英文文体风格鉴赏小说节选评述样本【重要】

英文文体风格鉴赏小说节选评述样本【重要】 How to comment extracts of fiction and answer samples [小说节选的评述样本] Additional Materials—Compiled by DR-SUO 1. Extract from FORD MADOX FORD?s The Good Soldier (1915)《好士兵》 This is the saddest story I have ever heard. We had known the Ashburnhams for nine seasons of the town of Nauheim with an extreme intimacy , or, rather, with an acquaintanceship as loose and easy and yet as close as a good glove's with your hand. My wife and I knew Captain and Mrs Ashburnham as well as it was possible to know anybody, and yet, in another sense, we knew nothing at all about them. This is, I believe, a state of things only possible with English people of whom, till today, when I sit down to puzzle out what I know of this sad affair, I knew nothing whatever. Six months ago I had never been to England, and, certainly, I had never sounded the depths of an English heart. I had known the shallows. Chinese Version 福特?马多克斯?福特《好兵》(一九一五年) 这是我所听过最悲惨的故事。我们认识瑙海姆城的阿什本翰姆夫妇已有九年了， 我们熟得很—可是，其实我们之间的关系又像手和契合的手套那样，既贴近又宽松。 我和我妻子结识了阿什本翰姆上尉夫妇，就像我们可能结识任何人一样，无啥特殊, 然而，在某种意义上来说，我们对他们一无所知。我想，这种情况只有与英国人打交 道时才可能出现。时至今日，当我坐下来仔细思量这件悲惨的事时，我还是一点儿也 琢磨不透。我是在半年前才初抵英国,当然啦，我根本没有深入地探测过一个英国人 的心。我知道的只是粗浅皮毛。 Commentary Ford Madox Ford's famous opening sentence is a blatant ploy to secure the reader's attention, virtually dragging us over the threshold by the collar. But almost at once a characteristically modern obscurity and indirection, an anxiety about the possibility of discovering any truth, infect the narrative. Who is this person addressing us? He uses English yet is not English himself. He has known the English couple who seem to be the subject of the "saddest story" for at least nine years, yet claims to have "known nothing" about the English until this very moment of narration."Heard" in the first sentence suggests that he is going to narrate someone else's story, but almost immediately it is implied that the narrator, and perhaps his wife, were themselves part of it. The narrator knows the Ashburnhams intimately , and not at all. These contradictions are rationalized as an effect of Englishness, of the disparity between appearance and reality in English middle-class behaviour; so this beginning strikes a similar thematic note to Emma's, though tragic rather than comic in its premonitory undertones. The word "sad" is repeated towards the end of the paragraph, and another keyword, "heart" (two of the characters have supposed heart-conditions, all of them have disordered emotional lives), is dropped into the penultimate sentence. The metaphor of a glove actually occurs in the opening paragraph of The Good Soldier, with a different meaning. Here it signifies polite social behaviour, the easy but restrained manners that go with affluence and discriminating taste (a "good" glove is specified), but with a hint of deceptive concealment or "covering up". Some of the enigmas raised in the first paragraph are quickly explained, by, for instance, the information that the narrator is an American living in 1 Europe. But the reliability of his testimony, and the chronic dissembling of the other characters, are to be crucial issues in this, the saddest story. 2 . Extract from Hardy?s Tess Tess might have seen (realised) that what had bowed her head so profoundly — the thought of the world's concern at her situation — was founded on an illusion. She was not an existence, an experience, a passion, a structure of sensations, to anybody but herself. To all humankind besides, Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends she was no more than a frequently passing thought. If she made herself miserable the livelong night and day it was only this much to them — "Ah, she makes herself unhappy." If she tried to be cheerful, to dismiss all care, to take pleasure in the daylight, the flowers, the baby, she could only be this idea to them ? "Ah, she bears it very well." Moreover, alone in a desert island would she have been wretched at what had happened to her? Not greatly. If she could have been but just created, to discover herself as a spouseless mother, with no experience of life except as the parent of a nameless child, would the position have caused her to despair? No, she would have taken it calmly, and found pleasure therein. Most of the misery had been generated by her conventional aspect, and not by her innate sensations. Question: In this extract, we can find some stylistic devices and literary techniques used by Thomas Hardy. Try our best to illustrate some points. Commentary (1) Syntactical Structure: Periodic sentence: The sentence “She was not an existence,… but herself” is a periodic sentence. A series of negative phrases are presented ahead to show Tess?s ambivalent feelings, and all these strong feelings weights on the last two words “but herself”. (2) Choice of Words: As in “Tess was only a passing thought…” and the like, the author uses „passing?, „livelong night and day?, „daylight? to suggest the time elapses so fast that things have to vary from time to time. (3) Rhetorical Devices: Repetition: In the first paragraph, “If she …” is repeated for three times to lead three parallel sentences. With these intensive descriptions of Tess?s internal monologue, we can better understand the comment “the thought of the world's concern… on an illusion”. (4) Characterization: Narrated monolog: This paragraph is a long narrated monolog presented in FIT, from which we can see how ambivalent she was in that embarrassing situation. (5) Free Indirect Thought: In this paragraph, the writer chooses FIT to narrate Tess?s interior monolog. With this writing technique, characters are not quoted directly but the writer?s comments, such as “the thought of the world?s concern at her situation,was founded on an illusion”, are mixed in with the 2 author?s voice (作者的口吻). (6) Direct Discourse (DD): In the middle of paragraph we can find that DDs are vividly put into the narrative, as in “Ah, she makes herself unhappy”; and thus readers can directly perceive others? various comments on Tess?s situation. 