William Faulkner(1807-1962)威廉福克纳“Barn Burning”《烧谷仓》The American South :The American South includes South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia and Arkansas. Pre-Civil War definitions of the South often included Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware as well.The Civil War (1861-1864):with the purpose of safeguarding the union and emancipating the slaves.Reconstruction (after the Civil War -- 1877)–attempts to reconstruct the war devastated South in self-government, in its economic recovery and growth, to experiment with racial justice and interracial democracy—resulted in failure.transformations: slave labor to free labor, sharecropping system (tenant farming) freedom, racial equality—white supremacyThe South Locked into poverty (to the 20th C.)The Southern Literature and the Southern Renaissance:•Common thematic concerns: history, present, racial problem, family.•Southern dialect•Nostalgic (latter half of 19th C)•Renaissance (1920s to 1940s):Fiction--William Faulkner, Allen Tate, Robert Penn WarrenPoetry—Fugitives逃亡派Literary Criticism–the Agrarians 重农派Life• 1. Birthplace: New Albany, Mississippi• 2.Family Background: his father, a railroad worker• 3. Education: one year at University of Mississippi after WWI,• 4. Working Experiences: store-clerk, carpenter, general construction-worker, coal shoveller, deck-hand, cadet-aviator,Literary Career•1926: Soldier’s Pay《士兵的报酬》•1927: Mosquitoes《蚊群》•1929: Sartoris《沙特里斯》•1929：The Sound and the Fury《喧嚣与骚动》•1930: As I lay dying《当我弥留之际》•1931: Sanctuary《圣殿》•1932: Light in August《八月之光》•1936: Absalom, Absalom!《押沙龙，押沙龙！》•1942: Go Down, Moses《去吧，摩西》•awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 as well as two Pulitzer Prizes for his novels in 1955 and in 1963.Position and achievements• a major presence in 20th c American literature and a leading southern writer.•His Yoknapatawpha county series offer the social, psychological and moral history of the american south with their depiction of the racial past and present, the class situation, the decline of the old aristocratic order, the settling of the modern order.They, on the other hand, explore universal situations such as alienation and frutration of modern man.• a leading avant-garde figure in experimental prose.He carried on ceaseless technical experimentation all his literary career. He is particularly known for his original usage of stream-of-consciousness technique and multiple point view.“Barn Burning”—plot line•Opening scene: a makeshift court at a Southern village general store; Mr. Harris, a local landowner charges Abner Snopes with arson - burning down his barn in retaliation for Harris' reactions to repeated incursions by Snopes' hog in Harris' crops. The judge decides Abner is innocent but dispels them from the district.•The Snopes family camps out that night on the way to a new tenancy, in a county next door.•Description of the campfire. (What's important here? P334)•The father's beating of the son. (What are the issues here?P335)•The next afternoon. Arrival at the sharecropper's quarters at the new place•Visit to the big house by Abner and Sarty.•Sarty's impression of the house.•Marring the rug•Back at the hut:•Major de Spain delivers the rug, demands it be cleaned.•Abner and his daughters clean the rug.•Snopes returns the rug, Sarty again being taken along on the errand.•Next morning (Wednesday) in the field:Major de Spain imposes a compensation.•The rest of the week, hard working of the boy in the hope of helping the family out of de Spain’s extra rents.•Saturday, in town in another general store: court again:•Abner charges that de Spain’s imposition is unfair. The Judge reduces de Spain's exactions to $5. Sarty's reaction•Later that afternoon, still in town: Fixing the wagon; Eating a meal, watching the horse selling•Back home, sundown.•Abner' conflict with his wife over his decision to set fire on de Spain’s barn.•Sarty escapes, warns de Spain, escapes from the bighouse. The barn burns as de Spain rides out. Sarty hears shots.•Midnight, atop a hill in the middle of a woods. (What are Sarty's thoughts?)•Dawn. (What are the important details?)“Barn Burning”•What are the important conflicts at work in the story?