英语论⽂爱伦坡⼩说中的现实主义全⼿写
1. Introduction:
Adgar Allan Poe is a productive American writer in 19th century. He played an important role in American literary, especially in the aspect of horror novels. He is considered to be the father of detective story. His stories were full of creative pace and attract readers impressively. With in the middle of 19th century all kinds of realistic schools rising, Poe attained unprecedented popularity. Although he was a famous writer in the literary of romantic period, his thought contained abundant modern meaning. Allan Tate said that for most modern people, Poe seemed like one of our unpopular cousin. Poe was isolated by us, but could not be removed from our mind. This almost was a kind of kin. We had to admitted this relationship: his things was destroyed, in the same way, which threatened us potentially. Another modernist poet Welber also issued the similar view. In the 1959 of his speech The House of Poe, he considered that Poe 's writings really contained abundant modern implied meaning. Poe created entirely new territory, meanwhile his waters was the best one. This thesis analyzed the implicit modern factor in his Gothic tale The Black Cat.
So-called modernism is not only a kind of literary trend and literary movement, but is also the expressive
form of literary style. Modernism start from the late of 19th century, decline from the middle of 20th century. It included so many literal phoneme, such as expressionism, futurism, surrealism, symbolism, and so on. a deliberate philosophical and practical estrangement or divergence from the past in the arts and literature occurring esp. in the course of the 20th century and taking form in any of various innovative movements and styles.
modernism actually is a kind of spiritual realism, which described dreamland and mysterious abstract moment world. Comparing to romanticism, it got rid of too much catharsis, showed more calmness and more reason. For realism, it disclosed the nature of matter and the truth of spirit directly, broke away from phenomenal shackles. In other words, modernism pursued the nature, discovered the mystery of human being 's inner heart, found person 's conscious activity. These pursuits showed so many aspects, also displayed the format of the novels creative, which pursued inner
show and artistic concept audaciously. The development of times and literary, especially the development of novel, should adopted and surround the development of human beings. People get more and more liberary from the material world so that they want to pursue the inner library and truth gradually.
Allan Poe is a writer in the period of romanticism, but his thought contained so much look-ahead mind, even affect the modern writers impressively. We can understand this point from one of his Gothic story The Black Cat.
2. Introduction of Edgar Allan Poe and The Black Cat
2.1.The Introduction of Edgar Allan Poe
2.1.1. His Early Life and Death
Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic. He considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.
He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts; he was orphaned young when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmon
d, Virginia, but they never formally adopted him. He attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. After enlisting in the Army and later failing as an officer's cadet at West Point, Poe parted ways with the Allans. Poe's publishing career began humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian". Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move between several cities, including
Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years later. He began planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced. On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.
2.1.2. His Gothic Novels and Influence
Poe's early detective fiction tales featuring C. Auguste Dupin laid the groundwork for future detectives i
n literature. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said, "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature Where was the
detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?" The Mystery Writers of American have named their awards for excellence in the genre the "Edgars". Poe's work also influenced science fiction, notably Jules Vernes, who wrote a sequel to Poe's novel The Narrative Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantuacket called An Antarctic Mystery, also known as The Sphinx of The Ice Field Science. fiction author H. G. Wells noted, "Pym tells what a very intelligent mind could imagine about the south polar region a century ago."
Like many famous artists, Poe's works have spawned innumerable imitators.One interesting trend among imitators of Poe, however, has been claims by claiervanyts or physics to be "channeling" poems from Poe's spirit.
Poe's best known fiction works are Gothic, a genre he followed to appease the public taste. His most recurring themes deal with questions of death, including its physical signs, the effects of decomposition, concerns of premature burial, the reanimation of the dead, and mourning. Many of his works are generally considered part of the dark romanticsim genre, a literary reaction to transcendenta
lism which Poe strongly disliked. He referred to followers of the movement as "Frogpondians" after
the pond on Boston Common and ridiculed their writings as "menphtor-run", lapsing into "obscurity for obscurity's sake" or "mysticism for mysticism's sake." Poe once wrote in a letter to Thomas Holly Chiver that he did not dislike Transcendentalists, "only the pretenders and sophistis among them."
