矛盾意象解读艾米丽狄金森的死亡诗歌

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1、矛盾意象解读艾米丽狄金森的死亡诗歌 本科毕业论文 设计 题目 Contradictory Images Interpretationof Emily Dickinsons Death -Themed Poems 院 系 Contradictory Images Interpretation of Emily Dickinsons Death-Themed PoemsA thesissubmitted in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Artsin the School of Forei

2、gn Languages and LiteraturesChongqing University of EducationSchool: School of Foreign Languages & LiteraturesMajor: English Class: 4Name: Student No.: Supervisor: Date: May 10th , 72013重庆第二师范学院本科毕业论文（设计）原创性声明本人郑重声明：所呈交的论文是本人在导师的指导下独立进行研究所取得的成果。除了文中特别加以标注引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或未发表的研究成果。本人完全意识到本声

3、明的法律后果由本人承担。作者签名： 年 月 日AcknowledgmentsFirst and foremost, Id like to present my sincere thanks and great appreciation to my supervisor, Tang Hongbo. It is a great privilege as well as pleasure to work on the thesis under his guidance. What he gives me is not only insightful suggestions and invaluabl

4、e comments, but also unfailing encouragement. Without his consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form.Second, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the professors and teachers at the Department of English, for example, Zhang Xiaoqing and X

5、iao Kunxue who have instructed and helped me a lot during my thesis writing.At last, I sincerely extend thanks to my parents, my friends and my roommates for their care, support and encouragement. They are the sources of confidence and strength for me to overcome all the difficulties in life and stu

6、dy. Without them, the accomplishment of the thesis will be impossible.Abstract：t in the history of American literature, whose works still arouse great interest in modern critics. Dickinsons poetry is famous for its splendid yet death-themed poems. This paper attempts to conduct a study on the contra

7、dictory images in Dickinsons death-themed poetry for the purpose of unveiling the true essence of her poems. At first, the author of this paper analyzes the images in several death-themed poems, and tries to reveal the contradictory images in the poems. Then, the author builds up a connection betwee

8、n the contradictory images and emotional experiences of the poet. According to the major influences of contradictory images discussed in this paper, the reason of using contradictory images would be divided into two categories and discussed more detailedly through specific examples. At last, the aut

9、hor would try to discuss the major rhetorical devices of the contradictory images in Dickinsons poems. Adopting the method of close reading, this paper concentrates on the impact of Dickinsons life experiences on her writing and tries to explore the inner world of the poet and the meaning behind the

10、 verses. The author of this paper believes that all the contradictory images in Dickinsons poems are not created by accident or merely out of intuition. Instead, they are deeply rooted in her everyday life experiences and her own exploration of life and death.Key words：death image; religion; contrad

11、ictory摘要：艾米丽?迪金森（1830-1886）是19世纪与惠特曼齐名的著名诗人。她是美国文学史上最具影响力的诗人之一，至今她的诗歌仍能激起现代评论家的兴趣。其中, 以死亡为主题的诗歌更富盛名。 为了揭示她死亡诗歌的精髓，本文尝试研究矛盾意象在迪金森的诗歌中的体现。首先，作者分析了几首死亡诗歌中的意象，进而揭示矛盾意象。然后，让矛盾意象和诗人的情感经历相联系。文中通过讨论矛盾意象的主要影响，其产生原因分为两个部分, 本文将用具体例子进一步进行论证。最后，作者尝试讨论了在死亡诗中，矛盾意象的主要修辞手法。 本文主要采用了文本细读的方法，着重于诗人的生活经历对其创作产生的影响，继而深入探究诗

12、人的内心世界，挖掘意象以及诗歌背后的内涵。作者认为，狄金森诗歌中的矛盾意象并非凭空创造出来或是未经思考的，而是来源于诗人的生活经历及其对生命、死亡等问题的自我探索。关键词：死亡; 意象; 宗教; 矛盾Thesis StatementThis paper researches contradictory images in Emily Dickinsons death-themed poems from aspects of: images, contradictory images, and rhetoric devices.Contents1. Inroduction1 1.1 The in

13、troduction of the poet1 1.2 Masterpieces of Emily1 1.3 Death-themed Poems of Emily22. Literature Review2 2.1 Foreign study on Emilys death-themed poems2 2.2 Domestic study on Emilys death-themed poems23. Images in Emilys Poems4 3.1 Images of a dying eye in Ive Seen a Dying Eye4 3.2 Images of a fly i