•What are the different values to which Sarty seems to be committed? How are these values embodied?•What is it about his father that strikes him as admirable, worthy of respect?•How is the story different from Huck Finn? What is the point of view from which the story is conveyed? Does the point of view shift in the course of the story? What makes thestory difficult and confusing?Character analysis•Abner Snopes: recurring modifiers. stiff, limp, ravening ferocity, without heat, like tin (P334, 335)•the dispossessed male, shorn of power and lashing out at a world that he perceives as habitually wronging him and thwarting his desires.•Psychologically distorted: jealous rage, humiliation and sense of failure lurking in his heart drive him into reckless destruction,•Unscrupulous type of the modern man who has no values and who embodies greed and destruction.•Sarty: a ten year old, living in despair and grief, terror and fear resulting from his sense of powerlessness as a young child over his father’s destructive effort and tyrannical domination.• A hero capable of courageous decision and rebellion against his father. He makes a bold choice to give up his family in favor of truth and to be able to live a life of dignity. Themes•Initiation story :"a kind of short story in which a character - often but not alwaysa child or young person - first learns a significant, usually life-changing truth aboutthe universe, society, people, himself or herself". (The Norton Introduction to literature )•three-part structure of initiation,innocence, experience and maturity. The process of initiation can be seen as a transition from childhood and ignorance to adulthood and maturity and climax at a moment of recognition, so it heads towards a broader understanding of the world and self-understanding.• A story of decision making, about initiation into spiritual freedom, as he is forced to grapple with issues of right and wrong that require a maturity and insight beyond his years.Process of growth: Enslavement to his father’s will and teaching because of his young age in the opening scene——Charm of the great house inspires his longing for beautiful, peaceful and dignified life——spiritual and physical independence when choosing to be loyal to his moral sense and escaping his home.Contrasts between Sarty's youthful, innocent vision of the events, of his father and the truth he sees when older.Growth from a dependent boy into an independent individual.themes•the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.—Faulkner•the boy’s heart is torn btw the false faith in family responsibility and his sense of morality and justice.Modernistic features•Modernist story often features non-linear narratives, fragmentation, and interior monologue•The disruption of narrative time: the time frame of the story: looks linear butactually confused and fragmented. (fragments of Sarty's future life in 20 years, and of Abner's past 30 years ago are mixed in)Narrative Point of view视角•Point of view—the position from which a story is told.•Categories—the third-person point of view, and the first-person point of view•Third-person point of view：Uses “he”, “she”or “they” to tell the story. the narrator outside the story.a. Third person omniscient 第三人称全知视角b. Third person limited 第三人称有限视角c. Third person objective or dramatic 第三人称客观视角（戏剧性视角）Third-person point of viewOmniscient (all-knowing): the narrator able to move at will from character to character and comment about them. He knows all, sees all, reports all, and when necessary, reveals the inner workings of the minds of any or some of the characters.•Limited omniscient: the story restricts focus to a single character, tells how this character acts, what he sees, feels, and thinks.•Objective(dramatic): the story simply reports the dialog and the actions of the characters, remains totally outside the characters’mind. (“You’ll be drunk,”the waiter said. The old man looked at him. The waiter went away.)Point of view in “Barn Burning”•Faulkner’s notion of authorial transcendence (作家的超脱)—rejection of authorial invasion into the narration.