Humor and Allan Poe’s Lionizing

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1、幽默和爱伦坡的捧为名流Humor and Allan Poes LionizingAbstract: This paper will show readers Poes another aspect of writing, humor, through analysis of Poes humorous words. Currently, most literary experts just divide Poes short stories into four types: tales of fantasy, tales of horror, tales of death and tales

2、 of detection. While Julian Symons, expert on Poe, separated tales of humor from other types of Poes short stories. Following Julian Symons view, I will simply introduce humor and Poes short story Lionizing from the viewpoint of humor. During my analysis of Lionizing, I am also planning to introduce

3、 influence on Poe to adopt humor and the effect that Poe achieved with the device of humor. Besides, through studying Poes humor and Lionizing, I just have a try to analyze the narrative techniques in his short stories. Whats more, this paper would relieve readers of the viewpoint that Allan Poes wo

4、rks were always lack of humor. Key words: Allan Poe; humor; Lionizing摘要：本文通过对爱伦坡的幽默文字的分析给读者展示其另一种写作风格幽默法。如今，大多数的文学研究专家仅仅把他的短篇小说分为四类：科幻小说、恐怖小说、死亡小说和侦探小说。然而，爱伦坡研究专家朱利安西蒙斯从他的小说中分出了幽默小说这一类。借鉴朱利安西蒙斯的观点，笔者将简单介绍一下幽默，并从幽默的角度分析爱伦坡的捧为名流这篇小说，同时也将介绍一下哪些因素影响着他采用了幽默手法以及他的幽默所达到的高度。通过学习、研究爱伦坡的幽默和捧为名流，笔者给读者展示爱伦坡的短篇小

5、说的叙事技巧。另外，本论文将试图使读者改变对爱伦坡的作品缺乏幽默的认识。关键字：爱伦坡；幽默；捧为名流ContentsI. Introduction .1II. Literature review .1A. Historical critics .11. Negative critics .12. Active critics .1B. Contemporary researches .2C. Realistic significance .3III. Humor .3A. Definition of humor.3B. Division of humor.3C. Function of hu

6、mor .4IV. Allan Poes humor .4A. Review of Poe with humor .3B. Influence on Poe to adopt humor .41. Culture influence.4 2. Social influence.5a. Hard capitalism 5b. Unique view of art.5C. Persona choice of Poe with humor .6D. Works of Poe with humor .7V. Analysis of Lionizing .7A. The plot of Lionizin

7、g .7B. The humor of Lionizing .81. Demonstration of sentences with humor82. Classification of humor into certain figures of speech .83. Analysis of each figure of speech .9a. Pun .9b. Overstatement .9c. Iron .9d. Paradox .10e. Parallelism .10f. Climax .11g. Repetition.114. Statement of effect of fig

8、ures of speech .12C. The influence of Lionizing .12VI. Conclusion.12Works Cited.14 I. Introduction Edgar Allan Poe(18091849), not only one of the most legendary writers in American literature but also one of the most controversial writers, can afford to stand in the world for a whole century for his

9、 readers coming, as had ever been said by Poe himself (Zhou 79). Now, he is really a figure in American literature or even the literature of the world, enjoying the honor of pioneer of the detective story, a founder of science fiction and a singular even unique genius of his century (Cao 79).Either

10、common readers or Poes researchers mostly focus on Poes several familiar stories such as tales of horror, tales of detection and so on. Nevertheless, tales of humor which were separated from Poes stories not many years ago are seldom referred to. And even his satirical feature in his stories is hard

11、ly noticed. As a matter of fact, the readers who have ever read Poes all works can discover his another style of literature, tales of humor, especially after Julian Symonss research on Poe. As tales of humor make up a third of Poes short stories, it is essential to study Poes humor and his tales of

12、humor in order to have a better understanding of Poe (Zhou 79). So this paper will focus on Poes humor, taking “Lionizing”, one of his tales of humor, for example.II. Literature reviewA. Historical critics1. Negative critics:William Butler Yeats was occasionally critical of Poe and once called him “

13、vulgar”. Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson reacted to The Raven by saying “I see nothing in it” and derisively referred to Poe as “the jingle man”. And Whitman said that it was “its narrow range and unhealthy, lurid quality” that most impressed him. Aldous Huxley wrote that Poes writing “fall in

