Lesson 10 Author Background Author Edward Morgan Forster
Lesson 10
Author & Background
Author Edward Morgan Forster (January 1, 1879–June 7, 1970) • English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20 th-century British society. • Forster was homosexual, but this fact was not widely made public during his lifetime. His posthumously(死后的)-published novel Maurice tells of the coming of age of an explicitly homosexual male character.
His Novels • 1. Where Angels Fear to Tread 1905《天使不敢涉 足的地方》 ; • 2. The Longest Journey 1907 《最长的旅行》; • 3. A Room with a View 1908 《看得见风景的房间》 ; • 4. Howards End 1910 《霍华兹庄园》 ; • 5. A Passage to India 1924 《印度之旅》; • 6. Maurice 《莫瑞斯 》 (supposedly written in 1913 -1914, published posthumously in 1971, attributed to Forster); • 7. Arctic Summer 1980 (posthumous, unfinished)
Works of E. M. Forster
Key Themes • Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society • Sexuality is another key theme in Forster‘s works, and it has been argued that a general shift from heterosexual( 异性恋的) love to homosexual love can be detected over the course of his writing career. • Forster is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels
PARA 1 Mr. Bull • 即John Bull,是约翰牛的意思。特 指英国或英国人。在漫画家的笔下, 约翰牛是一个头戴高帽、足蹬长靴、 矮胖而愚笨的绅士形象。 • The national figure of England is Mr. Bull is usually pictured as a short and fat man in a coat with breeches (马裤) and a Union Flag vest(国旗背心), dressed in the fashion of the early 18 th century. He also wears a top hat and is often seen with a bulldog (斗牛犬). His size and rosy cheeks (红润的 脸颊) were a sign of good health.
Mr. Bull • The name was popularized by Dr John Arbuthnot’s political satire History of John Bull (1712), advocating the Tory(英国保守党) policy of peace with France.
Uncle Sam • a figure symbolizing the United States, is portrayed as a tall, thin man with a white beard and wearing a blue swallow-tailed coat, red-and-white-striped trousers, and a tall hat with a band of stars.
PARA 1 Saint George
Saint George • St. George is a hero, the patron of arms, symbolizing chivalry( 骑士精神), his image often appears on banners, and his name is often mentioned in the speeches of politicians. He is used as a symbolic figure for political purposes.
Saint George • In paintings St George is always shown as a knight carrying a shield with a red cross (or a banner with a red cross). It is also very common to see him sitting upon a horse and killing a dragon.
PARA 3 Line 14 Eton(伊顿公学 ) • Eton College is located on Windsor(温莎) which is 20 miles away form London • It was founded in 1440 by the English king Henry the Sixth • It was known as the best college in British
Eton(伊顿公学) The achievement: It was once developed 20 British prime ministers , Cultivated the poet Shelley, economist John Maynard Keynes, and it is also the school of princes William and Harry. Every year about 250 of graduates, more than 70 into the Oxford or Cambridge, 70% into other famous schools around the world.
PARA 7 Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 -1882) • “True love in this differs from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away. ”
PARA 9 line 6 Lake Poets • The Lake Poets all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single “school” of thought or literary practice, although their works were uniformly disparaged(贬低)by the Edinburgh Review. They are considered part of the Romantic Movement. The poets of the Lake School were Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Flying fish (飞鱼) Flying fish are a type of fish that live in warm seas. They have large fins that enable them to move forward in the air when they jump out of the water.
George Bernard Shaw 1856 -1950 • the greatest critical realistic playwright since William Shakespeare. • Born in Dublin, Ireland, • In 1876, Shaw went to London, became interested in socialism, joined the Fabian Society(费边社) in 1884. • In 1892, started career as a dramatist. • In the 30 s, visited Soviet Union(苏联) and China • In 1925, won the Nobel Prize. • Wrote 51 plays all his life.