14、n I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died5 3.3 Images of a journey in Because I Could Not Stop for Death74. Contradictory Images in Emilys Death-Themed Poems8 4.1 Contradictory in her poems8 4.2 Contradictory images in Emilys poems9 4.3 Reasons of contradictory images9 Death and God9 Dickinsons paradox in re

15、ligion faith105. Rhetorical Devices Used to Express Contradictory Images11 5.1 Rhyme11 5.2 First person in the poem12 5.3 Ellipsis in the poem12Conclusion14Bibliography15 Introduction1.1 Introduction of the poet Emily Dickinson 1830-1886 was one of the greatest female poets in the American history.

16、She was regarded as one of the legend female poets of America. Dickinson never married and she lived in almost total seclusion for the last twenty-five years. Obviously Dickinson belongs to a thinker, and she is a private poet. Living a reclusive life, for a long time cut off from the society, she m

17、ainly wrote poems for the need of herself. Therefore, Dickinson found poetic freedom in her unique ways of poetry composing, which took time for the critics and readers of her poems to adapt themselves to her unconventional syntax. However, sadly, Dickinson gained her status as a prestigious poet po

18、sthumously. At her death, she left close to 1800 poems, but only fewer than a dozen of them were published. Dickinson left behind her huge chaotic mass of manuscripts of poems, some carefully revised, others carelessly jotted down on odd scraps of paper.1.2 Masterpieces of EmilySince the appearance

19、of the 1890 volume of Poems by Emily Dickinson, further publications such as Poems by Emily Dickinson 1981 , Letters of Emily Dickinson 1894 , and Poems by Emily Dickinson 1896 attracted a lot of readers at the end of the nineteenth century. Literary critics showed their complex attitudes and expres

20、sed their comments on this “new- born” literary star, which can be seen from Emily Dickinsons Reception in the 1890: A Documentary History. After the publication of her poems, people began to do research on her, poetry life experiences, and special attitudes to the world. Scholars and critics divide

21、d her poetry into different groups according to the themes, such as love, nature, religion and death. Among more than 1880 poems created by Emily Dickinson, we are familiar with some of them, such as A Sepal, Petal, and A Thon, I lost A World - the Other Word, Dying At My Music, The Nature Smile - T

22、he Mother Must. But her death-related poems are more famous.1.3 Death-themed poems of Emily Although never left home, there few living like she did know love and death. Some critics regard her works as gift! On modern poetry view: “poetry is a conversation between poet and self”. Dickinson, in all h

23、er life again and again thought life, death, eternal life, religious discipline and natural meaning. In her nearly one thousand eight hundred poems, 600 of them are about the death theme, such as I die for beauty, Ive seen a dying eye, I Heard a Fly Buzz-When I Died, Because I could not stop for Dea

24、th. The death-themed poems which she writes are full of life artistic conception, and peculiar, and significant meaning. Many abstract objects are replaced by contradictory images. Literature Review 2.1 Foreign study on Emilys death-themed poemsThe first phase of Emily Dickinsons Criticism began wit

25、h the Todd and Higginsons co-effort to publish her first series of poems in 1924, with an unsatisfactory response that she was appealed to readers more as an elusive figure than as a successful poet. It was not until the publication of Rebecca Pattersons The Riddle of Emily Dickinson that the critic

26、al practices came to a blooming stage of significant research. Allen Tate was among the first critics who took Emily Dickinson seriously as a poet, and his appeal for a serious textual study of her death poetry was significantly rewarded, with a pioneering effort of Donald Thackrey and Henry Wells t

27、extual criticism.Recently, American scholars pay much attention to the language styles of Dickinsons poetry and try to use Bakhtin, Miehel Foueault and J. Jacques Derridas creative theories of fiction to discuss language art of Dickinsons death-themed poems. At the same time, researchers try to reev

28、aluate Dickinsons status in literary history. 2.2 Domestic study on Emilys death-themed poemsIn recent years, there are over 70 papers of domestic study on Emily Dickinson. These researches mainly focus on the following aspects: Emily Dickinson in solitude, not marry in her life, her paradox in reli

29、gion faith, Emily Dickinsons poetry theme, artistic style. The following are some domestic studies.Rongrong Xue in Ruminating over Death Emily Dickinson has said , for living in the secular world, she is already dead. She puts all the energy are collected into a spiritual world that belongs to herse

30、lf completely, and ponders the life, death and life, lets her own art accomplishment in calm and mature sublimating. Guohua Sun in Death and life Death Themes Emily Dickinsons Poetry Research points out, from the attitude to the concept of death, she does not stay in the fear of death and helpless o

31、f the emotional expression, but through the constructing the unique artistic conception open up a new perspective of thinking about life and death, the essence of life. Zhifang Xiao, also in Contradictory Soul Interpretation of Emily Dickinson studies Dickinsons Death Poems which has the feature of

32、duality, points not only the ruthless of death, but also death brings the liberation and calm.Ju Sun in Death Equals Immortality and Death Does not Equal Immortality discusses Dickinsons conversion of belief in death poems. Dickinsons life caused by the special historical environment and personal li

33、fe of faith, death poetry creation in the contradiction between death and life journey is the result of Emily Dickinson early Christian faith and faith consciousness of belief formation process, in fact it also reflects the period of the American people belief change. At the same time, Yan Qu in the

34、 article Passion in Emily Dickinsons Poemson the Motives of Nature,Love and Death has also said that although we cant ignore Dickinsons fear of death, her focus on the death are because she loves the life so much. Dianhong Yang in Love, Death and Eternity: Interpretation of Emily Dickinsons Poems, t

35、hinks that Emily Dickinson poems content is rich, and her poetry should not simply be classified because her love poems are closely related to culture, and religious, death poetry closely links to the eternal, death-themed. This paper is under the help of previous researches, comprehensive analysis

36、Dickinson death theme poems. Re-acknowledge of Emily Dickinson concerns about life and death theme. Making her poems have more strong sense beyond the significance and the more strong sense of ultimate concern. Emily Dickinson has not stopped research on the meaning of death. Therefore, author puts

37、the poetry contradictory images and the fate of the poet together to research, which can achieve a significant understanding about Emily Dickinsons poem.3. Death Images in Emilys Poems Emily uses images in her poems, and that is why we can follow her footprint to appreciate the death journey. Death

38、in her poems image is immortality reality. Using different perspectives to read her poems can achieve incessant new recognition. From strong fear of death at her earlier age, till to create imagination of death at the end of her life, poems manifests Dickinson transcendent life. Dickinson finds her

39、own identity on death imagination, and she selects lonely way to live. She can understand her inner world better, therefore, she creates magical poems. Now this paper will talk about some images in 3 death-themed poems. 3.1 Images of a dying eye in Ive Seen a Dying EyeIve seen a dying eye,Run round

40、and round a room,In search of something, as it seemed,Then cloudier become,And then, obscure with fog,And then be soldered down,Without disclosing what it be, T were blessed to have seen. The poem Ive seen a Dying Eye is, like the following poem I Heard Abuzz When I Died, a poem concerned with the e

41、xperience of a dying person. There are two different observations taking place in the poem, one from the dying eye and the other from the narrator. The observation from the dying eye is, it is clear, the search for something just before the sight is obscured by death. The search, then, is in fact be

42、ing made by the poet who, in the presence of death, hopes to find an answer to the riddle of death. Death, as the poem goes, presents its uncertainty and uncontrollability. The first line indicates directly what the subject of the poem is, and then follows the description of the subject in the secon

43、d line. The similar pronunciations of run and round show a sense of uncertainty. The eyes are searching for something, and no one else except the dying person himself can know what exactly it is. The word “seemed”, plus the dash following it, suggests the narrators suspect of the availability of the

44、 object the eyes are searching for. As death approaches, the eyes become “cloudier”, which indicates the end of the search is also being closer. “Obscure with fog” is the following state of the eyes vision, and then finally comes the last state“be soldered down”, which means that the channel of visi

45、on is totally shut. The narrator witnesses the whole process, but she yet can not provide the exact result of the dying eyes searching. The question of what the dying has seen at the moment of death is still unanswered, but the narration of death and narrators potential suggestion encourage one to i

46、magine and to produce his own version of answers through his imagination.3.2 Images of a fly in I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died Her continuous thinking of death results in her imagination as the dead. In many of her poetry, she expresses her wondering thoughts about death. She believes in immortality

47、, but she is also curious about what happens after death. With her writing, Dickinson manages to describe the process of death by sensing the conversion of the process from life to death. Actually, the poet becomes so involved in the detailed description of that process that the readers can discover

