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1、Part Three THE AGE OF REALISM (1860-1910),Chapter 5 The Conflict between North and South Historical background Writer: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickenson Works,Background Information,1. historical background In 1850s prosperity and rapid progress in agriculture, commerce, and great public works. Sectiona
2、l disharmony between the South and the North, dating from colonial times,Background Information,Economically: the North: an industrial society; believe in the high tariff to protect its own products from cheap foreign competition the South: agricultural society; detest federal governments high tarif
3、f for industrial improvement.,Background Information,Politically: the North: need and depend more on central government to build infrastructure, to protect its complex trading and financial interests and control national currency the South: need no central government to interfere; no need to strengt
4、hen it,Background Information,Ideologically: the South: slavery as a heritage the North: slavery as violation of human rights Dispute over the lands from the acquisition of Texas and lands gained from Mexican War. The south: slavery system; The North: closed to slavery,Background Information,By 1860
5、, the North and the South had developed into two very different regions, with divergent social, economic, and political points of view. “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. “ By Abraham Lincoln,Background Informat
6、ion,2. literary background Fictions: Harriet Beecher Stowe s Uncle Toms Cabin, later published in 1852 Essays: Abraham Lincoln,Background Information,Poets: Whittier, Lowell, Bryant, Emerson, and Longfellow had already expressed their hatred of slavery with powerful effect. Walt Whitman outlived oth
7、er romanticists; he harmonized this romanticism and realism to achieve a true representation of the spirit of America. Emily Dickinson: the new spirit of realism affected her musings,Walt Whitman (1819-1892),Contributions: Transitional figure from Romanticism and transcendentalism to realism Son of
8、his time Singer of his country The founder of free verse,Writing Style,subject matter self ordinary people city life revolutionary attitude Theme: always Whitmanesque love-death motif harmony between man and nature, body and soul,Writing Style,Style: sea-wave style; parallelism, repetition simple an
9、d vivid symbols Sexuality exotic and vulgar, oral, simple language use of free verse,Free verse: poetry Without fixed rhythm (meter,beat) or regular rhyme. irregular length of its lines, as is its use of rhyme repeated and parallel sentences to strengthen the feelings.,Literary Works,Leaves of Grass
10、 12 poems published in 1855 revolutionary form and content use of free verse ；break through the convention, manifest American idea, democratic equality and ordinary self. become a landmark in American literary history His intention in writing Leaves of Grass, he said, was to create a truly American
11、poem, one “powerful races of men, its tremendous historic events, its great oceans, its mountains, and its illimitable prairies.” goes beyond its specifically American subject to deal with the universal themes of nature, fertility, and mortality.,Symbolizes: the common people their spirit (tough, br
12、ave, indomitable) the eternity youth, hope the equality the poet his poems His belief that poetry should include the lowly, the profane, even the obscene,II. Literary Works,Song of myself Masterpiece, 1,346 lines, longest Self as central image the idealized American Whitmanized character, open-minde
13、d, optimistic, democratic self reveal a world of equality, without rank or hierarchy e.g. P168,Song of Myself,Three Themes,The celebration of the self; The identification of the self with other selves; The poets relationship with the elements of nature and the universe.,a series of Paradoxes; line 2
14、,3,4,5,6,15,16 Emphasis on the equality of all the people, regardless of their age, occupation, religion, birthplace and son on.,Images & Symbols,Whitman and Dickenson,Similarity pioneers in American poetry Thematically, extolled, an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its America
15、nness, part of “American Renaissance”. Technically: the literary independence ; breaking free of the convention ; freedom in form,Whitman and Dickenson,differences: (1) Whitman : society at large; Dickinson: the inner life of the individual. (2) Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinso
16、n is “regional”( “Because I see New-Englandly” 因为我用新英格兰眼光看). (3) In formal terms, Whitmans endless, all-inclusive catalogs contrast with the concise, direct and simple diction and syntax which characterize Dicksons poetry. (4) Technically speaking, Whitmans poetry is “free verse” , Dickenson: other innovation like using punctuations,Emily Dickinson (1830-1886),Title: Precursor of the Imagist movement,I. Life and Career,Life: She was born in a Puritans family. Her father was a fam
