Государственное общеобразовательное учреждениегимназия № 11
Реферат
на тему:
Ernest MillerHemingway
Выполнил:
Самойлов Станислав Андреевич
Преподаватель:
Тоисеева Ирина Вадимовна
Санкт-Петербург
2007 г.
A table ofcontents:
1. Theintroduction………………………………………………… 2
2. Life of ErnestHemingway……………………………………… 2
3. Hemingway`s socialviewpoint………………………………….. 4
4. Hemingway`s ideas regardingliterature and writers…………… 5
5. Hemingway`s style ofwriting………………………………….. 6
6. Theconclusion………………………………………………….. 7
Ernest MillerHemingway (1899-1961)
The introduction
Ernest Miller Hemingway was one of America`s foremost writers, and aclassic of American and world literature of the 20th century. Heinfluenced the American short story, and his novels “A Farewell to Arms”, “ToHave and Have Not”, “For Whom the Bells Tolls”, “The Old Man and the Sea” areworld known. He took part in the First World War, Civil War in Spain and in the Second World War, and fought activelyagainst fascism and war.
Hemingway was a man of great talent.An American critic, Carlos Baker, in his book “Ernest Hemingway A Life Story”writes that Hemingway was a perpetual[1]student, a profound[2]reader, a brilliant naturalist and a keen observer [3]of life around him. Hemingway won the hearts of his readers with his storiesand novels and attracted people by his personal qualities ― his honestyand courage above all. He was much interested in fishing, hunting, boxing andthe national Spanish sport corrida.
LIFE OF ERNESTHEMINGWAY
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born at eighto’clock in the morning on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. Inthe nearly sixty two years of his life that followed he forged a literary reputationunsurpassed[4] inthe twentieth century. In doing so, he also created a mythological heroin himself that captivated[5](and at times confounded[6])not only serious literary critics but the average man as well. In a word,he was a star.
Born in the family home at 439 North Oak ParkAvenue (now 339 N. Oak Park Avenue), a house built by his widowed[7]grandfather Ernest Hall, Hemingway was the second of Dr. Clarence and GraceHall Hemingway`s six children; he had four sisters and one brother. He was namedafter his maternal grandfather Ernest Hall and his great uncle Miller Hall.
Oak Parkwas a mainly Protestant, uppermiddle-class suburb[8] of Chicago that Hemingwaywould later refer to as a town of «wide lawns and narrow minds.»[9]Only ten miles from the big city, Oak Park was really much farther away philosophically. Itwas basically a conservative town that tried to isolate itself from Chicago’s liberalseediness[10].Hemingway was raised with the conservative Midwestern values of strongreligion, hard work, physical fitness and self determination; if one adhered[11]to these parameters, he was taught, he would be ensured of success in whateverfield he chose.
His father, a keen sportsman and ethnographer,was a doctor. His democratic views influenced Ernest greatly. He taught his sonfirst and foremost to be a man, and to love and understand nature His motherwas a successful opera singer. Ernest took to reading books at an early age.His nurse recalled that she had been warned not to let him read in bed but thatafter “I`d tuck him in, he`d say good night, as sweet as could be, then in themorning I` d find books stuffed under the mattress, in the pillow-case,everywhere. He read all the time ― and books far beyond his years”
At school Ernest was recognized asan exceptionally good football player and boxer. Ernest took part in all schoolactivities. But he was adventurous and twice he ran away from home, working atfarms as a day-labourer, or as a waiter, or as a sparring partner for boxers.He was also a good fisherman and was very fond of hunting. He used to hunt inthe woods of northern Michigan. Among his friends were Indianboys.
Later at school he began to show a fondness[12]for literature, started writing articles for two school periodicals, and becamethe editor of the school`s weekly paper.
When he left school, he took a jobon the paper Kansas City Star as acub reporter[13]. Onthe Star he got his first experience inwriting for the press.
In 1918 the United States entered the FirstWorld War. Hemingway was rejected for service because of a bad eye. Thefollowing year he volunteered as an ambulance driver for the American Red Crossand was badly wounded on the Italian front. He was hospitalized in Milan, where 227 shellfragments were removed from his body in the course of twelve operations. He wastwice decorated by the Italian Government for his military services.