48、 quite a few poems, by which Dickinson interprets her deeply idea of life and death.I heard a fly buzz when I died, The stillness round my formWas like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm.The eyes beside had wrung them dry, And breaths were gathering sureFor that last onset, when th

49、e king Be witnessed in his power.I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me ICould make assignable, and then There interposed a fly,With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me,And then the windows failed, and then I could not see to see.I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, w

50、hich is remarkable for its virtuosity, shows her imagined “experience of the dead”. In this poem, Dickinson places herself in the mind of a woman who is died. She relives the moment of death, and the hope for immortality that should pursue. With family and friends gathered around, her heightened sen

51、se reports the crisis in flat domestic terms. The bereaved family at the bedside is full of tears, for the moment of death arriving, a stillness such as “between the heaven of storm” prepares the reader physically to hear the finial agonizing gasp of the dying. In an atmosphere of calm inner and qui

52、et outward, the dying person collectedly proceeds to bequeath his or her worldly possessions, and while engaged in this activity of “willing”, discover his attention withdraw by a flys buzzing.It is the same moment of death, and it is the same comparison of quiet and move. What the difference is an

53、important image which the author added in this poem a fly. This fly in the silent room is humming buzz at begin, and at the end, the instability of the intermittent cry uncertain stumbling buzz , till the disappearance of the voice. The authors description in this poem aims at reflecting how the her

54、o in the poem is undergoing from conscious, perceptual state, into the unconscious insensible state. The room is quiet until it is broken by the fly hum, which means death is really approaching. Then, the heros awareness and consciousness gradually decline, and the flys voice, shape and color vanish

55、 in the heros eyes. In the whole process described, the poet always remains a state of objective and calm, and brings experience of reason death to readers.3.3 Images of a journey in Because I Could Not Stop for DeathBecause I could not stop for Death,He kindly stopped for me,The carriage held but j

56、ust ourselvesAnd Immortality.We slowly drove, he knew no haste,And I had put awayMy labor, and my leisure too,For his civility.We passed the school where children played,Their lessons scarcely done,We passed the fields of gazing grain,We passed the setting sun.We paused before a house that seemedA s

57、welling of the ground,The roof was scarcely visible,The cornice but a mound.Since then it is centuries, but eachFeels shorter than the dayI first surmised the horses headsWere toward eternity.Each poem of Dickinson manifests the dignity of death, then it widens to immortality and the eternity. This

58、poem is not an exceptional which has added more joys on the way to death which is a strange way to appreciate. The poem starts with a leisurely image. At the beginning, the speaker feels totally at ease and the frightening death is described as a familiar friend, gentle and polite. Continuingly, the

59、 poem goes upon a basic metaphor that life is a journey. It is truly rather an old comparison, but Dickinson enriches it with her creativity and imagination: “School, where children strove”childhood, “Fields of Gazing Grain”maturity, and “Setting Sun”old age. Then “the Dews drew quivering and chill”

60、 makes the speakers feel terribly cold, which perhaps means that they are getting nearer and nearer to the tomb. Nevertheless, at last, her companions, immortality and death, finally desert her and leave her alone toward eternity. So it seems that though death cheats her and at the same time deserts

61、 her, the experience of death itself is not painful. Emily Dickinsons poems just illustrate this class of essence of life, which then lead us to a world of imagination and thinking.Because I Could Not Stop for Death is the interpretation of mortal experience from the standpoint of immortality. A the

62、me stemming from that is the definition of eternity as timelessness. The poet runs these themes of mortality, immortality, and eternity, in terms of a journey image. The image plays successful role in her poem, which is used to unite the frame of the poem. The poem perfectly represents sorrow, solit

63、ary. Emily places the conflicts of life and death in the particular atmosphere, so that when human face death, the death road, color the complicated mentality is necessary to eternal life.4. Contradictory Images in Emilys Death-Themed Poems Contradictory and image are two main clues in Emilys death-

64、related poems. So the following texts focus on the contradictory images in poems, and analysis the reasons that Emily puts so many contradictory images in her death-themed poems. 4.1 Contradictory in her poems In the poem I heard a Fly Buzz when I Died, the relationship between the setting and the speaker is shown in a flashback, and the scene is laid not in the present, but it is in the past, although the voice of the narrator speaks from the present. It is understandable that the dying persons inner violent commotion of the feelings