•Almost exclusively from Sarty’s perspective.Advantage: mimicking the boy’s spiritual growth from naivety to truth and freedom; portraying his character vividly; avoiding authorial intrusion so as to invite the reader’s participation. techniqueStream-of-consciousness is a term referring to modernist techniques of presenting the unending, river-like flow of the illogical, and random sensations, impressions, perceptions, associations, memories and thoughts of the character’s mind at a given moment.Interior monologue内心独白•One of the techniques for presenting the stream of consciousness of a character. It assumes the unrestricted portrayal of the totality of interior experience by recording the internal, emotional experience of the character. It gives often the appearance of being illogical and associational.Sentence featureComplex syntax, extended sentences—interrupted by qualifying clauses—that give the effect of continuously suspended or deferred resolution of the action.。
1- 1 - 107班雷莉104050246《烧牲口棚》之萨蒂的性格分析文中的萨蒂对父亲有爱有恨，勇敢，坚强，虽然年纪很小，但是却很董事。
每一个小孩都渴望拥有一个完整美好的家庭，渴望住在大大的房子，渴望每天都能够三餐无忧，渴望得到父母的关爱，渴望无忧无虑的生活。
然而，文中的萨蒂却经受着我们难以想象的痛苦，从文字中我们可以看出，他的家庭经常处于流离失所的状态，由于父亲及家庭的原因，他们必须时不时的搬家，也就是说他从小都没有感受过何为安定，小小的他，默默的跟着家人不停的搬家，在这样的一个年纪他就经历了生活的各种艰辛。
这些就连成人都难以忍受的艰辛，却硬是落在了这样一个小孩的身上，不免让人觉得心酸。
在这样的环境下，要想生存，那就一定要董事，坚强，否则只能被社会所遗弃。
也正是因为这样的生活，才造就了这样的一个萨蒂。
虽然萨蒂的父亲并未给予他所应该得到父爱，但是萨蒂却依然爱着他的父亲。
从文字中我们可以看出父亲在萨蒂心中的形象仅限于黑色的大衣，在他的心中，父亲是冰冷，严肃，高大的，竟没有一个词是与慈爱有关。
可见平日里父亲与他的交流是有多少。
不过萨蒂是一个很懂事、孝顺的人，父亲打他，他从未反抗过，父亲做什么他也从不过问。
但从另一个角度也反映出了他在这方面的懦弱。
除此之外，还表现他胆小的地方是文章的一开始，当管事的叫他上前问话时，他一句话也不敢说。
这倒是也符合了一个小孩的心理年龄特征，他不懂得大人之间的这些复杂的世界，他只是坚守着他自己的世界。
然而，现在的小孩却很少有像萨蒂这样懂事，内心坚强的。
很多的孩子都是在家人的溺爱之下长大的，他们胆小、懦弱，不懂得大人的辛苦，遇到事情不知道如何面对，这一切都与文中的萨蒂形成鲜明的对比。
海南师范学院本科英语专业理论课教学大纲：美国文学课程编号：03101026 学时：36 学分：2一、课程的性质和任务《美国文学史及选读》是英语语言文学专业（本科）的一门专业知识必修课。
它简要介绍了美国文学从十七世纪殖民时期到二十世纪的发展历史及其主要作品。
本课程是英语专业的专业基础课，目标是：通过文学史的教学拓宽学生的知识面，提高学生的文学修养，使学生了解英美文学各个历史时期的文艺思潮、文学流派、主要作家和作品；通过美国文学作品的教学，提高学生对英文原著的理解能力、鉴赏能力，培养学生发现问题、分析问题和解决问题的能力；通过课外实践活动，激发学生的文学兴趣，培养学生的文学鉴赏和批评能力及论文写作能力二、相关课程的衔接本课程是为英语专业高年级学生开设的，学生必须具有良好的英语阅读和理解基本功方能顺利地学习该课程，与此同时，它与美国历史、文化、社会背景等关系密切，因此，学生先期完成英语听说读写等技能训练基本课程，相关衔接课程有《英国文学》，《英语国家概况》《跨文化交际》等课程。
三、教学的基本要求1．了解美国文学发展史上的重要时期和阶段，包括殖民地时期、独立战争时期、浪漫主义时代、南北战争时期和两次世界大战前后文学现象及特征。
2．了解各个重要发展阶段的代表作家及作品，熟知其内容、风格和艺术价值及其在世界文学史上的重要地位。
3．了解伴随美国文学各个阶段产生的文艺批评思潮，提高学生的文艺理论水平。
四、教学方法与重点、难点教学方法：教学方法以课堂讲授为主，辅以讨论，并要求学生在课外大量阅读参考书，撰写读书报告及评论课上充分利用网络资源及现代化教学手段，使学生能够积极主动地进行学习本课程的重点与难点相对来说是一致的从时段上来说，19世纪20年代以后的美国文学由于处于第二次繁荣时期，对于美国文学的历史走向曾发生了相当重要的影响，自然是本课程的重点而这一阶段的文学语言丰富、色彩各异，且与哲学、史学、艺术学等结合得比较紧密，所以这一时期的文学作品在语言上和思想上都具备一定的难度，是本课程的难点所在另外，后现代文学作品的出现也增加了学生阅读的难度，因此了解后现代作品的创作手法，写作动机也是本科的一个难点解决的办法主要是在专业基础课之外，定期安排专家讲学，题目多涉及与课程难度相关的内容，旨在拓宽学生的知识面，使学生对特定时期的美国文学有一个历史层面上的深刻把握，从而有助于理解作品的语言和思想另外，课程组加强“英美文化”的教学力度和课外阅读的范围，在教学框架中将文学和文化结合起来，使学生在浓厚的异域文化氛围中感受美国文学，从而对深化对文学作品的理解从流派上说，《美国文学》课程的重点和难点都集中在流派嬗变的历史规律、流派与流派之间的关系、各流派的形成背景、形成历史以及体制特点美国文学各流派的继承性从总体上来说表现得相当明显，但对具体的继承与创造的关系尚缺乏充分的整理和研究我们的解决办法是：在分阶段的文学史教学过程中，充分梳理各文学流派的历史，从中概括流派的特性和历史以及与其他流派的区别我们开设有多门分阶段文学史的课程，目的就是在目前“横”的文学史的基础上，加强“纵”的线索，使学生形成纵横兼备的知识体系。
Analysis of Major CharactersColonel Sartoris Snopes“Barn Burning” explores the coming of age of Sartoris Snopes, as he is forced to grapple with issues of right and wrong that require a maturity and insight beyond his years. “You’re getting to be a man,” Snopes tells his ten-year-old son after delivering a blow to the side of his head. In Sartoris’s world, violence is a fundamental element of manhood, something he knows all too well from living with his father. Sartoris is impressionable, inarticulate,an d subject to his father’s potentially corrupting influence, but he is also infused with a sense of justice. Sartoris is in many ways a raw, unformed creature of nature, untouched by education, the refining influences of civilization, or the stability of a permanent home. The sight of the de Spain house gives him an instinctive feeling of peace and joy, but, as Faulkner notes, the child could not have translated such a reaction into words. Later, Sartoris reacts instinctively again when he prevents his fathe r from burning de Spain’s barn. He cannot articulate why he warns de Spain or ultimately runs away, but his actions suggest that Sartoris’s core consists of goodness and morality rather than the corruption that his father attempts to teach him.Sartoris’s