Beyond horror, Poe also wrote satire humor tales, and hoaxes, For comic effect, he used irony and ludicrous extravagance, often in an attempt to liberate the reader from cultural conformity. In fact, "metzengerstein", the first story that Poe is known to have published, and his first foray into horror, was originally intended as a berlesque satirizing the popular genre.Poe also reinvented science fiction responding in his writing to emerging technologies such as hot air balloons in "The balloon-hoax".
Poe wrote much of his work using themes specifically catered for mass market tastes. To that end, his fiction often included elements of popular psedeusciences such as phrenology and physiognomy.
Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today.
genre2.2. The Introduction of The Black Cat
This novel was written trying to achieve an effect of shocking insanity. In this first person narrative the narrator tells of his decline from sanity to madness, all because of an obsession with two (or possibly one) black cats. These ebony creatures finally drive him to take the life his wife, whose death he unsuccessfully tries to conceal.
At the beginning, the narrator liked animals very much, especially cat. So he often took back some animals that had not its home. One day, he liked and adopted a black cat as soon as he saw it. Wherever the narrator went,the black cat also liked
following him. It is strange that the narrator hated it more and more seriously just because of an obsession with the black cat. So that he dug one of its eyes, even killed the cat by hanging.
Because his guilt with the cat, he wanted to find another cat that was similar with the dead cat. Perhaps he wanted to make up for his guilt. One day, he saw a black cat in a hotel, which seemed like the dead cat. In other words, the black cat was exactly alike the dead cat, except that the black cat 's chest had a whit picture, which seems like a scaffold. But the dead cat had not that. Just same as before that, the black cat always followed the narrator like the dead cat. Not difficult to think, the narrator hated it at last and wanted to kill it. Because of his guilt for the dead cat and his fear of the sec
ond black cat (the narrator was afraid of confessing ), he did not kill the black cat. One time, the narrator went to the basement with his wife, the black cat following him. He can not stand the cat and put up an axe to kill it, but this behave was prevented from his wife. He was so exciting and angry that he killed his wife first.
After he killed his wife, he buried his wife and the black cat that was alive in the wall of the basement. After three or four days, policemen doubted his and searched his house, because his neighbours did nt see his wife went out of their home. By three times searching, policemen had not any result or findings. At the last of searching, the policemen went the narrator 's house and wen down the basement. The narrator was not nervous any longer, he believed his skill was so good and the wall was really firmness, so the policemen did not find any suspicious point. The narrator started to show off his success the moment the policemen went away. When he said his house is so firmness, especially the wall, there is the sound of crying in the wall. The sound became more and more loud and misery. At this time, the wall was broken by the policemen. His wife and the second black cat was found.
3. The Modernism Factors in The Black Cat
3.1. Symbolism in the Fiction
3.1.1. The Definition of Symbolism
Symbolism is the earliest and most influential literal school in the western modernism literal movement. It divided into two periods: the former one and the late one. The former period of symbolism was popular in the late of 19th century of France. After the World War I, the later stage of symbolism emerged as the times required. In the 20th century ivory tower century, the later period of symbolism reached a climax.
Symbolism possessed distinctly characteristics: creating sick beauty, showing the highest inner reality, implying with symbol, building imagination in the illusion, increasing meditation effects. It developed the artistic characters in the former of symbolism, was against superficial lyric and moralized preachment, was for the unit between emotion and reason. It showed beauty and infinity in the conceptal world by symbol imply, imaging metaphor, free association and the musicality of language.
Symbolists focused on describing personal illusions and inner feelings in the subject, involved rarely in broad social themes. In the artistic way, they emphasized creation by using the texture image and the way to hint, contrast, comparison, association. As an international literary trend. Symbolism 's features was almost similar in the every country and districts.
