「… his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.」 —This is the awarding words of 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature. The writer so praised is William Faulkner, one of the most celebrated writers in American literature. Faulkner is primarily known for his novels and short stories set in the Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where he spent most of his life. Though his work was published as early as 1919, and largely during the 1920s and 1930s, Faulkner was not famous until receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature, for which he became the only Mississippi-born Nobel winner. Two of his works, A Fable (1954) and his last novel The Reivers (1962), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
A Rose for Emily, the most frequently anthologized stories, is Faulkner’s first short story published in a national magazine. The story begins with a brief first-person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson, an elderly Southern woman in Jefferson, whose funeral draws the attention of their small town. It then proceeds in a non-linear fashion to the unnamed narrator’s recollections of key moments in Emily’s life. Emily is a member of a family of the antebellum Southern aristocratic family. After the Civil War, as Emily’s family has fallen into decay, she and her father still retrospect the past. Emily’s father drives off the suitors deemed not good enough to marry his daughter. Emily suffers a long illness after her father’s death, then she becomes friendly with a Northern laborer, Homer Barron. Unfortunately, contrary to Emily’s wishes, Barron is a bachelor who does not want to marry and settle down. When Emily realizes the truth, she uses the poison to kill Barron. Since then, Emily has lived an isolated life in a dilapidated house and spent 40 years with the dead.
There is no doubt that it is a tragedy for Emily. We can see how she struggled to survive, yet fell in the doomed failure and perished in a tragic ending. The background of this story was Southern America after Civil War, a changing period. The new generation 「with its more modern ideas」 became the backbone of society and gradually replaced the status of the previous generation. But for the vast majority of women, especially Southern women, the situation had not changed. And Emily is a typical figure.
Firstly, in this story we can find that Emily is included in female world shrouded in the authority of their fathers. As the tableau is elaborated 「… her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip …」 In this description are two images deserved to be analyzed. One is 「a spraddled silhouette」, which implies that effect of Emily’s father always cast a huge shadow on her whole life. And the other is the horsewhip, the symbol of patriarchal control, used to 「drive away all the young men」. So it is concluded that Emily’s early life was dominated by her father. This is also the reason why Emily refused to bury her father after his death. The interpretation can be verified from following texts, 「… We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.」
Secondly, the financial independence of women in that period is almost impossible. Why did the mayor Colonel Sartoris agree to remit Emily’s taxes? The reason is obvious. The full source of Emily’s income is her father’s wealth, so there is no doubt that after her father’s death, her life would become distressing, 「… the house was all that was left to her; …」
So, it is these two aspects that constitute the subjective cause of Emily’s tragedy. A paradox--the suppression of patriarchal society and dependence on her father’s wealth—shapes her weak and dependent character, which prevents her from struggling and leaving for a new life. What's worse, she goes to extremes due to this character, especially when she found that her sweetheart was not the one who could be entrusted with her life. After all, Barron was her only dependency.
However, we should not conclude that Emily’s character flaw is the decisive factor of her tragedy. Actually, Emily’s character flaw is 「shaped as in a mould by her situation」 during her growing-up years. This opinion was first put forward by Simone de Beauvoir, who argued that women’s condition 「has remained the same through superficial changes, and it is this condition that determines what is called the 『character』 of woman … we must only note that the varieties of behavior reported are not dictated to woman by her hormones nor predetermined in the structure of the female brain: they are shaped as in a mould by her situation.」 Then we can easily get from the novel that society of nineteenth century is a patriarchal society. For example, people sympathize with Emily because 「… that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die.」 And we can also find that it is only male whom Emily are surrounded by—her father, Homer Barron, the Negro servant. I think it is the author’s hint, to tell us that in that times female was marginalized and dominated by male. So, the social condition is the real decisive factor.
The recent fifty years have witnessed the rise of the affirmative action and the status of women has been greatly improved. For instance, more and more women participate in politics, the exclusive preserve of male, and many of them have achieved great success. However there still exists discrimination against female, who is vulnerable at any time in any field. In this background, we should reflect upon what changes we have made in our society since the era Emily lived in, what has disappeared and what remains? What can be done?
