30s美国文学.pptVIP

John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968) The Glass Menagerie 玻璃动物园 (performed in 1945, standing for the beginning of American drama after WWⅡ.） A Streetcar Named Desire 欲望号街车 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 热铁皮屋顶上的猫 D. style (1) combination of coarseness and poetry (2) vivid southern speech (3) He helped to break taboos, long imposed on the American literature. 亚瑟·米勒 the finest realist of the 20th-century stage. With Tennessee Williams, Miller was one of the best-known American playwrights after WW II. He is a playwright of social philosophy, concerned with the inner thoughts of individuals and their conflicts with the morality of their society. Several of his works were filmed. a. Life 1915. born in Manhattan, the son of a comfortably middle class. The family moved to Brooklyn during the Great Depression which plunged his family into financial straits and influenced many of his plays. 1938. Graduated from the University of Michigan where he has all sorts of jobs to help pay for his education and also began to write plays. 1940. His marriage to Mary Grace Slatter ended in divorce. 1956. His marriage to Marilyn Monroe entailed great notoriety, also ended in divorce. 1962 Married photographer Ingeborg Morath. He died on 10 February 2005. b.Theme: dilemma of modern man in relation to family and work c. His plays All My Sons 全是我的儿子 Death of a Salesman 推销员之死 The Crucible 严峻的考验 Theatre of the Absurd荒诞派戏剧 1. existentialist philosophy, mainly in Europe 2. What is “absurd”? Humorous and meaningless. It is the story of a travelling salesman---a metaphor for American society---who chooses popularity and getting rich as the false goals for his life and is finally driven to suicide. Miller believes that the common man is the tragic hero of modern times. Willy Loman, a middle-aged salesman who is no longer able to earn a living. He receives only a small commission as he ages, and he slowly loses his mind and attempts to kill himself to get an amount of insu