I. Анализ художественного текста (лингвистическое задание).

Отрывок художественного произведения является основой для дальнейшей работы – чтения, выборочного перевода и комплексного анализа. Большой объем предлагаемого текста определяется спецификой государственного экзамена – большим количеством требований к профессиональной подготовленности выпускника, проверяемых в процессе этого вида аттестационного испытания.

Комплексный анализ проводится по определенной схеме и может включать следующие виды заданийинтерпретационного характера:

1) Define the theme of the extract. Formulate it in one sentence.

2) Define the style of the story. Point out some of the characteristic features of it.

3) Comment on the composition of the story. Point out the introduction, the climax, the anti-climax if there are any. Motivate your choice.

4) Name the characters of the extract. What methods of characterization are used in the portrayal of each? Do a thorough analysis of all the portrait-sketches illustrating what you say with quotations from the text.

5) Define the dominant atmosphere of the narrative. By what stylistic devices is it created? Give examples.

6) Comment on the manner of the writer. Is his style lucid or obscure? Say what tropes (stylistic devices) he uses in the text. What is the effect achieved by this?

7) Point out composition devices and comment on them. Say if each of them serves its purpose.

8) Analyze the language of the extract in a few well-motivated sentences.

9) Summarize the contents of the text (10-12 sentences).

10) Formulate the central problem of the text. Point out the arguments the author uses to support it. Give your own opinion on the problem in focus.

11) Find in the text the leading ideas and present them in the form of clear-cut statements.

Find in the text statements with which you agree; with which you disagree. Explain your attitude.

Образец анализа художественного текста

John Galsworthy (Born 1867- Died 1933)

TO LET

This novel is the last volume of the Forsyte Saga. It marks both the end of the first, stage in the development of the Forsytes and the beginning of the second, post-war stage in the chronicle of their doings. That final stage is the subject of Galsworthy's second trilogy, the Modern Comedy, where the younger generation of the Forsytes are depicted against the background of England's post-war decay. In the following extract the novelist holds up to ridicule the decadence of modern bourgeois art. On this occasion he puts his ideas into the mouth of Soames Forsyte, formerly satirized as the "man of property". Soames's scornful bewilderment at sight of Expressionist paintings renders the feelings of the novelist himself.

CHAPTER I

Encounter………..

Arriving at the Gallery оff Cork Street, however, he paid his shilling, picked up a catalogue, and entered. Some ten persons were prowling round. Soames took steps and came on what looked to him like a lamp-post bent by collision with a motor omnibus. It was advanced some three paces from the wall, and was described in his catalogue as "Jupiter". He examined it with curiosity, having recent­ly turned some of his attention to sculpture. "If that's Jupiter," he thought, "I wonder what Juno's like." And suddenly he saw her, opposite. She appeared to him like nothing so much as a pump with two handles, lightly clad in snow. He was still gazing at her, when two of the prowlers halted on his left. "Epatant!” ¹ he beard one say.

"Jargon!" growled Soames to himself.

The other boyish voice replied:

"Missed it, ² old bean; ³ he's pulling your leg. When Jove and Juno created he them, ⁴ he was saying: 'I'll sec how much these fools will swallow.' And they've lapped up the lot." ⁵

"You young duffer! ⁶ Vospovitch is an innovator. Don't yon see that lie's brought satire into sculpture? The future of plastic art, of music, painting, and even architecture, has set in satiric. ⁷ It was bound to. People are tired — the bottom's tumbled out of sentiment."

"Well, I'm quite equal to taking ⁸ a little interest in beauty. I was through the War. You've dropped your handkerchief, sir."

Soames saw a handkerchief held out in front of him. He took it with some natural suspicion, and approached it to his nose. It had the right scent — of distant Eau dc Cologne — and his initials in a corner. Slightly reassured, he raised his eyes to the young man's face. It had rather fawn-like ears, a laughing mouth, with half a toothbrush growing out of it on each side, and small lively eyes above a normally dressed appearance.

