American literature chapter 4.ppt

 American Modern Novels and Poetry ;Background ;the Jazz Age : the country became urban in these years; a new type of industrial economy developed. Mass production, mass consumption and mass leisure became essential to economic and cultural life and was soon to dominate the nations culture and institution. “ the second sex” : new women appeared on the scene, demanding the same social freedom as men enjoyed and effecting life signifcantly. after the war there was a tremendous letdown because nothing had changed. The heroism, patriosm and the zeal for democracy that the romantic notion of war had inspired;now proved to be false and tasteless to a generation who had once had faith in them. the loss of faith, which began noticeably with Darwin‘s theories of evolution and was intensified by the development of modern science. People found themselves living in a spiritual wasteland and feel homeless, estranged（疏远的） and haunted by a sense of doom（厄运）.;Imagism;like that of a musical phrase. Instead of having the poet tell us what we should be feeling, Pound and his colleagues wanted an image to produce the emotion, to “speak for itself”. The image is not decoration: it is central to the poems meaing. In fact, it is the poems meaning. ;Jazz Age;Lost Generation;Ezra Pound one of the 20th centurys most influential and controversial poets in the English literature. In 1907 Pound left the United States to travel in Europe and he became to dominate the avant-grade movemnts of the time — first leading the imagists and later championing vorticism (漩涡派） ;Works;Poetic features;visual image made a total poetic statement. His technique came from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry. On one hand the stressed clarity, precision, and economy of language. On the other hand, Pound mused（沉思） the traditional rhyme and meter in order to, as Pound put it, “compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of metronome（节拍）”. ; The apparition of these faces in the crowd