PARA 13 Line 1 Jane Austen 1775-1817 • 简·奥斯汀 English writer, who first gave the novel its modern character through the treatment of everyday life. Although Austen was widely read in her lifetime, she published her works anonymously. The most urgent preoccupation of her bright, young heroines is courtship and finally marriage. Austen herself never married. Her best-known books include PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1813) and EMMA (1816). Virginia Woolf called Austen "the most perfect artist among women. " 1. 《理智与情感》又名《理性与感性》(Sense and Sensibility, 1811) 2. 《傲慢与偏见》(Pride and Prejudice, 1813) 3. 《曼斯菲尔德庄园》(Mansfield Park, 1814) 4. 《爱玛》(Emma, 1815) 5. 《诺桑觉寺》(Northanger Abbey, 1818, 死后出版) 6《劝导》(Persuasion, 1818, 死后出版) 7. 《苏珊太太》(lady susan)
• The Amritsar Massacre, also known as the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, which took place in 1919, is one of the most disastrous events in the history of the colonial rule in India. • The Amritsar Massacre took place on April 10, 1919 in Amritsar situated in Punjab. It was a time of great unrest when the Indian freedom struggle was going on with vigorous energy. A crowd peacefully gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh (garden) and a public meeting was going on. The English army, under the leadership of General Reginald Dyer opened fire on the unarmed mob killing 1800 people. There was only one narrow pathway leading to open place outside which was blocked by the British army. The people started jumping inside a well located at the place.
About the text
Main Idea • Every nation has defects. Forster depicts the characters with a gentle irony that reveals the moral and emotional deficiencies of English middle class, who lack a spontaneous capacity for passion and intuition • In his opinion, the English character should be improved by the imagination, mysticism and sensitivity to nature.
About the text • Title: This article was originally given as a talk in India, but later worked up for publication. In conclusion Forster says, “They are the notes of a student who is trying to get at the truth and would value the assistance of others. ” The author uses “notes” to show that his analysis is not authoritative and open for discussion and criticism. The intention of the author is to let people and nations have a better understanding of each other and come closer to each other, which is shown at the end of the essay.
Organization of the text • Part 1(Para. 1) The first note: the middle class have been the dominant force in the English community. • Part 2 (Para. 2 -3)The second note — the English public school system and its role in the character building. • Part 3 (para. 4 -8) the third note — the undeveloped heart of the middle-class Englishman. • Part 4 (Para. 9 -10) a question: if English nature is cold, how is it that it has produced a great literature and a literature that is particularly great in poetry? • Part 5 (Para. 11 -15) the topic of hypocrisy, a prime charge always brought against the English by citing an example from Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility. • Part 6 (Para. 16 -17) some other charges such as treachery, cruelty and fanaticism that have been brought against the English as a nation. • Part 7 (Para. 18 -19) sums up notes on the English character and extend hope for future.
Detailed Study of Text • Part 1(Para. 1) • The first note: • The character of the English is essentially middle class. • Why does Forster choose it to talk about the English character? • ⑴the dominant force in community • ⑵they are connected with the rise and organization of the British Empire • ⑶they are responsible for the literature of the 19 th century
Part Ⅱ(para. 2 -3) • The second note: • Just as the heart of England is the middle classes, so the heart of the middle classes is the public school system. This system leaves deep influence on English behavior. • Public school system provides the future middle classes with well-developed bodies, fairly developed minds and undeveloped hearts.
Part Ⅲ (para. 4 -8) • The Third note: • A note on the slowness of the English character. The undeveloped heart of the middle class • para. 4 --- explanation • para. 5 ---7 an anecdote to illustrate his point • Foster criticizes the middle-class Englishmen for being unemotional, using himself as an example • para. 8 ---the slowness of the English character, which is related to the undeveloped heart
Part Ⅳ(para. 9 -10) • The author does not go on to his next note but pauses to raise a thought-provoking question related to his above notes. • Q: If the English nature is cold, how is it that it has produced a great literature that is particularly great in poetry? • English nature: cold & unemotional & unsympathetic • Literature and poetry: expresses warm sympathy, romance and imagination • Forster sees a paradox, a contradictory situation here.
