwark (1946) and The Stoic (1947), were among his various works published posthumously. As insensitive in his treatment of the English language as he was of many women in his life, he seems destined to survive as a major American writer. 《嘉莉妹妹》是美国文学中的重要作品，是美国自然主义运动第一篇代表作，也是德莱塞发表的第一部长篇小说。他在广阔的社会背上，描写了嘉莉对幸福生活追求的幻灭，揭露和批
Theodore Roosevelt 西奥多罗斯福 The Strenuous Life 勤奋生活论 April 10, 1899 1899年4月10日 Chicago 芝加哥 Gentlemen: In speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the West, men of the State which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men who preeminently and distinctly embody all that is most American in the American character, I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease but the doctrine of the strenuous life; the life of toil and effort; of lavor and strife, to preach that highest form of success which comes not to the man who desires mere easy peace but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. A life of slothful ease, a life of that peace wich springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual. We do not admire theman of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious efforts, the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. Freedon from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past. A man can be freed from the necessity of workonly by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to good purpose. If the freedon thus purchased is used aright, and th man sill does actual work, though of a different kind, whether as a writer or a general, wheether in the field of politics or in the field of exploration and adventure, he shows he deserves his good fortune. But if he treats this period of freedon from the need of actual labor as a period, not of preparation, but of mere enjoyment, even though prehaps not of vicious enjoyment, he shows that he is simply a cumberer on the earth’s surface; and he surely unfits himself to hold his owen place with his fellows, if the need to do so should again arise. A mere life of ease is not in the end a very statisfactory life, and , above all, it is a life which ultimately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the word. As it is with the individual so it is with the nation. It is a base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far vetter it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows nither victory nor defeat. If in 1861 the men who loved the Union had believed thathpeace was the end of all things and war and strife a worst of all things, and had acted up to their belief, we would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, we would have saved hundred of millions of dollars. Moreover, besides saving all the blood and treasure we then lavished, we would have prevented the heratbreak of many women, the dissolution of many homes; and we would have spared the country those months of gloom and shame when it seemed as if our armies marched only to defeat. We would have avoided all this suffering simply by shrinking from strife. And if we had thus
大 众 文 艺大 106Theodore Dreiser is an outstanding representative of realism and naturalism in American literature. His creative work represents the highest achievements of American realism. Dreiser is also remembered as the pioneer of American modern novels and is considered as one of the three great writers in America apart from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. It is Dreiser who breaks through the Victorian “genteel tradition” and gives stinging criticism to what Howells described as the “smiling aspects” of life typifying America. His