王守仁《英国文学选读》笔记和课后习题详解-伊恩

第27单元伊恩?麦克尤恩

27.1复习笔记

Ian McEwan(1948-)(伊恩?麦克尤恩)

1.Life(生平)

Ian McEwan was born on21June,1948in Aldershot,England.He spent much of his childhood in the Far East,Germany and North Africa where his father,an officer in the army,was posted.He studied at the University of Sussex and received a BA degree in English Literature https://www.360docs.net/doc/f94622552.html,ter he received his MA degree in English Literature at the University of East Anglia.McEwan’s works have earned him worldwide critical acclaim.He won the Somerset Maugham Award in1976for his first collection of short stories First Love,Last Rites;the Whitbread Novel Award in 1987for The Child in Time.McEwan is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts,a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,and was awarded the Germany’s Shakespeare Prize in1999.His novel Amsterdam won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in1998.He was awarded a CBE in2000.Atonement received the National Book Critics’Circle Fiction Award in 2003.And Saturday won the2006James Tait Black Memorial Prize(for fiction). Besides,Ian McEwan has written plays for television and film screenplays.He now lives in London.

伊恩?麦克尤恩1948年6月21日生于英格兰的奥尔德肖特。他的童年大都跟随军官父亲

在远东、德国、北非度过。1970年他在苏塞克斯大学获得文学学士学位，后来在东安吉利大学获得文学硕士学位。麦克尤恩的作品在世界范围内广受好评。1976年他的第一本短篇小说集《先爱后礼》获得毛姆文学奖；他的《时间中的孩子》于1987年获得怀特布莱德年度小说奖。麦克尤恩是皇家文学学会和皇家艺术学会的成员，也是美国科学艺术研究院成员，并于1999年获得德国莎士比亚奖。小说《阿姆斯特丹》于1998年获得布克小说奖。麦克尤恩2000年被授予英帝国二等勋位爵士。2003年《赎罪》获得美国国家书籍评论奖。2006年《星期六》获得布莱克纪念奖。此外，麦克尤恩也写电视剧本和电影剧本。他现居伦敦。

2.Major Works(主要作品)

First Love,Last Rites(1975)《先爱后礼》

The Cement Garden(1978)《水泥庭院》

The Child in Time(1987)《时间中的孩子》

The Innocent(1990)《无辜者》

Amsterdam(1998)《阿姆斯特丹》

Atonement(2001)《赎罪》

Saturday(2005)《星期六》

Sweet Tooth(2012)《甜食的喜好》

3.Selected Work(作品选读)

The Child in Time《时间中的孩子》

(1)Plot(情节)

The story is centered on the devastating effect of the loss of a child through

abduction.Stephen Lewis,a successful author of children’s books,took his three-year-old daughter Kate on a routine Saturday trip to the supermarket.While waiting in line,his attention was distracted and Kate was kidnapped.This tragedy set Stephen and his wife,Julie,on diverging paths as they each struggled with a grief that only seemed to intensify with the passage of time.Since then,Stephen became depressed and clung to the memory of Kate,watching TV and drinking alcohol all day;Julie moved away and became a recluse.Stephen experienced a “time travel”that he appeared to his mother as a child’s face at a window,which made her decide to keep the child.Eventually Stephen accepted this loss.He delivered Julie’s child,and reconciled with her.

故事围绕孩子被拐走造成的毁灭性的影响。斯蒂芬是一位成功的儿童文学作家，一个周六他像往常带三岁的女儿到超市买东西。在排队结账时，他一不留神，女儿就被拐走了。这一悲剧使他和妻子渐行渐远，两人的悲痛随着时间流逝而加深。自此，斯蒂芬极为消沉，终日沉浸在对女儿的回忆中，看电视、喝酒来打发时光。朱莉则搬走隐居。后来斯蒂芬经历了一次“时间旅行”，使母亲在幻觉中看到了他的脸庞，才保住了他。最终，斯蒂芬接受了丧女之痛。他为朱莉接生两人的孩子，两人和好。

(2)Theme(主题)

The book explores memory,time and how our emotional landscape and inner narrative live in different moments in time.The author implies that time is relative, and its passage depends on people’s state of mind.At the very core of the novel is the“child in time”,which may refer to Kate,Stephen himself,his friend Charles and

his second baby.

McEwan also deals with the idealization of childhood through Charles.Charles retreats from his public political life to the countryside where he chooses to embrace the childhood he never had.He essentially leaves“real time”to live in another emotional construction of time.But the idealized notion of childhood doesn’t exist any more for Charles than it has for Kate or Stephen,and ultimately he is destroyed by it.

The novel’s end suggests that reconciliation is only possible when both Stephen and Julie are able to travel through time to embrace the present and move forward with their newborn child.This triumphant scene of love and hope gives full rein to the author’s remarkable gifts.

这本书探讨了回忆、时间以及我们的情感和内心的叙述如何出现在不同时间。作者暗示时间是相对的，其流逝取决于人的心理。小说的核心是“时间中的孩子”，可以理解为凯特、斯蒂芬、他的朋友查尔斯和他与朱莉的第二个孩子。

麦克尤恩也通过查尔斯探讨了对童年的美好幻想。查尔斯童年不幸，他后来离开社会活动退隐乡下，希望好好享受童年。他离开了现实世界，回到幻想的童年时光中。但这种幻想对查尔斯，甚至对凯特和斯蒂芬，都不复存在了。查尔斯最后也结束了自己的生命。

小说的结尾表明只有当斯蒂芬和朱莉穿梭时间，面对现实，和第二个孩子携手向前走，才可能实现和解。这个充满爱和希望的欢乐场面充分表现了作者杰出的才能。

27.2课后习题详解

1.Did Stephen really see the figure in a dark coat or is it his imagination?

Key:The narrator tells us that“it was hardly an awareness at all,it was the weakest suspicion brought to life by a desperate memory.”Maybe Stephen made up this image because he was barely conscious at that time.

2.What does the sentence“Then,without any apparent interval,any connecting events,he was outside the supermarket”tell us about time?What does it tell us about Stephen’s feelings after losing his daughter?

Key:It shows that time is relative,which can be imperceptibly fast.Stephen is quite at a loss,desperately helpless and barely conscious.

27.3考研真题与典型题详解

?.Fill in the blanks.

1.The honor he secured with Amsterdam confirms_________with Graham Swift, Julian Barnes and Martin Amis,at the forefront of contemporary British writing.【答案】Ian McEwan

【解析】伊恩?麦克尤恩的小说《阿姆斯特丹》获得了1998年布克奖，奠定了他在当今英国文坛的重要地位。

2.The title of Ian McEwan’s hugely acclaimed book,_________,refers to the goal of the heroine’s life as she struggles to make amends for the irrevocable damage

she has caused by her erroneous charge.

【答案】Atonemen t

【解析】伊恩?麦克尤恩的小说《赎罪》的题目揭示了小说女主人公因看似无辜的想象而错误指证了罪犯，自己因此一生愧疚，试图弥补过错。