I. Life of Sherwood Anderson

A.    簡介

ž   美國小說家、短篇故事作家，出生於俄和俄州崁登區(Camden, Ohio)。

ž   1876年9月13日-1941年3月8日

ž   在安德森父親生意失敗後，他的家族被迫經常搬遷，最後於1884年定居於俄和俄州克萊德區(Clyde, Ohio)，安德森只能斷續地上學。

ž   他得到一個綽號 「工作狂」，因為他為了支持家計做過各式各樣的工作，包括：送報僮、油漆工、股票經理、馬僮等等。(“Anderson, Sherwood (1876-1941).”).

ž   在安德森17歲時，他搬到芝加哥(Chicago)，晚上商業課、白天做體力勞動的工作。

ž   在1895年受美軍徵招，西美戰爭時，他在古巴打仗。

ž   在1990年時，他進入俄和俄州史賓菲區(Springfield, Ohio)的衛登堡大學念書。

ž   他最後在芝加哥取得廣告文案編寫人的穩定工作且日趨成功。

ž   在1912年11月28日時，安德森精神崩潰，他接著放棄俄和俄州伊利亞區安德森工業董事長的身分，他為了「文學而放棄生意」，撇下成為一名美國富豪的夢想和他身為中產階級公民的職責，也就是丟下自己的妻子和三名年幼的子女，就他自己敘述，這是：「逃離他物質層面的存在」。(Wands).

B.     婚姻

(1)1904年：娶柯納莉亞‧連恩(Cornelia Lane)為妻。連恩是一個富家出生、受大學教育的女性。安德森開始小說創作，但他受情緒崩潰所苦，因此他在克里夫蘭(Cleveland) 散步了四天。之後，安德森聲稱其妻子對他的寫作企圖毫不表同情。他和連恩森了兩個兒子、一個女兒。

Cornelia Lane

“Cornelia Lane”, “Tennessee Mitchell” Jeannette's Take on Life. 2011. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://jeannettestakeonlife.blogspot.com/2011/01/basic-summary-of-sherwood-berton.html>

(2)1914年：和連恩離婚，娶了譚妮絲‧蜜曲 (Tennessee Mitchell)。蜜曲是一名雕刻家、音樂家。在他們結婚的時候，安德森出版了第一部小說，Windy McPherson’ s Son。之後他以1919年出版的Winesburg, Ohio受到關注。  然而，他們的婚姻不算成功。

Tennessee Mitchell

“Cornelia Lane”, “Tennessee Mitchell” Jeannette's Take on Life. 2011. Web. 19 July 2011. <http://jeannettestakeonlife.blogspot.com/2011/01/basic-summary-of-sherwood-berton.html>

(3)1923年：和蜜曲離婚，娶了伊莉莎白‧普羅 (Elizabeth Prall)。普羅是一名紐約(New York)書店經理，她和安德森一同搬到紐奧良。安德森第三段婚姻以離婚收場，他們於1928年分手。

Sherwood Anderson and Elizabeth Prall

Photo source:
U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925
about Shumanel Anderson

(4)1933年：娶伊李諾‧扣普海文 (Eleanor Copenhaver)。 扣普海文是一個瑪瑞安州、維吉尼亞州的本土、國際YWCA官員。在她的影響下，安德森旅行到南方工廠並研讀勞工工作情形。他們有一場快樂的婚姻。他們的情書於1991年出版。因為伊李諾的鼓勵，安德森開 始蒐集撰寫個人回憶錄的資料。

Sherwood Anderson’s Secret Love Letters (1991) (Eleanor Copenhaver)

C.     死亡

安德森前往一場非正式的旅途到美國南方，途經克里斯特保的運河。他之前在紐約不小心吞下一根3吋長的牙籤。接著，他搭乘軌斯萊恩的聖塔馬利亞號前往巴拿馬。安德森在船上感到嚴重的不適。根據他的驗屍報告，在安德森的結腸那裏發現一隻貫穿下腹腔的牙籤。

日期:1941年3月8日(享年64歲)

地點：巴拿馬(Panama)

原因： 腹膜炎

埋葬地點：維吉尼亞州瑪莉安區圓丘公墓(Marion, Virginia)

他的墓誌銘紀載： 「生命是偉大的冒險，死亡不是。」 (“Sherwood Anderson, A Brief Biography” 1).

重要影響

華特‧惠特曼

    詩展現 「感官享受、擁抱自然，對方言的敏感度，以及烏托邦的理想。」   (Downs 26).

ž   Mid-American Chants (1918)

-          聖經：新約聖經(1927)

葛楚‧史汀 (Gertrude Stein)

     「內容形式可以抽象。」

     「poet writing person」─ 「是安德森個人對世界的基本的回應。」(Downs     26)

     “Lyric self”─ 「是安德森核心最耐讀的散文詩。」(Downs 27).

例子:

“Song of the Soul of Chicago”
excerpt from Mid-American Chants (1918)

I'll talk forever — I'm damned if I'll sing. Don't you see that mine is not
a singing people? We're just a lot of muddy things caught up by the

stream. You can't fool us. Don't we know ourselves?

Here we are, out here in Chicago. You think we're not humble? You're
a liar. We are like the sewerage of our town, swept up stream by a
kind of mechanical triumph — that's what we are.

On the bridges, on the bridges — wagons and motors, horses and
men — not flying, just tearing along and swearing.

By God we'll love each other or die trying. We'll get to understanding
too. In some grim way our own song shall work through.

We'll stay down in the muddy depths of our stream — we
will. There can't any poet come out here and sit on the
shaky rail of our ugly bridges and sing us into paradise.

We're finding out — that's what I want to say. We'll get
at our own thing out here or die for it. We're going
down, numberless thousands of us, into ugly oblivion.
We know that.

But say, bards, you keep off our bridges. Keep out of our
dreams, dreamers. We want to give this democracy thing
they talk so big about a whirl. We want to see if we
are any good out here, we Americans from all over hell.
That's what we want.

D.    Novels 小說

E.    Short Stories 短篇故事集

III. Sherwood Anderson’s Influence

「舍伍德‧安德森對社會及前衛藝術散文的批判影響年輕一代的作家們，也就是所謂的「失落的一代」。失落的一代尊崇安德森不墨守成規及背叛主流文化的書寫，他脫離了主流家庭和合作生活的寫作模式。」(“Anderson, Sherwood (1876-1941).”).

 「費茲傑羅、海明威及威廉‧福克納試著以安德森的前衛風格在彼此文學中較勁。有一段時間，一部分的年輕作家看重安德森，尊崇安德森的年紀、經驗以及他不凡的生活風格，視安德森為批判和反現代社會的模範。」(“Anderson, Sherwood (1876-1941).”).

「舍伍德‧安德森對許多新生代作家而言擁有重要的影響力，藉由他的寫作和個人的仁慈心去影響年輕一輩的作家，包括福克納、海明威、沃夫、史坦貝克和其他作家。」(Sherwood Anderson Foundation).

Ripshin: Sherwood Anderson’s Mountain Retreat

“Map Of Winesburg.” Therblig.com. Web. 5 March, 2011.

A. 意象

ž   描述美國中西部小鎮的生活。

ž   故事中心表達對美國版本烏托邦的渴望。

ž   專注於勞力階級和居住生活的描寫。

ž   小鎮美景和「怪誕」的角色做對比

ž   「這本書當然不是滑稽諷刺的作品，本書致力於對美國中西部小鎮平常居民的生活表達同情感和了解….這些角色都像是溫‧畢斗賓，這些人生活得不成功，但至少都是正派的人。」(Townshed, 109).

ž   溫斯堡被視為是普遍人性經驗的小宇宙。

    B. 主題

-          孤立與失敗

「多數角色共同擁有生命熱情無法傳達的失敗經驗史或其他類似的苦惱。很多都是關於內向的人掙扎於內心仍在冒煙的火焰。這些短篇故事中的時刻通常都是一些角色嘗試面對重新顯露的熱情卻無力解決的時刻。故事短暫一瞥這些人的失敗經驗。」(Peterson).

-          田園景色

「敘述者通常使用嘲諷感性的主題去描寫老式、一般的溫斯堡農場這類小鎮。更進一步去看，他提供一個背景以供讀者去檢視人類生存原型的格局，包括：犧牲、啟蒙、和重生。」(Peterson).

-          缺乏絕對真相

「安德森相信人應該區分現實世界與幻想世界。他不相信一名作者無法同時書寫兩個世界或是呈現兩個世界之間抵觸的部分，但他擔心一個作者可能卡在寫實主義和自然主義而遺忘夢想、理想主義、超現實主義以及幻想的重要性。安德森的每一個角色至少掌握其中一個絕對的事實而視之為他們的真言。這些角色決定依照他們所相信的絕對真相去生存，這個事實使他們轉變成古怪的角色，且致使這個絕對的真相轉為謊言。」(Peterson).

  C.   結構

ž   有二十四個部分，每個部分互相關聯且描述不同角色在溫斯堡(Winesburg)的生活。

ž   「這部小說以 “怪誕之書”當作框架技巧，一個暱名、年老的作家在睡前產生人類追尋真相而致使他們變的古怪的先見，基本上回應居民包括父權思考的傑西班立到骯髒、過胖且仇恨女性的華許威廉等人的想法。」(SparkNotes).

ž   「這本書的總體架構由喬治威樂去發展，這位新手記者重複出現在各章：他是一個聽者、一個為讀者過濾小鎮市民所給的資訊的人。」(SparkNotes).

ž   最後，喬治威勒搭火車離開溫斯堡(Winesburg)，拋下他們的怪誕以及對事實無謂的追求。

Text cited: Winesburg, Ohio. New York: Signet, 2005.

Search for Religious Meaning: “Godliness,” “The Strength of God” and “The Teacher”

• “Godliness” and the Decline of Puritan Faith

ž   Background: American Puritans saw themselves as a Chosen People like the Jews of Old Testament

ž   Jesse Bentley: sees himself as Old Testament Jesse and hopes for a son David (58-59), but has daughter Louis instead

ž   In post-Civil War America, Jesse losing touch with God; cause: machines, printed words (decline of Bible) (67-69; 56-57).

• “Godliness”: ironic ending

ž   Jesse has a grandson David, rather than a son

ž   Jesse takes David to sacrifice a lamb—echoing Abraham and Isaac story (89).

ž   Terrified, David “slays” his grandfather with a slingshot, like O.T. David; ironically, Jesse becomes the Goliath he has always feared (91-92).

ž   David kills the old religion in order to “‘go into the world’” (91).

• “The Strength of God”: Protagonist

ž   Curtis Hartman, Presbyterian minister

Ø   Reticent—difficulty preaching; prepares in “study” of church bell tower (143).

Ø   His sermons (his words) do not “arouse keen enthusiasm” of worshippers—he doubts “the flame of the spirit” in him (144)

Ø   40 yrs. old; married to daughter of wealthy underwear manufacturer—lacks passion for wife (see 146).

• “The Strength of God”: Conflict

ž   One Sunday from tower study, while reading Bible, sees schoolteacher Kate Swift “lying in her bed and smoking a cigarette while she read a book”

Ø   Print culture opposed to religion, as in the story “Godliness”

ž   Then preaches with unusual “power and clearness”; wants his words to “touch and awaken” Kate Swift (145).

ž   “From wanting to reach the ears of Kate Swift . . . He began to want also to look again at the figure lying white and quiet in the bed” (146).

ž   On Sunday, breaks corner of window and sees Aunt Elizabeth Swift—feels saved by God—then “talked” to his congregation (rather than giving his planned sermon) about being tempted and saved (147).

Ø   Stained glass window: Christ and boy (144, 149).

ž   Discovers Kate Swift’s nightly habit of reading in bed, bare shoulders, neck—watches her, then goes “walking and praying in the streets” (148)—repeats 3X

ž   One January night, resolves to “give [him]self over to sin” (150).

ž   Waits for Kate Swift in the cold, thinks “the blackest thoughts of his life” (150).

Jan Massys, David and Bathsheba, 1562 (based on 2 Sam. 11-12).

• “The Strength of God”: Resolution

ž   Kate Swift finally appears, totally naked—she weeps and prays, resembles boy in stained glass

ž   “The Bible fell”; Hartman runs to George Willard, telling him KS “is an instrument of God, bearing the message of truth” (153).

ž   Hartman’s fist bleeding from breaking the window: “The strength of God was in me. . . .”

Ø   Window needs to be “totally replaced” (153), suggesting the need for a new religious order

• “The Strength of God”: Setting

ž   Hartman’s “study” in church tower, the window

ž   Kate Swift’s bedroom

ž   Hartman’s home

ž   The streets of Winesburg

ž   Darkness

• “The Teacher”: Protagonists

ž   Kate Swift, schoolteacher

Ø   “silent, cold, stern” in class, but sometimes happy

Ø   Not pretty, not healthy: “in danger of losing her hearing” (158) (Can she “hear” Hartman’s sermons? [see 146])

Ø   Actually “adventurous” and “passionate” (159-60).

Ø   “ablaze with thoughts of George Willard: Wants to “blow on the spark” of his genius (160).

ž   George Willard

Ø   Young reporter for Winesburg, Eagle—characters confide in him—he is a writer and he will leave Winesburg

Ø   Thinking of Kate Swift, builds fire in woods and then in room (155).

Ø   Also thinks lustfully of Helen White

• “The Teacher”: Conflict

ž   KS and GW: getting beyond words

Ø   At Fair Ground in summer: KS tells GW to “stop fooling with words,” don’t be “mere peddler of words”—”know what people are thinking about, not what they say” (161)

Ø   On Wed. night: George borrows book; Kate’s “lips brushed [George’s] cheek”: tells him it will be 10 years before “you begin to understand” (161)

Ø   Thurs. night: Kate goes to George at Eagle office, says, “I’ll be wanting to kiss you” (162); the embrace, the departure

• “The Teacher”: Resolution

ž   Enter Curtis Hartman, proclaims KS “an instrument of God bearing a message of truth” (163)

ž   George goes to bed muttering, “I have missed something Kate Swift was trying to tell me” (164)

• “The Teacher”: Setting

ž   KS’s house; George’s room at New Willard; the woods, the Fair Ground

ž   Streets of Winesburg

ž   Darkness

ž   Fires

ž   Snow: the druggist: “Snow will be good for the wheat” (154)

Ø   Sheets in George’s bed “like blankets of dry snow” (163)

• Interlocking Themes

ž   Religious revelation—getting beyond the Bible, beyond language

ž   Illicit sexual desire

ž   Reading / language (Bible / books)

ž   Power of setting

ž   “Adventure”

Ø   1. A hazardous or uncertain undertaking. 2. An unusual or exciting experience. (Lat. advenire, to arrive. See Advent) —American Heritage College Dictionary, 3rd ed.

Alienation, Anti-Narrative, and Modern Life in Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio

Alienation, Anti-Narrative, Modern Life: Interconnected concepts

ž   Alienation: Characters in Winesburg are frequently alienated from their environment, trapped in their private dreams, fears, regrets

ž   Anti-Narrative: The stories of Winesburg, Ohio, are often anti-narratives: stories of disappointed expectations or stories in which it’s difficult to say what has happened

ž   Modern life: Modern experience cannot be narrated in conventional ways: the anti-narrative is the right form for representing and perhaps escaping alienation

“Sophistication”

ž   Ending: “For some reason they could not have explained they had both got from their silent evening together the thing needed. Man or boy, woman or girl, they had for a moment taken hold of the thing that makes the mature life of men and women in the modern world possible” (248). What is this thing?

ž   Key words: “not . . .explained,” “silent,” “thing,” “for a moment,” “mature,” “modern world”

“Sophistication – Plot”

ž   George Willard

Ø   Waiting for Helen White

Ø   Walking “lonely” through the Fair and Main Street

Ø   “the backward view of life” (238); thinking of the future and of ghosts at the same time: “the sadness of sophistication has come to the boy” (239). Note: his mother has died

Ø   Wants to “touch someone with his hands” (cf. “Hands”)—wants a woman’s “understanding” (239)

ž   Helen White

Ø   Back from college in Cleveland, accompanied by young instructor—she wants him to “create an impression” but finds him “pedantic” (240), later “pompous” (243). Note: they are in the “grand-stand” at the Fair (240).

Ø   Thinking of George Willard—wants him “to feel and be conscious of the change in her nature” brought about by her urban experience (24).

Ø   Runs away from instructor, leaving him with her mother (243).

“Sophistication – Back-story”

ž   An evening the previous summer, George and Helen had walked out of town

ž   George had said: “I’ve been reading books. . . . going to try to amount to something. . . .  going to be a big man. . . . I want you to do something” (241).

ž   George now “ashamed of the figure he had made of himself” (241).

“Sophistication – Town”

ž   Crowds: “an American town working terribly at the task of amusing itself” (237)—amusement as work

ž   “In the street people surged up and down like cattle confined to a pen” (241-42).

ž   In crowd, George “utterly lonely and dejected” (242). George’s perspective on town changes. Contrast:

Ø   No longer interested in “boasting of Moyer” (243).

Ø   Note: Earlier interest in gossip/news: “Like an excited dog, [GW] ran here and there, noting on his pad of paper who had gone on business to the county seat, or had returned from a visit to a neighboring village” (128).

“Sophistication”: Climax

ž   Helen runs out, cries for George, and encounters him in the street en route to Helen’s house

ž   They go to abandoned Fair Ground, to the now empty “half decayed old grand-stand” where Helen had gone with instructor (244). Powerful, ambivalent setting:

Ø   Ghosts of the living, not the dead

Ø   Meaningless of life combined with intense love for the town

“Sophistication”: Climax (Anti-climax?)

ž   Anti-narrative: “I have come to this lonely place and here is this other”: silence, spell

ž   Anti-romantic: They kiss but then stop kissing. GW “wanted to love and to be loved by [Helen], but he did not want at the moment to be confused by her womanhood” (246). “reverence”

ž   Primitive: Descent into play (contrast with town’s hard work at amusement), like “excited little animals” (247).

ž   Helen stops in darkness—then walks with GW in “dignified silence”

VI. Further Reading

1.      A comprehensive website dedicated to Midwestern Literature sponsored by the University of Michigan. Contains a student project dedicated to Sherwood Andersons’ Winesburg, Ohio (1919)

       Partyka, Anna. "Sherwood Anderson." University of Michigan. Web. 19 July 2011.                  <http://www.umich.edu/~eng217/student_projects/anderson/index.htm>.

2.      “The Sherwood Anderson Foundation.” Description: The Sherwood Anderson Foundation has been helping developing writers since 1988 in order to honor, preserve, and celebrate the memory and literary work of Sherwood Anderson, American realist of the first half of the twentieth century. Link: <http://sherwoodandersonfoundation.org/>

3.      “The Sherwood Anderson Festival.” Though the Sherwood Anderson Festival committee has dissolved, the website remains on the internet, with some information on Sherwood Anderson. Link: <http://www.sherwoodandersonfestival.com/index.html>

4.      The Electronic Text of Sherwood Andersons’ Winesburg, Ohio. Sponsored by the University of Virginia Library’s Electronic Text Center. Link: <http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/AndOhio.html>

5.  A Study Guide of Sherwood Andersons’ Winesburg, Ohio. Description: A comprehensive book analysis of Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson from the Novelguide, including: a complete summary, a biography of the author, and analysis of themes, characters, and metaphors. Link: <http://www.novelguide.com/Winesburg,Ohio/>