writing style leads to a new field to American literature, and creates a path for other writers followed behind. Sinclair Lewis used to say “It is Dreiser who portrays the real life in American society and leads to a new field of faithful, bravery and passion of life.”1 A proverb said that: “As a man thinks, so is he.” In other words it means that thinking affects one’s behavior and character. But what affects a writer’s thinking? A writer’s experiences could deeply influence his thinking, his writing style, and moreover, be reflected in his works. And a successful writer cannot get any achievement without the influence of other great writers or thinkers. So by the effect of his own experiences and the influence of other writers and thinkers, Dreiser gains his own position in American literature, and gets a reputation as one of the most important novelist of realism in America. 1. Effects of family background Theodore Dreiser had a kind of suffering experience in his childhood. That was a painful memory to him. The ninth of ten children in his family whose father, a German immigrant used to be very successful in the woolen business. But after his factory was burned to the ground by a terrible fire, the whole family never recovered from this economic fall. Because of poverty, Dreiser’s elder brothers and sisters had to drop out of school to find jobs. Dreiser and his younger brother were in rags and had to sneak coal from the tracks of the railroad. When grew older, Dreiser also had to go out of home to Chicago and to work at whatever jobs he could find. Because the family moved from town to town, Dreiser did not receive a systematic education. He used to go to a German American parochial school and a public school, and only had one-year college life. Poverty and unstable life left a deep impression on young Dreiser. Many years later when he saw the poor in the street, he still felt “a kind of unknown fear …and this kind of painful feeling is just as the real pain on body”.2 Such suffering experience in Dreiser’s life let him always pay more attention to the poor and lower-class people who struggled to live, and he also always concerned himself with the social problems. Lack of systematic education also brought pains to Dreiser and affected him a lot. Although he used to go to a German American parochial school, he learnt nothing there. The boring preachments and the strict Roman Catholic training let Dreiser fear to go to that school, and then made him dislike it very much. Lack of education also made Dreiser have some shortcomings in his writing, although his later experiences——being a newspaper reporter strengthened his ability of writing. He never mastered the grammar or developed a rich vocabulary. So in his works, he had to put much of his energy on materials and facts instead of the genteel wording. 2. Experiences of his career in journalism In the year 1897, Dreiser found a job on “Chicago Globe” and began his life as a newspaper reporter. Later he worked for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, St. Louis Republic, Pittsburgh Dispatch, Globe-Democrat and Republic and he used to be editor of several women magazines. Dreiser’s sensitivity and intense curiosity about life made him fit for the position of an investigative newspaper reporter. He got success in the press circles. He once believed that to interview those important and dignified people of upper-class meant that he was on equal term with them. But his career in journalism did have uses in his writing. First, Dreiser learnt all the aspects of American society when working as a