（推薦老師：郭麗君）
1. 總體思路：
作為一名法學院的學生，對於女權的話題敏感幾乎是本能。而且以前在讀A Rose for Emily時也曾有初步的模糊理解。因此當這次要求寫一篇關於福克納這篇經典小說的讀書報告時，我就立即確定了切入的角度。女權運動的興起是20世紀60年代以後的事，但是這背後卻是在很長一段時間內女性受到排擠與邊緣化的歷史。福克納的小說背景是南北戰爭以後的美國南方，百廢待興又生機勃勃。用現在的術語來說是一個正在邁向現代化的南部。但是為何這些看似光明的事物在主人公Emily身上卻全無體現，為何她的一生會成為一個悲劇？這個疑問就是我寫作的起點。
明確了寫作的方向之後，接下來的工作就是對文本的細讀與分析。文學作品的賞析，出發點和落腳點都只能是作品文本本身。因此我仔細閱讀了小說的英文原文以及中文譯文足有五六遍，把認為關鍵的語句標註出來，分析其背後的內涵。這些工作做完以後初步的論證過程也就形成了。原本我的分析也就止於對於艾米莉性格缺陷的成因分析以及與其悲劇人生的關聯。但是我始終覺得這樣的賞析似乎只能導向心靈雞湯式空洞的「女性要獨立、女性要自主」的結論，猶有不足。因此我又加上了對於當時男性主導的社會背景的分析，並且借用了波伏娃的觀點。當然限於水平有限，我對於艾米莉悲劇中的社會因素的分析顯得比較粗陋。
2. 撰寫初稿：
將自己所思轉化為文字不是一個輕鬆的過程，更遑論用英語來書寫自己的想法。因此在撰寫初稿時必須藉助字典來確定你的遣詞造句是既能達意又能做到地道與合格。同時還需要對整篇文章的布局有所把握，使文章結構合理，上下文連貫。
3. 修改潤色：
老師給我提出了幾點修改的建議，比如要有讀者意識，表達應該簡潔有力，詞語的感染力問題等。以前寫作往往著力在表達自己的想法，讀者意識不是很強，而且對於句與句之間的緊湊，句子表達的簡潔都注意不夠。多謝這次老師能幫助我在這些方面得到提升。同時我自己也發覺初稿在有些地方表達略顯繁瑣，有些地方意思表述得不夠清晰，有些地方邏輯上不夠貫通，在修改時我著重於這幾個方面。
4. 學習方法：
我個人覺得學習英語的一個好方法是閱讀英語原著。英文原著中包含著精粹的語言表達而且還承載著英語國家的文化。通過精讀英文原著，我們不僅可以學習地道的語言表達，還可以領略西方文明的神韻，加深我們對於英語的理解。我比較喜歡的一套書是牛津大學出的Very Short Introduction系列叢書，作為通識讀本篇幅不長，既能學習英語同時還能學習知識。另外這套書還有audiobook,用來練習聽力也很不錯。同時英語學習的「輸出」也很重要，因此日常的寫作練習也應該堅持，而我在這方面做得也很不夠，以後也需要加強。
（作者：賈勤 法學院2016級研究生）
碎片化閱讀的今天，我們還需要讀文學嗎？如何閱讀經典？作者在這篇讀書報告中，分享了經典短篇小說《獻給艾米麗的玫瑰》的閱讀體驗。
《獻給艾米麗的玫瑰》是美國南部小說的代表人物福克納最富盛名的短篇小說代表作。一部經典作品，可挖掘的地方必然很多，可以從不同角度加以解讀，得出的結論也各不相同，如作者，人物，場景，社會環境等，寫讀書報告時可以將小說中某一個吸引你的點放大進行分析。作者是法學院的研究生，對於女權的問題敏感幾乎是本能，這是一篇研究生英語課文的讀書報告，本文作者以自己關注的女權問題作為切入點。此文結構清晰，內容完整，包括三部分：1作者生平和時代簡介，2故事梗概，3評論。讀書報告的第三部分是最核心的部分，即對作品的評論。在這一部分裡，本文作者圍繞作品內容提出了個人觀點，分析了女主人公艾米麗悲劇性格背後的原因，其異化除了自身性格的弱點，根本原因是社會環境使然，是南北戰爭前後美國南方的父權社會，男權社會壓制下的產物。文章最後以幾個問句結尾，引發讀者一起思考。
文學是展示、剖析人心靈空間的。文學會儘量使用文字的多重含義，充滿了言外之意。每一部經典作品都為我們敞開了大門，使我們從多個角度加以思考。在評論之前，必須真正努力去感受，體驗與欣賞，進入書中的世界，去換位思考，嘗試理解書中人物。本文作者曾經反覆閱讀此篇，在此讀書報告中幾處引用了原著的話，讓我們管中窺豹領略到名著的魅力，比如描寫父親和艾米麗形象的tableau，並解讀了其象徵含義。閱讀經典文學作品，進入作者借著你的情緒與想像力，為你創造的一個世界，將會得到很棒的閱讀體驗，名著裡生動高超的描寫，讓我們的感受變得更細膩，能夠從簡單的生活裡找到深刻的樂趣。
福克納在諾貝爾獎頒獎禮上那篇膾炙人口的演講詞的最後曾說到：「…詩人和作家的責任就是把這些寫出來。詩人和作家的特權就是去鼓舞人的鬥志、使人們記住過去曾經有過的光榮---人類曾有過的勇氣、榮譽、希望、自尊、同情、憐憫與犧牲精神--以達到永恆。詩人的聲音不應只是人類的記錄，而應是使人類永存並獲勝的支柱和棟梁。」除了能帶給我們愉悅，文學同時使我們得到豐富，啟迪和升華，是我們理解世界，他人，自我的方式， 使我們領略人類感知、智力、情感的深度和高度，不僅對文學專業的同學，文學經典是我們每個人不可或缺的精神食糧。
（點評教師：郭麗君）