"Thank you," he said; and moved by a sort of irritation, added:

"Glad to hear you like beauty; that's rare, nowadays."

"I dote on it," said the young man; "but you and I are the last of the old guard, sir."

Soames smiled.

"If you really care for pictures," he said, "here's my card. I can show you some quite good ones any Sunday, if you're down the river and care to look in."

"Awfully nice of you, sir. I'll drop in like a bird. ⁹ My name's Mont — Michael." And he took off his hat.

Soames, already regretting his impulse, raised his own slightly in response, with a downward look at the young man's companion, who had a purple tie, dreadful little sluglike whiskers, and a scornful look — as if he were a poet!

It was the first indiscretion he had committed for so long that he went and sat down in an alcove. ¹⁰ What had possessed him to give his card to a rackety ¹¹ young fellow, who went about with a thing like that? And Fleur, always at the back of his thoughts, started out like a filigree figure from a clock ¹² when the hour strikes. On the screen opposite the alcove was a large canvas with a great many square tomato-coloured blobs on it, and nothing else, so far as Soames could see from where he sat. He looked at his catalogue: "No. 32 - 'The Future Town' — Paul Post." "I suppose that's sa­tiric too," he thought. "What a thing!" But his second impulse was more cautious. It did not do to condemn hurriedly. There had been those stripey, streaky creations of Monet's, ¹³ which had turned out. such trumps; and then the stippled school, ¹⁴ and Gauguin. ¹⁵ Why, oven since the Post-Impressionists ¹⁶ there had been one or two painters not to be sneezed at. During the thirty-eight years of his connoisseur's life, indeed, he had marked so many "movements", seen the tides of taste and technique so ebb and flow, that there was money to be made out of every change of fashion. This too might quite well he a case where one must subdue primordial instinct, or lose the market. He got up and stood before the picture, trying hard to see it with the eyes of other people. Above the tomato blobs was what he took to be a sunset, till some оnе passing said: "He's got the airplanes wonderfully, don't you think!" Below the tomato blobs was a band of white vertical black stripes, to which he could assign no meaning whatever till some one else came by, murmuring: "What expression he gets with his foreground!" Expression? Of what? Soames went back to his seat. The thing was "rich", as his father would have said, and wouldn’t give a damn for it! Expression! Ah! they wore all Expressionists ¹⁷ now, he had heard, on the Con­tinent. So it was coming here too, was it? He remembered the firstwave of influenza in 1887 — or 8 - hatched in China, ¹⁸ so they said. He wondered where this — this Expressionism—had been hatched. The thing was a regular disease!

(J. Galsworthy. To Let, Foreign Languages Publishing House. Moscow, 1952, pp. 48-50)

¹ épatant (French) — thrilling, smashing

² missed it— here: you have misunderstood it

³ old bean - old man (sl.)

⁴ when Jove and Juno created he them — a paraphrase of the Biblical story of the origin of man: "male and female created he them"

⁵ they've lapped up the lot — here: they have taken everything seriously

⁶ duffer - fool (sl.)

⁷ the future of plastic art... has set in satiric — in future satire will be the main thing in art

⁸ I'm equal to taking — I am able to take

⁹ drop in like a bird — here: come with pleasure (sl.),

¹⁰ alcove — here: a recess in the wall

¹¹ rackety — here: light-minded, flighty

¹² like a filigree figure from a clock – old-fashioned clocks had arrangement of which the hour struck some figures made their appearance

¹³ Claude Monet (1840—1826)—a well-known French painter оf the impressionist school ¹⁴ stippled school - painters who painted in dots

¹⁵ Paul Gauguin (1848—1903) — French painter and sculptor

¹⁶ Post-Impressionists — painters who succeeded the Impressionists in the 20^th century art

¹⁷ Expressionists — artists belonging to one of the schools in art very popular in the first decades of the 20th century