worldview and morality may exist beyond the adult world of precise language and articulation, but he displays an insight that is far more developed than many of the adults who surround him. He sees through his father’s attempts to manipulate him by harping on the importance of family loyalty as a means of guaranteeing Sartoris’s silence. Sartoris’s brother, John, lacks Sartoris’s insight, and he is an example of what young Sartoris could easily become. Snopes has successfully taught John his ideas of family loyalty, and John blindly follows Snopes’s criminal lead. Sartoris, far from silently obeying, instigates the climactic end of Snopes’s reign of terror. At the end of the story, Sartoris betrays the family “honor” and must persevere on his own. As his fat her warned, if Sartoris failed to support his family, support would not be offered to him. As frightening as the unknown future might be, Sartoris has decided that the kind of “support” his family can offer is something he can do without. His flight marks an end to the legacy of bitternessand shame that he stood to inherit.Abner SnopesSnopes is an influential, towering presence in Sartoris’s eyes, but he himself is simply a primitive, thoughtless force of violence and destruction. With his family he is stiff, without depth, emotion, or complexity. This stiffness makes him seem almost less than human, and Faulkner often characterizes Snopes in metallic terms, portraying him as ironlike, cut from tin, a mechanical presence whose lack of emotion underscores his compromised sense of morality. Snopes’s physical presence fully reflects the inner corruption and loveof revenge that he embodies. His leg, shot in the war when he was stealing Confederate horses for personal profit, drags lamely behind him, an external manifestation of his warped inner life. Because Snopes is wholly unable to express himself articulately or intelligently, his sole recourses for self-expression are violence and cruelty. These tactics have overtaken his worldview so completely that they have infused his sense of who he is.Not satisfied with confining his deep unhappiness to his personal realm, Snopes seems to befoul everything he touches, and he becomes almost bestial in his lack of regard for others. In the de Spain home, Snopes intentionally steps in horse manure and tracks it throughout the house. Later, Faulkner compares Snopes to a stinging wasp or housefly, and Snopes lifts his hand “like a curled claw.” These images suggest that Snopes is not actually human but instead simply resembles the form of a man. Fed by jealousy and rage, Snopes’s need for revenge is borne of his sense of inferiority, lack of power, and gradual emasculation by the dismal sharecropping system. He compensates for these shortcomings by being a silent tyrant, ruling his family with threats and the promise of violence, as well as by destroying the livelihood of those individuals he believes haveslighted him.Lennie SnopesOpposite Abner Snopes, with his penchant for revenge and destruction, is Lennie Snopes, a voice of reason and morality in the family. Because her morals are so different from her husband’s, Lennie sharpens the conflict that Sartoris faces as he attempts to form his own ideas of right and wrong. The fact that Lennie has not simply succumbed to her domineering, violent husband makes her character remarkable. Surely, her spirit has been wounded by the grinding cycle of poverty, crime, and rootlessness to which Snopes has subjected the family. She has also endured physical violence throughout her mar ried life. Lennie’s spirit has not been broken completely, however. She repeatedly attempts to stop Snopes from lashing out at the landowners who provide the family’s livelihood, even though her attempts are unsuccessful. Her unbroken spirit is perhaps most evident in the way she has influenced Sartoris. Although Lennie is forced into a quiet, inferior position in the family, she has managed to instill her values in Sartoris, despite the overwhelming, corrupting influence that Snopes tries to enforce. Although Lennie is abandoned by Sartoris in the end, he leaves because she has quietly taught him that it is the right thing to do.。