3.1.2. Symbolism in the Fiction
symbolism is always an integral part of any Poe story. The most obvious of symbolic references in this story is the cat’s name, Pluto. This is the Roman god of the underworld. Pluto contributes to a strong sense of hell and may even symbolize the devil himself. Another immensely symbolic part of “The Black Cat” is the title itself, since onyx cats have long connoted bad luck and misfortune. The most amazing thing about the symbolism in this story or in any other of Poe’s is that there are probably many symbols that only Poe himself ever knew were in his writings.、
3.2. Expressionism in the Fiction
3.2.1. The Definition of Expressionism
Expressionism is an important modernism school that was popular in occident literary after The World War I, which is from at the beginning of 20th century to in the year of 30. It derived from Germany, and started from drawing, then affected literary. The features of expressionism: abstraction, deformation, the use of mask, the mixing of space-time, focus on the effect of acousto-optical, the technique of symbol and absurdity. Its theoretical program is " art is not performance, but is representation ". It claimed that literary did not reproduce the objective reality, but showed human beings ' subjective spirit
and inner exciting, and expressed that catching the essence of matter by appearance. It is no meaning that described the external form of things accurately.
Expressionism in the literary focused on the subjective world, in particular, the strong and naked reveal of mental, emotional and thought. They did not attach the faithful describing of external objective things, and required to break the appearance of the things and show the essence of the inner things. In the poem 's waters, expressionism had in similar to the late of symbolism in the literary. However, there was some differences. Expressionism paid much attention to the realistic society and the promising of human beings, showed enthusiasm for life interference, but symbolism show indifferent for the huge social materials. On the skills, expressionism was bold and unconstrained in the literary, but symbolism was precise carving.
3.2.2. Expressionism in the Fiction
This fiction told the whole case in the name of narrator(also the first person), Jung has shown through ample cultural evidence that man's conscious, rational tendencies are represented by the animus, whereas its complement, the feminine principle in man's soul representing unconscious, instinctual forces, is symbolized by the anima. In Alchemical Studies Jung said, "I have defined the anima as a personification of the unconscious in general, and have taken it as a bridge to the unconscious" .
For Gargano, the black cat of Poe's tale is a direct analogue to the narrator, with propensities for both good and evil. But in Jungian terms, the cat functions as the narrator's anima. Poe made a similar association in the essay "Instinct vs Reason -- a Black Cat," in which he argues that instinct, like a cat, commands a wider range of perceptions than does reason because it relies on irrational impulses.
3.3. Surrealism in the Fiction
3.3.1. The Definition of Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual art works and writings of the group members.
Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur. however, many Surrealist
artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader Andre Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.
Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I and the most important center of th
e movement was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film and music of many countries and languages, as well as politic thought and practice, philosophy and social theroy.
Many realisms thought that literary is not reproduction reality any more, but express surrealism. In other words, which is that make dream and reality transformed into absolutely reality. Surrealism is the unit between realism and unrealism. For the content, they were against logical conceptual work for showing surrealism. They praised subconsciousness and dream,and even let literary become the production of dream, subconsciousness and mentally ill. Surrealism, which emphasized dream and denounced realism, become the important mark in the literary. They focused on writing people 's subconsciousness and dream and things ' happen. They also put out
auto-writing form to the creative way that the above mentioned content.
3.3.2.Surrealism in the Fiction
Poe’s plot development added much of the effect of shocking insanity to The Black Cat. To dream up such an intricate plot of perverseness, alcoholism, murders, fire, revival, and punishment is quite amazing. This story has almost any plot element you can imagine a horror story containing. Who could
have guessed, at the beginning of the story, that narrator had killed his wife? The course of events in The Black Cat’s plot is shockingly insane by itself! Moreover, the words in The Black Cat were precisely chosen to contribute to Poe’s effect of shocking insanity. As the narrator pens these he creates a splendidly morbid picture of the plot. Perfectly selected, sometimes rare, and often dark, his words create just the atmosphere that he desired in the story. Expressions such as apparition, vile haunts, and fiendish malevolence were added for atmosphere. Another way that Poe used word choice was with synonyms. The cat was not only the black cat,it was the playmate, the beast, the brute, the apparition, and the monster.
character development was most important to Poe’s effect of shocking insanity in The Black Cat. Without the perversely insane narrator this story can’t exist, let alone put across an effect. It is mentioned many times that he loves animals and that he is an alcoholic. In fact many of his rages were caused more by alcohol rather than the black cat. The cat(s) was also vividly developed. At one point early in The Black Ca t, the narrator spends two paragraphs describing his then delightful pet. But as the story progresses both characters change dramatically. The cat is dynamic in that it is hung, reappears with a white splotch on its chest, and has a different disposition than before. The narrator spirals out of control into fits of rage and numerous hideous, unthinkable actions, commencing with the walling up of his own wife (and unbeknownst to him the black cat too) in the cellar.
the parallel structure of the story is complete. The attempt at repression and the eventual re-emergence of the subconscious in the first part of the story takes more
extreme forms in the second part; but the insight that the various catastrophes should force upon the narrator never comes. Gargano sees the narrator's lack of moral insight as the cause of the tragic events, but another important cause is his lack of psychological insight into the nature of the instinctual part of man's personality. In acting against it, he is destroyed. Like Jung, Poe warns his readers who are suspicious of the instinctual side of human nature that it can and should be the source of profound intuitions and creative acts. In Instinct vs ReasonC A Black Cat, he ranks it above reason.
He yet perpetually finds himself involved in the paradox of decrying instinct as an inferior faculty, while he is forced to admit its infinite superiority, in a thousand cases, over the very reason which he claims exclusively as his own. Instinct, so far from being an inferior reason, is perhaps the most exalted intellect of all. It will appear to the true philosopher as the divine mind itself acting immediately upon its creatures (p. 538).
When the narrator saw another black cat, he always thought the black one is the dead one. But he killed the former cat, and the former cat burned in the fire at night. Why the later cat is the former cat? This point showed surrealism that things is not reproduction any longer, but emphasized dream.
4. Conclusion
Modernism includes so many schools, such as symbolism, surrealism, expressionism, and so on. It gets rid of too much catharsis, showed more calmness and more reason. modernism pursued the nature, discovered the mystery of human being 's inner heart, found person 's conscious activity. These pursuits showed so many aspects, also displayed the format of the novels creative, which pursued inner show and artistic concept audaciously. The development of times and literary, especially the development of novel, should adopted and surround the development of human beings.
In The Black Cat, some factor of modernism can be found. This thesis showed the factors of modernism in this fiction from three aspects of modernism. They are symbolism, expressionism, surrealism. After read the fiction, it is found that The cat
was not only the black cat, it was the playmate, the beast, the brute, the apparition, and the monster. Symbolism possessed distinctly characteristics: creating sick beauty, showing the highest inner reality, implying with symbol, building imagination in the illusion, increasing meditation effects. This fiction contained the point of symbolism.
For expressionism, its features abstraction, deformation, the use of mask, the mixing of space-time, fo
cus on the effect of acousto-optical, the technique of symbol and absurdity. From this fiction, Allan Poe wrote it in the first name. It makes the reader be personally on the scene. The author wrote the process that the cat was treated cruelty, even was killed showed the point of expressionism.
The Black Cat narrates in the name of narrator(also the first name) that the narrator killed one black cat because of the cat 's obese and his own ill mind. However, he also killed his wife and another black cat, and then burned them in the wall of basement. At last, they was found by policeman because of his praise. In The Black Cat, the narrator thought the later cat is the dead cat, but the narrator killed it by his hands, even the dead cat was burned by the fire at that night. At last, his wife and the later cat was burned in the wall by the narrator, but after some days, the policemen came his house to search some evidence. There is strange sound form the wall. Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur.These strange all showed the point of surrealism.
Of course, there are other factors of modernism need to find and search in The Black Cat, even in Allan Poe 's works, there are so many factors of modernism. His works affect so many modern writers impressively. His thoughs worth learning for us.
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