14、to vulgarity” by being “too poetical”the equivalent of wearing a diamond ring on every finger (Mao 57).2. Active critics:Swinburne, Bernard Shaw, D. H. Lawrence, and W. H. Auden all admired and spoke highly of Poe. Shaws evaluation of Poes achievement in the three areas of works as a critic, poet an

15、d short story writer proved to be one of the most comprehensive and insightful. Poe was, Shaw said on the centenary of his birth, the greatest journalistic critic of his time; his poetry was “exquisitely refined”; and his tales were “complete works of art” (Chang 105-106).B. Contemporary researches

16、Now, literary experts always divide Poes short stories into four types: tales of fantasy, tales of horror, tales of death and tales of detection (Chen, Xu 362). They consider Poe the inventor of the detective-fiction genre and further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science ficti

17、on. Expert of Allan Poe, Julian Symons, separated tales of humor from other types of Allan Poes short stories. And Simons thought this kind of short stories should not be neglected for people to know about and make researches on Allan Poe. Besides, the author of Literature of America, Professor Cunl

18、iffe, also found humor from Poes short stories. And he drew the conclusion that there were some similarities between Poes humor and Mark Twains (Cunliffe 172-174).Pointing out that readers couldnt understand Allan Poes writing clearly and thoroughly only based on his tales of detective and tales of

19、horror, Cao Minglun studied Allan Poes hidden writing elementhumor. Cao pointed that Poes humor was sometimes difficult to find and understand. Whats more, Cao admitted, readers even the experts on Allan Poe, couldnt figure out the purpose of Poes humor. However, Cao put forward his view: Poes humor

20、, based on the American local humor, was used as a literary tool by him to produce works to meet peoples favor in that society, so that Poe could live his life. But in fact he was poor all his life. Cao also showed us that Poe used humor as a tool to poke joke on that unpopular society (Cao 5).Profe

21、ssor Zhu and editor Cheng hold the opinion that Poes humor had close relation with the American local comedy and local humor. They stressed that Poe was strongly influenced by the Frontier Humor existing in the southeast before, accepting Poes reading and studying absurd mythology based in the south

22、 (Zhu 73). So they agreed on the point “in America, the common comedy must influence Poe a lot” (Rourke 145). And also “Poes main writing style is horror, but he picks up seemingly crazy comedy element to make the horror” (Clarke 60). On the other hand, Professor Zhu and editor Cheng followed the id

23、ea that Poe, applying humor to his short stories, continued the traditional narrative of mythology.C. Realistic significanceStudying Poes humor would relieve readers of the view that Poes works were always lack of humor. Many readers and critics always complain that they cant find any humor in Poes

24、works. Maybe they dont make a general review of Poe. Anyway, humor was not considered to have anything to do with Poe. But, reading and studying Poes humor carefully, readers could get to know Poe further and better.On the other hand, after learning some of Poes humors in his works, we, readers, mig

25、ht have a chance to know Poe better and make more discussion about him. At the same time, they would try hard to find some reasons why Poe adopted humor. With a certain reason, whether it was right or wrong, readers would undoubtedly enhance the ability of appreciating literature.III. HumorA. Defini

26、tion of humorDifferent from funny, humor is the effect of employing rhetorical device, achieving the fact of embodying the contradiction of things, and joking about the absurd phenomenon through figures of speech such as pun, overstatement and so on. In literature, humor is mainly used to embody the

27、 evil of the society (Xiang 75).B. Division of humorHumor can be divided into several types according to its style and effect. But black humor, cold humor, white humor and Czechish humor are the main types, each with its own characters (Zhu 73).Black humor is a sub-genre of humor in which topics and

28、 events that are usually treated in a satirical or humorous manner while retaining their seriousness. The purpose of it is to make light of serious and often taboo subject matter, and some comedians use it an a tool for exploring vulgar issues, thus provoking discomfort and serious thought as well a

29、s amusement in their audience.Cold humor is a little similar to black humor, but different from it. It is the kind of humor that leads people to think the serious social vulgar issues. But usually the narrator doesnt purposely focus on the effect of humor. He or she just tells a tale of humor leisur

30、ely, without planning to achieve a big effect. To laugh or not, to think or not, it all depends on the listeners or readers. But in fact, the effect to think seldom fails.White humor is the kind of humor that firstly makes people feel terrified. But then people wont fail to realize its funny points.

