MarkTwain馬克吐溫簡介和作品賞析.ppt

Mark Twain,(馬克吐溫) Samuel Langhorne Clemens （塞繆爾朗赫恩克萊門斯） (1835-1910),Mark Twain,an American Icon,Mark Twain (1835 -1910),Mark Twain was a great American writer, and he was also a famous speaker. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) was born in Florida and he was not a healthy baby. In fact, he was not expected to live through the first winter. But with his mothers tender care, he managed to survive. As a boy, he caused much trouble for his parents. He used to play jokes on all of his friends and neighbors. He didnt like to go to school, and he constantly ran away from home.,Mark Twain (1835 -1910),He always went in the direction of the nearby Mississippi as he loved the great river so much. His father died when he was 12. Mark Twain left school and began to work for a printer, who only provided him with food and clothing. Then, he worked as a printer, a riverboat pilot and later joined the army. But shortly after that he became a miner. During this period, he started to write short stories. Afterwards he became a full-time writer.,“Mark Twain was a lifelong creator and keeper of scrapbooks（剪貼本）. He took them with him everywhere and filled them with souvenirs, pictures, and articles about his books and performances. But in time, he grew tired of the lost glue, rock-hard paste, and the swearing that resulted from the standard scrapbook process. So, he came up with the idea of printing thin strips of glue on the pages to make updates neat and easy to do.,In 1872, he patented his “self-pasting” scrapbook, and by 1901, at least 57 different types of his albums were available. It would be his only invention that ever made money.”,Inspired by his invention of the scrapbook, this electronic scrapbook records information about probably the most famous and beloved humorist, satirist, and entertainer in American history and illustrates some of Mark Twains quotations about every aspect of our lives.,Mark Twain,As a young man Twain worked as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. When he started his writing career, Samuel Clemens adopted the name “Mark Twain,” which meant two fathoms, a safe depth for a riverboat.,Pictures from www.pbs.org,In 1861, Samuel Clemens avoided the brewing Civil War by going west. He took his first writing job as reporter at the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. Serious news was often mixed with “reports” that had to be taken with a grain of salt（有保留的）. Soon, he began using the name Mark Twain and affixing it to sketches, reportage, and an occasional hoax. It was a time when he first discovered his talent, his calling（職業(yè)）, and his voice.,Pictures from www.pbs.org,At 34 years of age he married Olivia Langdon Clemens. She was the daughter of a New York coal magnate, a member of the countrys wealthy elite. She would be partner, editor, and fellow traveler in success and failure for the next thirty-five years. She would also furnish him her familys home in Elmira, New York, a place where he visited often and wrote many of his best-loved books.,Pictures from www.pbs.org,“I vividly remember seeing a dozen black men and women chained to one another, once, and lying in a group on the pavement, awaiting shipment to the Southern slave market. Those were the saddest faces I have ever seen.” Mark Twain,Though his most famous novel is criticized for being racist, Mark Twain never expected nor intended the controversy that arose with the publication of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain was not racist, but depicted life in his times.,Pictures from www.pbs.org,“I have no color prejudices nor caste （社會等級）prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he cant be any worse.,Pictures from www.pbs.org,By 1900 Twain had become Americas foremost celebrity. He was invited to attend ship launchings, anniversary gatherings, political conventions, and countless dinners. Reporters met him at every port of call, anxious to print a new quip （妙語）from the famous humorist. To enhance his image, he took to wearing white suits and loved to stroll down the street and see people staring at him.,Pictures from www.pbs.org,In time, the Clemens home became a revolving door for the leading names of the day: Howells, Sherman, Cable, Harte, and others. But it also saw Clemens involve himself in fanciful investment schemes that led to his bankruptcyand eventual departure.,Pictures from www.pbs.org,Because of financial problems, Clemens lived in Europe from 1891-1901, but this was neither his first nor last trip abroad. In fact, he was an inveterate（成僻的） traveler. From the age of 17 to the last few weeks of his life he was always discovering new places and revisiting old. He crisscrossed the Atlantic more than a dozen times and also saw Turkey, Palestine, Hawaii, Australia, India, and South Africa.,Pictures from www.pbs.org,He developed as a speaker and traveled on lecture circuits, much in demand. His early performances combined humor, information and eloquence in measures that delighted most people.,Pictures from www.pbs.org,When he died on April 21, 1910, newspapers around the country declared, “The whole world is mourning.” By then, Sam Clemens had long since ceased to be a private citizen. He had become Mark Twain, a proud possession of the American nation.,“I was sorry to have my name mentioned as one of the great authors, because they have a sad habit of dying off. Chaucer is dead, Spencer is dead, so is Milton, so is Shakespeare, and Im not feeling so well myself.”Mark Twain,Pictures from www.pbs.org,“I came in with Halleys Comet（哈雷慧星） in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I dont go out with Halleys Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.,Mark Twain died in 1910, the year Halleys Comet appeared.,Pictures from www.pbs.org,Mark Twain was one of the great artists of all time. He was and is one authentic giant of our national literature. Twains