¹⁸ hatched in China —here: coming from China

COMMENTS

In this description of Soamcs's impressions of a gallery stocked with pieces of modern art Galsworthy's realism is displayed to great advantage. Within a very few pages the reader gets a vivid notion not only of the new school in painting, but also of the man who is so indignant with it. On the one hand his disgust and his perplexity throw light on the fictitious masterpieces and their false standards of beauty; on the other hand those masterpieces become an efficient means of characterizing Soames himself. The same end is served by the contrast between the soundness of his judgment and the flightiness, the restlessness of those of the new generation who delight in such works of art. Abundance of thought and feeling in a short passage where nothing much actually happens, dislike of emphasis and pathos is an important feature of Galsworthy's quiet and re­strained art.

His intense contempt for the mannerisms of modern painting is not poured out either in withering sarcasm or in grotesque exaggera­tion, but finds an outlet, in a tone of matter-of-fact irony. The sup­posed statues of Jupiter and Juno arc to Soames just "a lamp-post bent by collision with a motor omnibus" and "a pump with two handles" respectively. Seen through the eyes of hard common-sense, brought down to the crudest elements, these statues appear particu­larly ridiculous.

The same process of reducing a complex whole — a pretentious picture of "The Future Town" - to a number of primitive daubs serves to expose the futility of Expressionist art. However hard Soames tries, he can sec nothing but "a great many square tomato-coloured blobs" and "a band of white with vertical black stripes". The very sound of the word "blob", imitating the dripping of some liquid, is derogatory here and suggests that the paint was dropped on the canvas anyhow. This plain, sensible view is comically opposed to the enthusiasm of other and younger spectators who seem to recognize a wonderful picture of airplanes in the red blobs and a pe­culiar "expression" in the black and white stripes. The false pre­tences of the picture bearing the pompous name of "The Future Town" are the more clearly revealed as Soames anxiously does his best to go abreast of the times and make his taste sufficiently up to date. The harder the beholder's efforts to appreciate, the clearer the painter's failure to succeed. Soames's business instincts are well expressed in his fear to misunderstand the exhibits and to miss an opportunity of profit. Thus, oven when Galsworthy does make a mouthpiece of his hero, the latter's utterances, however close they come to the author's opinions, are appropriate to the personality of the speaker and come convincing from his lips. It is Galsworthy him­self who has no respect for Expressionism, but Soames voices that feeling in a way peculiarly Forsytean: he is afraid to trust his eminently healthy taste, his own sense of beauty, for, as he reminds himself, "it did not do to condemn hurriedly. There had been those stripey, streaky creations of Monet's..."

These words make part of a prolonged inner monologue, which in the later volumes of the Forsyte Saga and in the whole of the Modern Comedy becomes Galsworthy's favourite method of charac­terization. The inner speech of the hero is indissolubly linked with the author's comments, so much so, really, that when speaking of Soames, for example, Galsworthy resorts to expressions entirely suitable to Soames ("His second impulse was more cautious", "He remembered the first wave of influenza in 1887 — or 8 — hatched in China, so they said").

With Galsworthy the inner monologue is different from what it is, say, in Meredith's books. For one thing, the author of the Forsyte Saga uses it much more often. For another thing, he inter­feres with his comments much less than his predecessor. Lastly, the language of the monologues (particularly when they are Soamcs's) is much more concise and laconic, utterly devoid of sentiment. It is quite free of abstract terms, and is exceedingly terse, practical and full of idiomatic constructions commonly used in everyday speech ("painters not to be sneezed at", "they had turned out such trumps" etc.). Soames the businessman makes himself heard when in his meditations on art practical considerations come to the top: "there was money to be made out of every change of fashion", "lose the market" and others. Even his metaphors, when they put in an ap­pearance, are few and definitely "low" - as, for instance, the com­parison of Expressionism to influenza hatched in China: "He won­dered where this — this Expressionism — had been hatched. The thing was a regular disease!" These metaphors are born out of Soames's disgust for what he considers a corruption of art and are therefore significant of his attitude towards painting: they prove that Soames had aesthetic criteria of his own and was capable of disinterested evaluation.

