南开大学 外国语学院 美国文学The_Jilting_of_Granny_____Weatherall.pptVIP

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall;;The setting for The Jilting of Granny Weatherall is the bedroom where Granny Weatherall is dying, though most of the action occurs in Grannys head. Told as a stream-of-consciousness monologue, it is the story of the last day in the eighty-year-old womans life. ;In her final hours with her surviving children around her bed, Granny Weatherall reconsiders her life and ponders her impending death. Almost against her will, her thoughts return to an incident that occurred more than sixty years earlier: She was left standing alone at the altar when her fiance George jilted her. ; George left her at the wedding, with the cake and guests, and Granny never let go of the memory. This memory is what dominates her thoughts as she nears death. At the end of the story as she asks God for a sign and doesnt get one, she feels that now God has jilted her. She blows out the light, and her life and the story are over.; Porter gradually reveals the details of the jilting through Granny Weatheralls fragmented recollections. In Granny Weatheralls semi-conscious state, the past mingles with the present and people and objects take on new forms and identities. ;stream of consciousness ; Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative (and at times dissociative) leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing a characters fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings. ;Stream of consciousness and interior monologue are distinguished from dramatic monologue, where the speaker is addressing an audience or a third person, and is used chiefly in poetry or drama. In stream of consciousness, the speakers thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself) and is primarily a fictional device. ;The term was first introduced to the field of literary studies from that of psychology by philosopher and psychologi