quotes and humor are as popular today as at any time in American history.,“Wisdom teaches us that none but birds should go out early, and that not even birds should do it unless they are out of worms.”,“Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can.” It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.,Picture from www.pbs.org,“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live.”,Picture from Dave Thomson collection: ,“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”,Picture from Dave Thomson collection: ,“Nothing is made in vain, but the fly came near it.” “Id rather have ten snakes in the house than one fly.”,“Of all Gods creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”,Picture from Dave Thomson collection: ,“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not mans.”,Picture from Dave Thomson collection: ,“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”,“Humor is mankinds greatest blessing.”,“In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards（地方教育董事會）.”,Picture from Dave Thomson collection: ,“By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity（不幸、逆境）-another mans I mean.”,Picture from Dave Thomson collection: ,“Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any.”,“Classic-a book which people praise and dont read.”,“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cant read them.”,“The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.,Picture from Dave Thomson collection: ,“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”,“Good breeding（教養(yǎng)） consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.,“Humor is mankinds greatest blessing.”,Picture from Dave Thomson collection: ,Realism A Response to Romanticism Tried very hard to capture life exactly as it was, rather than romanticizing it Rather than focus on emotion or prize it, realists tried to prevent their works from being filtered through their emotional lenses Characters came from poorer, super-rural or super-urban backgrounds Included workers at factories, people living in slums, etc. the types of people who never showed up as romantic heroes,Twain as a Realist,Twain as a Realist,Twain is one of the greatest realists possibly the greatest of all time. One of the reasons hes so great is that he dares to examine the “whys” why does society have problems? Why do characters experience conflicting emotions? Why do we act the way we do?,Mark Twain and his masterpieces,The Adventure of Tom Sawyer was an immediate success as “a boys book”; its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn became his masterpiece, the one book from which, as Ernest Hemingway noted, “all modern American literature comes.” Life on the Mississippi is another masterpiece of his.,Mark Twain and his masterpieces,In his later works the change from an optimist and humorist to an almost despairing determinist（決定論者） is unmistakable. Some critics link this change with the tragic events of his later life, the failure of his investments, his fatiguing travels and lectures in order to pay off his debts, and added to this, the death of his wife and two daughters which left him absolutely inconsolable（極為傷心的）.,Samuel Clemens Major Works,The Gilded Age 鍍金時代 written in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner Life on the Mississippi 密西西比河上 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court亞瑟王朝里的康涅狄格州美國佬 The Man That Corrupted Hardleybug敗壞了哈德萊堡的人 The Mysterious Stranger 神秘的陌生人 Autobiography These works contain bitter attacks on the human race,The Innocents Abroad 傻子國外旅行記 Roughing It艱難歲月 Puddnhead Wilson傻瓜維爾遜 The Prince and the Pauper王子與貧民 American Claimant美國申請人,Mark Twains Writing Features,1.local colour,represented social life through portraits of local places which he knew best,drew from his own rich fund of knowledge of people and places,tall tales (highly exaggerated),a texture of most local color literature，a kink of humor,2. Literature is an art of language. Mark Twains language is artistic and like a sharp weapon without doubt. Mark Twain is famous for his humor and satire. He used the artistic style of hyperbole（夸張法 ）on the basis of the western traditional humor and made his writing full of allegories that lay behind the humor.,Mark Twains Writing Features,Mark Twains Writing Features,humour,is of witty remarks mocking at small things and making people laugh,is a kind of artistic style used to criticize the social injustice,3. He used a lot of colloquial idioms and colloquial syntax.,a master of language,short concrete direct in effect,simple, even ungrammatical,sentence sentence structure is mostly simple or compound; ungrammatical elements Mark Twain made the colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of America.,An Excerpt from Chapter 31 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as hed got to be a slave, and so Id better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion, for two things: shed be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so shed sell him straight down the river again; and if she didnt, everybody naturally despises an ungratedful nigger, and theyd make Jim feel it all the time, and so hed feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of me! It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, Id be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame.,The key to understanding Twains novel is by realizing that its a satire.,What is Satire?,Satire - using sarcasm to denounce or expose something foolish So what is Twain trying to denounce? Racism. Irony - Opposite of literal meaning: I have a ton of homework - how nice! (this is also sarcasm) Or the opposite of what is expected to happen: Twain creates a racist protagonist to prove his point that racism is wrong.,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,Themes Humanism will finally win,Racism a safe haven Raft tool for escape Money separates the civilized from the “outcasts”,