31、Czechish humor, on the contrary, is the kind of humor that makes people laugh first. Then people will be inspired to think human and society.C. Function of humorHumor guides people to think and learn the reality behind the surface of phenomenon. In a certain period, it could form the forceful power

32、to attack the darkness of society.IV. Allan Poes humorA. Review of Poe with humorEdgar Allan Poe wrote many humorous stories with his talents and inheritance of early Native American humor. In the writing of these stories, Poe took material from Native American comedies and tales of humor, employed

33、traditional American narrative pattern and parodied traditional characters, on the basis of which his unique writing style was formed. Whats more, Poe is extremely disgusted and resentful towards the hard capitalism. At the same time, his style and thought cant be understood and admired by that soci

34、ety. With his “failure” at that time, he formed his new writing stylesatirical novelfull of humor and mockery.B. Influence on Poe to adopt humor1. Cultural influenceAs to writing, among the many main writers Poe inherits the characters either consciously or not from the traditional Americans (Rourke

35、 147). In the beginning of the 19th century, Poe set his feet on Philadelphia. It was in Philadelphia that Poe met Burton who was an actor of comedy before and later wrote many plays and tales of comedy that partly presented to Poe. Those all contributed to Poes preference for the Native American co

36、medies. And then Poe found a new landcomedy, popular among people at that timeto explore(Clarke 59).Langstery, who was a big influence on Poe, was a famous and original writer of Frontier Humor. Meanwhile the main keynote of Poes works comes from the western American, borrowing the elements of comed

37、y (Clarke 60). The old path breakers were engaged in fighting their way towards the west, having little time to complain about the surroundings and even to scold the hard life. Otherwise, they chose the style of mocking and humor to make life a little interesting. It was believed that humor could de

38、salinate hideousness.Borrowing Native American comedies and tales of humor, absorbing folk tales and myth he had ever heard into his stories and employing overstatement and absurdity to produce humor, Poe doesnt only meet all kinds of readers aesthetic necessity but also conveys his view and explora

39、tion towards humanity and society. 2. Social influencea. Hard capitalismPoe lived in the beginning of the 19th century when America found it an important period to develop itself after the success of the Civil War(17751783). During this time, America gradually set up new and efficient political and

40、economic systems, contributing to its ambition. To face the outside, through purchasing Louisiana (1803), the Second War with Britain (1812) and the war between Mexico (1845), America did not only water the flower of the Civil War but also enlarged the frontier and strengthened the power of the coun

41、try; to face the inside, the path breakers set up new homeland, farmland and pastureland in the desert and on the wasteland, driving away the native people Indians, which also strengthened the power of the country. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution arrived in America from Britain, so facto

42、ries stood on their feet just like in one minute. Then American economics found plenty of nutrition and viewed a great sight foreword. That means the capitalism in America was developing fast at that time (Zhou 79).However, the developing capitalism still carried the drawbacks, crisis being coming w

43、ith prosperity. The development of the revolution resulted in a series of social problems such as the distance between the rich and the poor, the damage towards the environment, the evil moral and so on. What was worse, the crisis between 1837 and 1842 worsened the capitalism, leaving hundreds of th

44、ousands of people out of work.Faced with the situation in that society, Poe was full of disgust towards the capitalism, scolding the dark reality, the crazy period and the most unlucky days in history. So Poe took his pen of humor to joke and imply the unchangeable and terrible capitalism.b. Unique

45、view of artPoes unique theory of art, preceding “The Poetic Principle” and the “decadent color” of his works were not popular at all with American literature that found the transcendentalism dominant. Just at that time, transcendentalism took the control of the American literature, insisting that li

46、terature had the duty of teaching social moral. However, Poe was strongly against that view, criticizing the purpose of literature was to teach and to publicize religion. Instead, Poe proposed that literature should contain nothing other than a kind of pure beauty. Therefore, Poe was not popular amo

47、ng American literature, and even he made a lot of enemies such as Emerson, Henry James, resulting from his persistence on the unique viewpoint of literature.As a writer, what Poe could do was just to delineate the phoniness, evil and hideousness of that society and to criticize the broken time with

48、humor, not failing to make people think a little after laughing.C. Personal choice of Poe with humorMost of Poes tales of humor came into being as a result of his poverty in his early life. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a fina

49、ncially difficult life and career. Before Poes education in University of Virginia in 1826, he lived a so-called happy life with the Allan family that adopted Poe after Poe became an orphan. But in the university Poe ignored the strict rules against gambling and alcohol. His gambling debts increased

50、 and he was often drunk. Allan was angry with Poes actions, but he didnt stop giving Poe money. While in fact, that sum of money couldnt meet Poes debts. At the same time, Poe claimed that Allan had not given him sufficient money to register for classes, purchase texts, and procure and furnish a dor

51、mitory. Allan did send additional money and clothes, but Poes debts increased. Poe gave up on the university after a year, not feeling welcome. Then he traveled, sustaining himself with odd jobs as a clerk and newspaper writer. Unable to support himself, Poe enlisted in the United States Army as a p

52、rivate. That same year, he released his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, but the book received virtually no attention. In the later years, the income of his works couldnt meet his end, enduring the death of his elder brother and then the hard life of his young family. At that time, mockery for

53、med its shape among common people and readers to face the hard life and broken society. In order to support his life, Poe employed humor into his short stories to earn more readers.Though Poe wrote such kinds of short stories to live the hard life, those works were still full of his efforts and deep

54、 thoughts (Wang 199)D. Works of Poe with humorJulian Symons, expert on Allan Poe, classifies some of Poes short stories such as “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esg”, “King Pest”, “Loss of Breath”, “The Spectacles” and so on into tales of humor. Besides, “BonBon”, “How to Write a Blackwood Article

55、”, “A Predicament”, “The Business Man”, “Three Sundays in a Week”, “Never Bet the Devil Your Head”, “Diddling”, “Some Words with a Mummy”, “Xing a Paragrab” are included. “Lionizing”, which is the object of study in this paper, also belongs to one of tales of humor of Poes short stories (Zhou 80).V.

56、 Analysis of LionizingGenerally speaking, most of Poes tales of humor are narrated by the first person “I”, which seems to be an advantage for Poe to drain off his inner pressure and impulse. Not only the narrator is the first person “I”, but also the narrator is usually involved in the tale, which

57、makes a great contribution to the effect of vividness for the story. Besides, it can easily guide the readers to the storys “trap” that the author makes on purpose. Whats more, the more frequently Poe uses the first person “I” to narrate the story, the more easily the readers feel the leading charac

58、ters inner world in the story. And the story “Lionizing” is not an exception (Jiang 53).A. The plot of LionizingThe short story is narrated by the first person “I”. Frankly speaking, this is a quite absurd tale. “I” was born somewhere in the city Fum-Fudge with “my” hands holding on to “my” nose tig

59、htly, which had never taken place in other places. As a result of “my” unique action of birth, “I” got the advantage of being a professional Nosologist. On “my” way of being a lion, “my” father did a great effort to train “me” and encourage “me”. It was “my” father that kicked “me” out of the house,

60、 which spurred “me” to be a lion. Both “my” unique nose and “my” proficient knowledge of Nosology contributed to “my” successa lion at that time. So “I” was admired by all kinds of people, ranging from magazine to Duchess. They praised “me” from their deep heart, they drew a sketch of “my” nose for

61、paying “me” a thousand pounds and they even kissed “my” nose. In all, the nose was really a big treasure for “me”. But in the end “I” shot off the nose of the Elector of Bluddennuff in a duel, which made “my” famous position in the society become bad or even worse. That was all because “I” didnt und

62、erstand in Fum-Fudge the greatness of a lion is in proportion to the size of his nose, but there was no competing with a lion that had no nose at all.B. The humor of Lionizing1. Demonstration of sentences with humorThis story is extremely absurd, narrated with humor now and then, which can be exhibited in a lot of sentences in this story. Firstly, the place “I” was born is called Fum-Fudge. The moment “I” was born, “my” father taught “me” a lesson about Nosology just because “I” was born with “my” hands holdi