Part Ⅴ (para. 11 -15) • The Fourth note: • The English are sometimes hypocrites. Hypocrisy is the prime charge that is always brought against the Englishman. • Reasons: • (1)The Englishman’s attitude toward criticism is that he is not annoyed by criticism. He just smiles and passes on. • (2) Self-complacent. (No improvement is necessary. ) • (3) English public school education doesn’t make for mental clearness. Instead, he becomes muddleheaded.
Part Ⅵ (para. 16 -17) • The Fifth note: • Englishman is often accused of treachery, cruelty, and fanaticism. • The author is defineding the English against unture charges such as cruelty and treachery.
• Author's intention: • Does the author think treachery, cruelty and fanaticism also part of the English character? • There is mutual misunderstanding and irritation between the English and foreign critics, which is not conductive to a wise and better world.
Part Ⅶ (para. 18 -19) • Forster sums up his discussion of the English nature. He points out the English Character is incomplete • He concludes his essay by expressing his hope to see changes in the English character and mutual understanding between nations as a shrinking globe.
Vocabulary
P 2 L 9 • prefect ['pri: fekt] • 1. In some countries, a prefect is the head of the local government administration or of a local government department. 地方行政长官; 地方政府部门的领导 • 2. In some schools, especially in Britain, a prefect is an older student who does special duties and helps the teachers to control the younger students. (尤指英国)级长; 协助管理低年级学生的高年级学生 • fagging ['fægiŋ] • n. 英国公学中低年级学生给高年级学生跑腿的这样一种教 学传统
P 2 L 10 • esprit de corps [es'pri: də'kɔ: r] [French] • esprit de corps is a feeling of loyalty and pride that is shared by the members of a group who consider themselves to be different from other people in some special way. 团队精神,团体精神
P 8 L 9 • gesticulate [dʒe'stɪkjʊleɪt] n. gesticulation • vi. (讲话时)做(或用)手势;用姿势(或动作)示意;指手画 脚: • The architect was gesticulating at a hole in the ground. • 那位建筑师对着地上的一个洞打手势。 • vt. 用手势表达;用姿势(或动作)表示: • A man with a paper hat upon his head was gesticulating wildly. • 一个戴纸帽的男子在拼命地打手势。
P 12 L 9 • muddle-headedness笨拙; 昏庸 • muddle-headed糊涂的;昏庸的 • • • • muddle ['mʌdl] vt. 1. 使混乱;使一团糟,弄糟: He has muddled all the arrangements. 他打乱了各项安排。 2. 使糊涂,使思想混乱: The more you talk, the more you muddle me. 你越说我越糊涂了。 3. 使醉;使(头脑)昏昏沉沉: A glass of whisky soon muddled her. 一杯威士忌酒立刻就使她醉了。 4. 使混合;搅拌: She muddled all the different kinds of books together on one shelf. 她把各种不同类型的书都混放在一个书架上。 5. 使浑浊;搅浑: The bird muddled the brook with its splashings. 鸟儿在小河水面上扑腾,把河水搅浑。
P 13 L 10 • • adjure [ə'dʒuə] vt. 1. 恳求,祈求: to adjure someone to take care of his health 恳请某人保重身体 2. (以起誓、诅咒、威逼等方式)命令;嘱咐: to adjure someone to tell the truth 严肃地命令某人讲出真话
P 19 L 8 • • • prevail [pri'veil; pri: -] vi. 1. 胜,胜过;优胜;获胜: Justice has prevailed, the guilty man has been punished. 正义已经获胜,有罪的人受到了惩罚。 2. 生效;有效: The temptation to exploit consumers usually prevails unless it is curbed. 剥削消费者的诱惑除非加以限制,否则就会得逞。 3. 占优势: Truth will prevail. 真理必胜。 4. 流行,盛行;普遍: The use of horese for ploughing still prevails among the poorer farmers. 用马耕作的现象在贫苦农民中仍然十分盛行。 5. (核战中)获胜
Rhetorical Devices
Page. 135 P. 1 L. 15 Russia is symbolized by the peasant or by the factory worker; Japan by the samurai; Ellipsis
Page. 135 P. 2 L. 1 Just as the heart of England is the middle classes, so the heart of the middle classes is the public school system. Metonymy
Page. 136 P. 3 L. 18 And they go forth into a world that is not entirely composed of publicschool men or even of Anglo-Saxons, but of men who are as various as the sands of the sea; Simile
Page. 137 P. 6 L. 7 A small occasion demands a little emotion, just as a large occasion demands a great one. Antithesis
Page. 137 P. 6 L. 8 I would like my emotions to be appropriate. This may be measuring them like potatoes, but it is better than slopping them about like water from a pail, which is what you did. Simile