3. Extract from Roman Roland?s Jean Christophe罗曼?罗兰《约翰?克利斯朵夫》 Came calmness to his heart. No wind stirred. The air was still…. Christophe was at rest: peace was his. He was in a certain measure proud of having conquered it: but secretly, in his heart of hearts, he was sorry for it. He was amazed at the silence. His passions were slumbering: in all good faith he thought that they would never wake again. Question: 试从小说现实主义风格的角度，比较和鉴赏上面两个段落中语音修辞手 法(sound devices)、词义选择( lexis )、句子结构( syntax )、叙述修辞手 法( narration techniques )等方面的共同性( similarities )。 【重要提示】 (1) The paragraphs here are a narrative of static psychology. (2) Roland?s novel Jean Christophe is more REALISTIC, which has a strong sense of fact or actuality. (3) The term REALISTIC is used to refer to the presentation of ordinary, easily observable details which give an impression of fidelity to experience. [Realistic work: 现实主义的作品具有强烈的事实和真实感。这个术语专指对于普通的、 易于观察的细节的现，因为这些细节给人以忠实于现实经验的印象。] Commentary: The extract is a realistic writing with the external perspective. Alliteration is used here, such as „came calmness? and „stirred…still?. Also a mixture of repetition, alliteration and assonance is used in „heart of hearts?. These rhetorical devices are stylistically exploited to keep the writing more expressive and vivid as a result of its rhythm and melody. In the second paragraph, almost all of the verbs are link verbs to suggest the author?s judgment and implication: the hero?s outer world and inner world have become one—„peace was his?. For instance, synonyms (同义词) or related words of similar meaning spring up like „calmness?, „still?, „at rest?, „peace?, „silence?, and the like. It is such a style of lexical cohesion (词汇衔接) that can chart a narrative of static psychology. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Extract from Roman Roland?s Jean Christophe Christophe was writing books. He was not used to it. His books were beautiful. He would have rather had them less beautiful and more alive. He was like an athlete resting, not knowing to what use to turn his muscles, and, yawning in boredom like a caged wild beast, he sat looking ahead at the years and years of peaceful work that awaited him. And as, with his old German capacity for optimism, he had no difficulty in persuading himself that everything was for the best, he thought (心理动词) that such a future was no doubt the appointed inevitable end: he flattered himself (心理动词) 3 that he had issued from his time of trial and tribulation and had become master (主人) of himself. That was not saying much…. Oh, well! A man is sovereign (君主) over that which is his, he is what he is capable of being…. He thought that he had reached his haven (避风港、安全港). They (Christophe and Olivier) talked very little, for each was absorbed: one in his art, the other in his memories. Olivier's sorrow was growing less: but he did nothing to mitigate it, rather almost taking a pleasure in it: for a long time it had been his only reason for living. He loved his child: but his child—a puling baby(嗷嗷待哺 的婴儿)—could occupy no great room in his life. There are men who are more lovers than fathers, and it is useless to cry out against them. Nature is not uniform, and it would be absurd to try to impose identical laws upon the hearts of all men. No man has the right to sacrifice his duty to his heart. At least the heart must be granted the right to be unhappy where a man does his duty. What Olivier perhaps most loved in his child was the woman of whose body it was made. Question: 试从小说修辞和风格鉴赏的角度，对比(contrast)和比较(comparison)上 面两个段落;不妨从词汇选择或措辞(word choice or diction )、修辞手段(rhetorical devices)、语音类型(sound patterns)、句子结构( syntax )、作者口吻和语气( voice and tone )、叙述修辞手法(narrative techniques)、时态变化( tense shifting)方面评析 它们之间的共性( similarities )和差异( differences )。 【重要提示】 (1) Overlapping synonyms (同义词叠用) : „years and years of? and „trial and tribulation? (2) Alliteration (辅音头韵): See the above examples. Commentary: The extract is subjectively realistic from the external point of view, and mirrors some of the stylistic traits that we shall mention later. Some of narrative techniques may also help entice the audience and enlarge the vivid readability of literary writing. (1) Figurative language constantly pours like simile, as in „He was like an athlete resting…? and „…like a caged wild beast…?; metaphor, as in „sovereign?; metonymy, as in „haven?; overlapping synonyms, as in „years and years of…? and „trial and tribulation? which have a trait of alliteration. (2) Varying types of syntactic structure are featured by parallelism(词语的)并列结 构(或排比形式), parataxis (句子的)并列结构风格(„AND? or „BUT? patterns); a few complex constructions of hypotaxis (句子的)从属结构风格emerge to indicate the hero?s mixed feelings and emotion. (3) Tense shifting between the past tense to the present tense is used to express the author?s voice of moral judgment,practical, truthful, straightforward, and subjective comments. Hereby, the tense shifting also serves as a summary narration. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4