欧亨利小说的人性主题英文论文

欧·亨利短篇小说的创作风格 ------“欧·亨利式的手法”鉴析 内容提要： 欧·亨利（O·Henry ，原名 威廉·西德尼·波特 1862-1910） 是美国现代短篇小说的奠基人，他的作品编织了一个个幽默而伤感的短篇故事，有“美国生活的幽默百科全书”之称，他的艺术成就在于他独特的具有讽刺艺术的创作风格，其艺术风格的代表则是独特的反衬与隐蔽的批判，加之其著名的“欧·亨利式的结尾”，人们将其统称之“欧·亨利式的手法”。欧·亨利给美国短篇小说带来了“新的生命”，同时又以他那独具风格“含泪的笑”称誉世界文坛并产生了“惊人持久的影响。”① 二、妙用曲笔使得亦真亦幻 隐蔽的批判如影随形 欧·亨利生活与创作的年代，正美国资本主义飞速发展并走上帝国主义阶段的时期，国内资本主义高度集中，低层人民的生活日益贫困，而面对这样的现实生活的美国文学，已经从早期的浪漫主义逐渐转型为严峻的现实主义。作为诞生于这种典型的历史环境中的现实主义和人道主义作家，欧·亨利是扎根生活并且面对现实的。但是大众文化取向逐渐走向低级趣味与哗众取宠的社会现实也让作家认识到，出版商与杂志老板需要的是投向大众文化的猎奇故事、幽默笑话甚至是庸俗的社会诽闻，是结局要让人惊奇、给人愉快的文化快餐。为了艺术生存，也为了艺术追求，这也就迫使作家在小说创作的手法上多用些功夫，以违心求得转向，用技巧造就适应。而这种转向与适应的结果，却是崭新的欧·亨利式的创作艺术的诞生。 关键词：欧·亨利 独特的反衬 隐蔽的批判 曲笔 “欧·亨利式的结尾” 欧·亨利是美国现代短篇小说的奠基人，同时亦与法国作家莫泊桑以及俄国作家契诃夫齐名，是响誉世界的短篇小说三位大师之一。但是比起另外两人来，欧·亨利所经受的磨难与非议则更加的多，人生之路也异常的坎坷曲折。欧·亨利的一生充满了不幸，正如他在《麦琪的礼物》中的感叹：“人生是由低泣、抽臆、微笑组成的，而抽臆占了大半部分。”②然而艰辛生活给了作家灵感的源泉，并最终磨砺出一代文学巨匠，这不能不说是生活对作家本人的一种幽默，仿佛作家人生中的“欧·亨利式的结尾” 。 一、从以小见大到笑中含泪 独特的反衬无处不在 欧·亨利小说中表现出的明显的艺术特色之一既是其“以小见大”的反衬式的创作风格，作家擅长运用剧情以及人物的反差来映衬出“笑中含泪”的艺术效果，这种风格的养成是与他的生活经历息息相关的。作家的一生十分坎坷，三岁丧母的欧·亨利跟着当教员的姑姑学习，十七岁当学徒，后来到银行当出纳员，之后办过杂志，由于银行的怀疑使得他惹上了官司，被迫逃往洪都拉斯，回国探望病重的妻子后得到的却是妻子病故的噩耗与他被判监禁五年的双重打击。但是人生的艰辛与坎坷并没有击倒作家的信心，相反给了他宝贵的生活阅历这比创作上的财富，他以身边熟悉的小店员、医生、律师、潦倒的艺术家甚至小贩与小偷等社会底层的小人物来作为写作的对象，为读者们展示出小人物们的真实的生活画面和他们丰富复杂的感情世界。作家所处时代的美国并没有变成“人人享有民主、自由、幸福权利”的天堂，却成了世界上“贫富间鸿沟最深的国家之一，在那里一方面是一小撮卑鄙龌龊的沉溺于奢侈生活的亿万富翁，另一方面是千百万永远在饥饿线上挣扎的劳苦大众。”③作家将描写纽约社会生活的集子命名为《四百万》，因为他认为构成纽约的社会基础是“四百万”的纽约民众，而绝非是“四百个”富翁。在短短四十八年的人生旅途中，他为人类留下了一步长篇、将近三百个短篇小说的文学遗产，其中大多数都是在描绘平凡的小人物们的生活。

“Prolific American short-story writer，amaster of surprise endings,who wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York oity．Typicalfor 0．Henry’S stories is a twist of plot which turns on an ironic orcoincidental circumstance．O．Henry’S humorous，energetic styleshows the influence of Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce． William Sydney Porter(O．Henry)was bom in reenboro,North Carolina．When William was three,his mother died，and hewas raised by his parental grandmother and paternal aunt．Williamwas an avid reader，but at the age of fifteen he left school，andthen worked in a drug store and on a Texas ranch．He continued toHouston：After moving to Austin；Texas，in 1882，he married．

研究方面的文章网上非常不好找，但是有这方面的书出版 你可以去图书馆或者大型书店查一下，有这本书。中年文学评论家、国立华侨大学研究生导师阮温凌教授的学术论著《走进迷宫——欧·亨利的艺术世界》（40万字），新近由中国社会科学出版社出版。这是著者学术研究中的第三部力著，为我国目前唯一的一部全面系统研究欧·亨利的独家之作，被外国文学界专家、教授誉为“填补了我国学术界的一项空白”。作者 阮温凌出版社 中国社会科学出版社书名《走进迷宫——欧·亨利的艺术世界》

1862年9月11日，美国最著名的短篇小说家之一欧·亨利（）出生于美国北卡罗来纳州一个小镇。曾被评论界誉为曼哈顿桂冠散文作家和美国现代短篇小说之父。他出身于美国北卡罗来纳州格林斯波罗镇一个医师家庭。父亲是医生。他原名威廉·西德尼·波特(William Sydney Porter)。他所受教育不多，15岁便开始在药房当学徒，20岁时由于健康原因去得克萨斯州的一个牧场当了两年牧牛了，积累了对西部生活的亲身经验。此后，他在得克萨斯做过不同的工作，包括在奥斯汀银行当出纳员。他还办过一份名为《滚石》的幽默周刊，并在休斯敦一家日报上发表幽默小说和趣闻逸事。1887年，亨利结婚并生了一个女儿。 正当他的生活颇为安定之时，却发生了一件改变他命运的事情。1896年，奥斯汀银行指控他在任职期间盗用资金。他为了躲避受审，逃往洪都拉斯。1897年，后因回家探视病危的妻子被捕入狱，判处5年徒刑。在狱中曾担任药剂师，他在银行工作时，曾有过写作的经历，担任监狱医务室的药剂师后开始认真写作。他开始以欧·亨利为笔名写作短篇小说，于《麦克吕尔》杂志发表。1901年，因“行为良好”提前获释，来到纽约专事写作。 欧·亨利在大概十年的时间内创作了短篇小说共有300多篇，收入《白菜与国王》(1904)、《四百万》(1906)、《西部之心》(1907)、《市声》(1908)、《滚石》(1913)等集子，其中以描写纽约曼哈顿市民生活的作品为最著名。他把那儿的街道、小饭馆、破旧的公寓的气氛渲染得十分逼真，故有“曼哈顿的桂冠诗人”之称。他曾以的生活为题材，写了不少短篇小说。作者企图表明道貌岸然的上流社会里，有不少人就是高级的，成功的。欧·亨利对社会与人生的观察和分析并不深刻，有些作品比较浅薄，但他一生困顿，常与失意落魄的小人物同甘共苦，又能以别出心裁的艺术手法表现他们复杂的感情。他的作品构思新颖，语言诙谐，结局常常出人意外；又因描写了众多的人物，富于生活情趣，被誉为“美国生活的幽默百科全书”。因此，他最出色的短篇小说如《爱的牺牲》(A Service of Love)、《警察与赞美诗》(The Cop and the Anthem)、《带家具出租的房间》(The Furnished Room)、《麦琪的礼物》(The Gift of the Magi)、《最后一片藤叶》（The Last Leaf）等都可列入世界优秀短篇小说之中。他的文字生动活泼，善于利用双关语、讹音、谐音和旧典新意，妙趣横生,被喻为[含泪的微笑]。他还以准确的细节描写，制造与再现气氛，特别是大都会夜生活的气氛。欧·亨利还以擅长结尾闻名遐迩，美国文学界称之为“欧·亨利式的结尾”他善于戏剧性地设计情节，埋下伏笔，作好铺垫，勾勒矛盾，最后在结尾处突然让人物的心理情境发生出人意料的变化，或使主人公命运陡然逆转，使读者感到豁然开朗，柳暗花明，既在意料之外，又在情理之中，不禁拍案称奇，从而造成独特的艺术魅力。欧·亨利把小说的灵魂全都凝聚在结尾部分，让读者在前的似乎是平淡无奇的而又是诙谐风趣的娓娓动听的描述中，不知不觉地进入作者精心设置的迷宫，直到最后，忽如电光一闪，才照亮了先前隐藏着的一切，仿佛在和读者捉迷藏，或者在玩弄障眼法，给读者最后一个惊喜。在欧·亨利之前，其他短篇小说家也已经这样尝试过这种出乎意料的结局。但是欧·亨利对此运用得更为经常，更为自然，也更为纯熟老到。欧·亨利给美国的短篇小说带来新气息，他的作品因而久享盛名，并具有世界影响。美国自1918年起“欧·亨利纪念奖”，以奖励每年度的最佳短篇小说，由此可见其声望之卓著。在纽约，由于大量佳作出版，他名利双收。他不仅挥霍无度，而且好赌，好酒贪杯。写作的劳累与生活的无节制使他的身体受到严重损伤。1907年，欧·亨利再婚。可惜，第二次婚姻对他来说并没有什么幸福可言。1910年６月３日，他病倒了。两天后，即６月５日，与世长辞，死于肝硬化，年仅48岁。 从题材的性质来看，欧·亨利的作品大致可分为三类。一类以描写美国西部生活为主；一类写的是美国一些大城市的生活；一类则以拉丁美洲生活为对象。这些不同的题材，显然与作者一生中几个主要生活时期的不同经历，有着密切的关系。而三类作品当中，无疑又以描写城市生活的作品数量最多，意义最大。欧·亨利思想的矛盾和他作品的弱点，与他的创作环境有极大关系。即使在他已经成名，受到读者广泛欢迎的时候，他的生活也依然经常处于拮据状态。他曾经直言不讳地说：我是为面包而写作的”。