newspaper reporter. Such experiences broadened his vision and enlarged his scope of knowledge. He accumulated many materials for his later creations from his observation as the big-city reporter who had traveled to many big cities. He tried to use the local settings, dialogues and character sketches to write some special feature stories which were more useful for his later creative works. As his eyes always “stared at” all kinds of adversities in the society, he could depict the lifelike wretched character in his works. That’s why Dreiser could create one of the most 浅谈西奥多?德莱赛的 人生经历对其作品的影响 程筱筱 （西安外事学院外国语学院 陕西 西安 710077） 【摘 要】一个作家一生的经历会给其思想，作品带来极深的影响，塑造了其自身的写作特点。而这些经历，思想也会在其作品中得到充分的体现。德莱塞做为美国现实主义和自然主义的杰出代表，其地位是非常高的，声望也是非常大的。他能取得如此的成就和他的成长经历以及其它作家，思想家的影响是分不开的。德莱赛的家庭背景，记者生涯以及其它伟大的作家，思想家对德莱塞的影响也在其作品中得到了充分的反映，这些经历也造就了德莱塞的写作风格，使其取得了伟大的成就。 【关键词】经历，影响，思想，写作特点 文史哲
西奥多·德莱塞论文：德莱塞自然主义文学的叙事艺术 【中文摘要】作为美国自然主义文学的勇敢开拓者，西奥多·德莱塞的自然主义文学呈现出与传统文学截然不同的神采风貌，这既源于作家本人的开创精神，又源于作家对自然主义文学创作技巧的自觉吸收。自然主义文学奉“真实感”为最高原则，包括外部的客观“真实”和内在的主观“真实”。本文旨在从“真实”的角度探索德莱塞自然主义文学的叙事艺术，主要从叙事话语、叙事结构和叙述视点三个方面进行分析。一、独特的叙事话语。德莱塞自然主义文学独特的叙事话语主要体现为“非个人化”叙事，即通过运用“非个人化”的叙事技巧和自由间接引语保持作家叙事态度上的客观中立，从而实现作品在整体上的“真实感”。这种叙事话语打破了传统小说过分表露作者本人情感态度的倾向，使作品呈现出客观冷静的风格。德莱塞的“非个人化”叙事从两个方面实现：一是将叙述视角转换，叙事主体隐匿起来，通过调整叙述人与作品人物之间的距离加强小说的客观性和真实感，此时叙述人非常隐蔽，可感知度很小；二是大量使用自由间接引语，将人物话语和叙述人话语紧密结合，叙述人在故事的发展进程中并未直接“现身”，而是隐藏其后，读者找不到叙述人“在场”的痕迹。二、叙事的“空间性”结构。德莱塞在叙事结构上采用“空间性结构”叙事，摒弃传统小说中封闭完整的“线性结构”，使传统小说中的线性物理时间碎裂成为无数“偶然”的瞬间，随之而来的细
节之缤纷绽放进一步营造了小说细微之处的“真实”。这种空间主要表现为一种“情境性空间”，即生活情境。生活的横断面如绘画般铺展开来，如此设置带来的是饱含生活气息的细节绽放，必然性被层出不穷的偶然性取代，生命的本真状态在文本中客观地展现出来。三、叙述视点的“向内转”。德莱塞从生理和心理两个方面描写“生物的人”，人是本能的载体、遗传的产儿、环境的奴隶，表现出一种“类型化”的特征，即源于生理-心理的富有激情的“气质类型”。人物类型又分为两种：一种是“人虫”，如赫斯特伍德、克莱德·格里菲斯，他们是个人欲望的牺牲品；另一种是“人兽”，如柯帕乌、嘉莉妹妹、尤金·威特拉，他们是所向无敌的超人。建立在生理分析之上的心理分析使人物的两种“气质”类型真实可感，隐藏于外在客观真实之下的内在真实通过叙述视点的“内转”也得以实现。 【英文摘要】As one of pioneers in American naturalism, Theodore Dreiser’s naturalism differsenormously from traditional literature. It is not only because of the author’s innovative spirit,but also result from consciously absorbing from creative skills of naturalism.“Real sense”isregarded as a paramount principle in the naturalism, which includes outer objective reality andinner subjective reality. This paper will discuss the narrative art of Dreiser’s naturalism from theaspect of“real”which can be extended from three
1979年诺贝尔经济学奖得主西奥多·舒尔茨在《穷人的经济学》中写到：“一个社会的消费者中穷人太多、富者太富，迟早要出问题。”他认为贫富差距各国都有，问题是差距不能太大，因为差距过于悬殊，会成为社会问题的振荡器。这一定程度表明，作为生产与消费中介的收入分配，既是保持社会总供给与社会总需求平衡，促进生产发展、经济增长的最重要手段，也是实现共同富裕、社会稳定，促进社会发展的根本保障。 一、我国收入分配现状 改革开放以来，我国国民经济连年保持较快增长，30多年间，GDP年均增长近10%。如图1所示。 图1 另一方面，国家统计部门按照新标准、新口径、老资料计算的数据显示，2 003年至2012年中国居民收入的基尼系数分别是0.479、0.473、0.485、0.487、0.484、0.491、0.490、 0.481、0.477、0.474。而根据西南财经大学中国家庭金融调查的数据显示，2010年中国家庭的基尼系数为0.61。这两者的数据都远远超过国际认可的0.4警戒线，也大大高于0.44的全球平均水平。如图2所示。
图2 由于收入分配不合理，造成收入差距过大，贫富不均问题，已与就业压力、社会安全网脆弱、社会冲突事件等成为当前我国社会发展中存在的主要问题。 二、收入分配严重不均的原因分析 根据经济学家库兹涅茨的倒U形假说，在经济增长的早期阶段，由于只有少数具有技能或资本的人能够进入新的工业部门,收入不平等将会逐渐扩大，随后出现一个稳定时期，到了经济发展的后期,由于随着更多的人进入工业部门和农业工人稀缺性的不断加剧，收入不平等将会逐渐缩小，收入变化的轨迹成倒U 形。然而，上述收入分配上的严重不均状况，不可能仅用“在市场经济条件下，居民收入由低收入向高收入迈进的阶段，收入差距扩大是一种必然的趋势”的经济学家库兹涅茨倒U形假说来解释，更准确地说这种收入分配上的严重不均状况，虽然带有一定的经济规律性，但不能否认部分原因来自于不同区域、产业和所有制形式下经济效率的差别，其主要的、更深层的原因在于经济制度、经济体制、经济增长水平及经济政策的缺陷。 1、收入水平背离劳动差距和贡献差距，导致收入分配不公平。 首先表现为工资在国民经济总量中的持续下降，即劳动在分配体系中的地位不断下降，使得大部分国民的实际收入增长速度远远落后于GDP增长。在90年代初，税收和工资占GDP比重都从15％开始下降，而月工资的比重下降得比税收要缓慢，但90年中期以来，财政收入的不断增加和工资的相对停滞，已经导致财政收入达到GDP的20％，而工资总额却进一步下降到10％。第二，1993年11月召开的党的十四届三中全会上通过的《中共中央关于建立社会主义市场经济体制若干问题的决定》，提出了社会主义市场经济体制下分配体制的框架，明确“允许属于个人的资本等生产要素参与收益分配”等等，这种分配制度的确立，本质是希望充分调动生产者的积极性和创造力，建立有效的要素投入和收入分配激励机制，但由于缺乏对高收入者的税收调节以及对低收入者的有效保护等收入分配制度的配套改革，在人们对资本、技术、劳动力、土地和管理等生产要