Page. 139 P. 10 L. 4 We know what the sea looks like from a distance. . . That sea is the English character-apparently imperturbable and even. These depths and the colors are the English romanticism and the English sensitiveness--we do not expect to find such things, but they exist. Metaphor
Page. 139 P. 11 L. 10 He has no uneasy feeling. Litotes
Page. 139 P. 12 L. 3 v. The Germans are called brutal, the Spanish cruel, the Americans superficial, and so on; Ellipsis but we are perfide Albion, the island of hypocrites, the people who have built up an Empire with a Bible in one hand, a pistol in the other and financial concessions in both pockets. Metonymy
Here Bible and pistol mean that in building the British Empire, the English have resorted to both soft and hard means----religious and military means. The Bible represents religious activities of spreading the gospel, of encouraging Christian ideas of salvation and the pistol represents military aggression.
Page. 141 P. 16 L. 8 His character, which prevents his rising to certain heights, also prevents him from sinking to these depths. Antithesis
The implied meaning of this sentence is that the average Englishman is moderate and does not go to extremes.
Difficult Sentences
Saint George may caper on banners and in the speeches of politicians, but it is John Bull who delivers the goods. (Para. 1 L 18) 圣·乔治也许会出现在标语上和政治演说中,而 约翰·布尔则会去送货。 As Saint George is a hero, the patron of arms, symbolizing chivalry, his image often appears on banners, and his name is often mentioned in the speeches of politicians. Saint George is used as a symbolic figure for political purposes. But John Bull is a tradesman and he delivers the goods we need in our daily life while making money at the same time.
How perfectly it expresses their character—far better , for instance, than does the university, into which social and spiritual complexities have already entered. ( P 136. L 3) Secondary school children are free from social or spiritual complexities, which emerge only in the university. But public school system perfectly expresses the character of the English middle classes which by implication lack social and spiritual complexities. 英国公学制度比大学更充分地表现了英国中产阶 级的特性,社会与精神的复杂性已经进入大学。
True love in this differs from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away , In this aspect, true love is different from material things such as clay or even gold which can be divided and taken away. Yet if we share true love, it will never diminish.
With its boarding-house, its compulsory games, its system of prefects and fagging, its insistence on good form and on esprit de corps, it produces a type whose weight is out of all proportion to its numbers. (P 136 L 5) 学生寄宿,必修运动项目,高年级同学役使和欺侮低 年级同学,高度重视身材与团队精神 These features enable the public school students to have disproportionately great influence.
I will now descend from dizzy and somewhat unfamiliar height, and return to my business of notetaking. (P 8 L 1) In the above anecdote, I have become an example of the Englishmen for the moment. That put me in a high position which makes me dizzy and is unfamiliar to me. I will now come down from that height and return to my role as your commentator on the characteristics of the Englishmen.
…and that he might do well to take the criticism to heart and profit by it. It never strikes him— except as a form of words—that he is capable of improvement. (Para. 11 L 6) It’s helpful for him to think others about others’ criticism. Might do well: had better 最好 To take sth. to heart : to take sth. seriously 英国人从不认为自己还需要进步,改进只是说说而 已。
And the “tolerant humorous attitude” with which he confronts them is not really humorous, because it is bounded by the titter and the guffaw. (Para. 11 L 10) 让批评家们去叫嚣吧,英国人认为自己在遇到 困难时所采取的“宽容的幽默态度并不是真正 的幽默,因为无论是偷笑还是狂笑都暴露了他 的不安。
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