Henry was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. His father, Algemon Sidney Porter, was a physician. When William was three, his mother died, and he was raised by his parental grandmother and paternal aunt. William was an avid reader, but at the age of fifteen he left school and then worked in a drug store and on a Texas ranch. He continued to Houston, where he had a number of jobs, including that of bank clerk. After moving in 1882 to Texas, he worked on a ranch in LaSalle County for two years. In 1887 he married Athol Estes Roach; they had one daughter and one son., he died in New York on June 5th 1910. In this novel, there are many short ficition,every of them are worth reading,but The Gift of the Magi left me a deep impression is, I think this is a good article I have ever read, it is meaningful. In this article, used his style of writing narrated a winding and simple story with humorous and a light sad, in western literary area this theme of presenting the gift in the Christmas eve is so ordinary, some of them is wonderful, but I think The Gift of the Magi is the best one. First, let’s looked from the content. the entire article took one pair of poorly love husbands and wives in American presenting the Christmas gift as a middle line, The family housewife in order to save each coin, she count each one. Even though, entire family only left one dollar and eighty-seven cents on Christmas Eve. The author did not describe much about the poor family, he used one dollar and eighty-seven cents to draw the whole novel, the housewife Della who loves her husband deeply count the money three times, she cried sadly for she could not buy her husband an satisfactory gift. was good at using little words to make the sketch and build atmosphere, then the reader will lost in the article, tasting and pondering the character"s destiny. The gloomy atmosphere which was built by one dollar and eighty-seven cents through the whole novel, even when the couples saw gifts, it still contained a little pain. The author had written a poor husband"s and wife"s pain, also enlightens for the people let them obtain beautiful influencing and lead the reader’s interest to a deep boundary when he was describe the character’s thought disposition and plot. This is the true value of The Gift of the Magi. In order to give her husband an exquisite watch chain, Della sold her beautiful hair though his husband James loved it. James realized that Della had worshipped long for the set of combs, side and back, in Broadway window, he also sold his valuable watch which belonged his grandparents. Della’s hair and James’ gold watch is the most precious property which in this poor family. In order to expresses the deep sincere love to the spouse, all of them had lost these two at the Christmas eve. Happiness in a twinkling had paid the expensive price, but following is the deep pain. after consider the true life ,O Henry had screened the main plot carefully, made this ordinary theme bright again, gold watch and beautiful hair are the great wealth for the poor family which gain 20 dollar per week, This regret brought astringent feeling, caused each reader’s heart to tremble. This is condensing the real contradiction which the social real life is unable to solve multiplies really because of the writer deep style of writing, cause reader"s pitying with the sympathy, and lead them to a more profound ponder. For a while sentimental impulse Della and James had extremely sacrificed most precious thing for each other. In those only money all-powerful societies, their gift can not regard as wisdom, they lost wealth, but they deepened the precious sincere love. In love and in wealth contradiction they have sacrificed the latter. The novel revelation society reality does not depend on preaching, but depend on the development of character’s emotion. Inspires the reader to touch, feels the character who have the tragedy color. In this society which money can buy love, psychology and sentiment appear the distortion, the sincere deep love between James and Della has filled with writer’s idealism. oes not write the money to ruin love in this society, but wrote the artistic flavor in this gloomy lens, admired the intelligence of James and Della, This is certainly unusual manpower pen, Therefore, the work gives us is not depression and gloomy, But is the beautiful pursue and the attachment, Thus lead the reader to the noble boundary. Processing novel ending, Is O Henry’s most creative contribution, also causes him enjoys the great reputation in American and in the world history of literature. He is good at designing plot theatrically, lays down the foreshadowing, finally appears a beyond expectation result in the ending which makes the reader to feel suddenly sees the light, joy after sorrow, also beside anticipation and in reason, strike the table and shout bravo. Henry is worth the world famous novelist, his excellent writing technique enabled his novel to have the title of . I have read many kinds of article, before reading ’s article, I liked detective book, but after reading this book, I knew short fiction is better, Henry’s humors gave me a deep impression, it will never feel boring no matter how many times you have read.