《美國文學(xué)》課件Walt Whitman

1、Life and worksBorn on Long IslandLittle education in his early yearsTaking various occupationsLeaves of Grass the first edition 1855The nine editions of Leaves of Grass and the critical acclaims it had received. Whitmans Ideas and his Leaves of GrassLeaves of Grass is not a single work, but the whol

2、e body of Whitmans poetry he wrote and published between 1855 and 1892. Either in content or in form, it is an epoch-making work. 1. The themesThe themes of the work are multiple. Whitman brings the hardworking farmers and laborers into his poems, into American literature. He attacks the slavery sys

3、tem and racial discrimination, praises the victory over slavery. He highly regards those who contribute to and sacrifice for peace and hails the social development. He extols nature, democracy, labour and creation, sings of mans dignity2. The features (style &language) 1). The use of free verse. Fre

4、e verse is poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. A looser and more open-ended syntactical structure is frequently favored.2). The use of parallelism and phonetic recurrence,namely the systematic repetition of words and phrases at the beginning, the middle or at the end of the lines. 2

5、. Style and Language3). The use of colorful words and long lists of vivid images. (catalogue technique)4). unique verse unit. The length of the lines is irregular and each verse unit is usually a complete statement.2. The features (style &language)5). Thought rhythm. Whitman used “ thoughts” to esta

6、blish the rhythm of the poem instead of meter. The poem does not move in terms of beats but thoughts.6) oratory. It gives people a comfortable feeling to hear the same word repeated several times and helps Whitman to get his message across clearly.2. The features (style &language)7). Various languag

7、e. He used many words such as slang words, foreign words, technical words, sexual words , learned words and coined words together.8)Emphasis on the intuition9)The spirit of democracy10). Significance of individualismLiterary termsFree Verse Free verse is a kind of poetry that lacks regular meter or pattern and may or may not rhyme. Depending on natural speech rhythms the lines may be of different lengths and may switch abruptly from one rhyme to another. When used by a skillful poet, it displays special rhythms an