Besides the inner monologue and characterization through sur­roundings, Galsworthy, ever resourceful in his search for the realis­tic approach, makes ample use of the dialogue as an efficient means to let his characters speak fur themselves without the author's interference. In the present excerpt Soames unexpectedly finds him­self involved in a talk with young strangers, one of whom is an ad­vocate of "extreme" innovation of art. Their speech might be de­scribed as a curious combination of vulgar colloquialisms ("duffer", "lo lap up", ¹ "the bottom's tumbled out of sentiment") with book­ish and learned phraseology ("innovator", "plastic art", "to bring satire into sculpture), of English and French slang ("old bean", "to pull somebody's leg", "épatant") with solemn parody of Biblical constructions ("Jove and Juno created he them"). Exaggeration («awfully nice of you", "I dote on it [beauty]") goes hand in hand with understatement ("I'm quite equal to taking a little interest in beauty").

Galsworthy perfectly realized, — indeed, lie was one of the first writers to do so, — that the flippant manner and the crude speech of post-war young people was the result of a severe shock of disillu­sionment: they wore so disappointed with those fine words that used to go with a fine show of public feeling that for them "the bottom had tumbled out of sentiment", and satire both in art and in mode of talk seemed to be the only possible alternative.

Their manner of speaking, cynical, affectedly coarse, substituting descriptive slangy catchwords for the proper names of things, is strongly contrasted to Soames's formal, plain speech, with his habit of giving things their common standard meanings and never saying more than is strictly necessary. The contrast in manner and speech habits is of great importance in lending vitality to both interlocu­tors, in stressing the immense difference between the younger men's irresponsibility and rootlessness and Soames's resolute clinging to property, his dogged hold on life. As a follower of the realistic tradi­tion, Galsworthy never fails in attaching special significance to the tiniest details: Soames approaches his handkerchief, that Michael has picked up for him, to his nose to make sure it is really his — with that suspicionsness that is so characteristic of' the Forsytes. He raises his hat only slightly in parting from young Mont and looks downward at his companion, for he is naturally distrustful of new acquaintances and inclined to be no more than coldly polite (raising his hat ever so little) and supercilious — in looking down upon any­body whom he does not recognize as his equal and half expects to be troublesome. All these little things are very suggestive of that fear of giving oneself away that Galsworthy elsewhere described as a feature by which it is as easy to tell a Forsyte as by his sense of property. ²

Galsworthy's realism does not only lie in his capacity for making his hero part and parcel of his surroundings and convincing the read­er of his typicality: ho is a fine artist in reproducing the individu­al workings of his characters' minds. Soames, the man of proper­ty, is also a man of deep and lasting feelings. Such is his devotion to his daughter Fleur, who was "always at the back of his thoughts" and "started out like a filigree figure from a clock when the hour strikes". Incidentally, this dainty simile, so utterly unlike the matter-of-factness that characterizes the usual reproduction of Soames's prosaic mind, is expressive of thepoetic colouring that Galsworthy introduces to render the strength of the affection Soames has for Fleur.

As a general rule, the novelist, though following in the tracks of classical realists, breaks away from the literary polish, the fine descriptive style that was kept up to the very end of the 19th cen­tury. At the same time as Shaw, Wells and Bennett, Galsworthy starts a new tradition of bringing the language of literature (in the author's speech, no less than in that of the personages) close to the language of real life. He does away with the elaborate syntax of 19th century prose and cultivates short, somewhat abrupt sentences, true to the rhythm and the intonation of the spoken language and full of low colloquialisms and even slang.

 

¹ The verb to lap up — i. e. "drink greedily by gathering the liquid with one’s tongue" - is mostly used about animals and is accordingly disparaging when applied to human beings.

2 See The Man of Property, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1950, p.204.

⇐ Предыдущая12345678910Следующая ⇒

Поделиться:

Воспользуйтесь поиском по сайту: