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1、Sinclair Lewis,1885-1951,英语0918 叶妙华 2009521091,Sinclair Lewis,About the AuthorMajor works,About the Author,Harry Sinclair Lewis(February 7,1885 January 10,1951)was an American novelist,short-story writer,and playwright.In 1930,he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel
2、 Prize for Literature,(the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature)for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create,with wit and humor,new types of characters.,His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American society and capitalist values,
3、as well as for their strong characterizations of modern working women.,Major works,Main Street(1920)大街 Babbitt(1922)巴比特 Arrowsmith(1925)阿罗史密斯,Lewis showed the villagers to be narrow-minded,greedy,pretentious and corrupt.He attacked middle class for its indifference to art and culture,and its assumpt
4、ion that economic success made it superior.stylePhotographic(逼真的）,verisimilitude（逼真）Colloquialism(白话)characterization:he often created a type of character rather than an individualold fashioned in themelack in psychological exploration,point of view satirical critic of American middle class,Main Str
5、eet,The first of Sinclair Lewiss great successes.Main Street shattered(使碎裂)the sentimental American myth of happy small-town life with its satire of narrow-minded provincialism(地方主义).Reflecting his own unhappy childhood in Sauk Centre,Minnesota.Lewiss sixth novel attacked the conformity and dullness
6、 he saw in Midwestern village life.Young college graduate Carol Milford moves from the city to tiny Gopher Prairie after marrying the local doctor,and tries to bring culture to the small town.But her efforts to reform the prairie village are met by a wall of gossip,greed,conventionality,pitifully un
7、ambitious cultural endeavors,andworst of allthe pettiness and bigotry(偏执）of small-town minds.,Main Street,Lewiss portrayal（描述）of a marriage torn by disillusionment and a woman forced into compromises is at once devastating（摧毁）social satire and persuasive realism.His subtle characterizations and inti
8、mate details of small-town America make Main Street a complex and compelling work and established Lewis as an important figure in twentieth-century American literature.,Babbit,1.A novel that satirizes the American commercial culture and boosterism.The story was set in the fictional Midwestern town o
9、f Zenith,Winnemac,a setting to which Lewis would return in future novels.2.Largely a satire of American culture,society,and behavior,it critiques（评论)the vacuity(空虚）of middle-class American life and its pressure on individuals toward conformity.,Babbit,The book takes its name from the principal chara
10、cter,George F.Babbitt,a middle-aged partner,with his father-in-law,in a real-estate firm.Babbitt is professionally successful as a realtor（房地产经纪人）.He lives with only the vaguest awareness of the lives and deaths of his contemporaries（同代人）.Much of his energy in the beginning is spent on climbing the
11、social ladder through booster functions,real estate sales,and making good with various dignitaries（显要人物).,Lewis paints humorous scenes of Babbitt foolishly bartering for liquor(illegal at the time because of Prohibition),hosting dinner parties,and taking clients to view property.All of this is juxta
12、posed(并列）against backdrops（背景）of Babbitts incessant（无尽无休的）materialism and his growing discontent.,The Characteristics of Babbit,a typical member of Zeniths hypocritical,ignorant,unthinking,conformist middle class.,Babbittry in Modern Society,American society todayindeed,every modern societyhas its B
13、abbitts.They are men and women who subjugate their minds to the collective will in order to gain favors and form relationships that will speed their rise in the local power structure.To think independentlyor to reject accepted practices and traditionsis to risk losing social standing,as Babbitt discovered.,Thank you!,