On returning to America Hemingway began writing articles fornewspapers in Toronto(Canada). In 1921 he went to Europe as a traveling correspondent. Until 1928 he livedmainly in Parisand was in the centre of European political life all the time. Hemingway wasalways in the right place at the right time to get the biggest news. He coveredimportant conferences (Genoa, Lausanne),interviewed leading statesmen, wrote on the coming revolution in Spainand followed the anti-fascist movement. In Paris he made friends with many writers. Hetoured many countries: he absorbed[14]people, places and life like a sponge. He devoted 36 years of his life ( from1920 to 1956) to journalism and may well be considered one of the mostexperienced journalists of the 20th century. He made it hisprinciple to write the absolute truth. He learned to write in a clear and lucid[15]manner. Later he used his news accounts in many short stories and novels. In1920 he covered the Graeco-Turkish War as a journalist. “I remember”, he saidthirty years later, “coming home from the Near East… absolutely heartbroken atwhat was going on and in Paris trying to decide whether I would put my wholelife into trying to do something about it and be a writer.” He decided tobecome a writer and quit his job as reporter.This immediately told on him materially. He described his condition as being“bellyempty[16]” and“hollow hungry” [17]. In Paris he even caughtpigeons in parks to have some food. For a long time he had no money. His firstbook “Three Stories and Ten Poems” was given a limited publication in Paris in 1923. Hisshort-story book “In Our time” was published in 1924. His first novels on theso-called “lost generation”, “The Sun Also Rises” and “The Torrents of Spring”,were published in 1926. The year of 1929 was marked by the publishing of his famous novel “A Farewell to Arms”. From1928 to 1938 the writer lived in Key West, Florida. Hetraveled a lot in France andSpain,wrote the best book on corrida that had appeared anywhere in the world, “Deathin the Afternoon” (1932). He also took part in the first African safari (biggame hunting), which he later described in the book “Green Hills of Africa” (1935). The short-story book “Winner TakeNothing” was published in 1933. “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”(1936) and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (1936) belong to the most prominent[18]of his short stories. In 1935 Hemingway published in the New Masses a pamphlet on the death of war veterans, whom theAmerican Government had sent to work on reefs in the sea during a hurricane,thus causing their death.
The Civil War in Spain was aturning-point in the writer`s life. He was eager[19]to help the republicans and did everything he could. He bought some ambulancecars and took an active part in the fight against fascism as a correspondentand writer. Hemingway wrote the film script for the movie “The Spanish Earth”(1938), in connection with which he said: “…when men fight for the freedom oftheir country against a foreign invasion, and when these men are your friends,some new friends and some of long standing, you know how they were attacked andhow they fought at first unarmed, you learn, watching them live and fight anddie, that there are worse things than war. Cowardice is worse, treachery[20]is worse, and simple selfishness[21]is worse.” He raised money for Spain.In June 1937 he made a speech at the Second Congress of American writers indefense of the Spanish Republic. The experiencehe got in Spain helped him to write the play “The Fifth Column” (1938), someshort stories (“The Chauffeurs[22]of Madrid”, “Old Man at the Bridge”, “The Butterfly and the Tank”, “On theAmericans Dead in Spain” and others), the novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls”(1940), and to complete his novel “To Have and Have Not”.
When Hemingway learned about theinvasion of the Soviet Union by German troops,he addressed a telegram to our country expressing his support of the heroicstruggle of our people.
For some months in 1942-1943 hevoluntarily patrolled the Cuban coast in his boat Pilar chasing[23]submarines in the Caribbean Sea. From 1942 on,he lived much of the time in Cuba.His short novel “The Old an and the Sea” was a tribute[24]to a simple man ― a Cuban fisherman. It was after writing this book thathe was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.
While traveling in Africain 1954 he had two narrow escapes[25]in successive air crashes. His health began to deteriorate[26].The last years of his life he was seriously ill. He died of a self-inflictedgunshot wound in Ketchum, Idaho, on July 2, 1961. He was buried atKetchum. His house in Cubawas converted into museum by the Revolutionary Government of Cuba. In 1966 a memorial was erectedto his memory with the following words on it:
Best ofall he loved the fall
The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods[27]
Leavesfloating on the trout[28]streams
And abovethe hills
Thehigh blue windless skies
…Now he willbe a part of them forever.
P.S. Hemingway was married fourtimes.
HEMINGWAY`S SOCIALVIEWPOINT
Hemingway was a democrat andhumanist. All his life he fought against war and fascism and criticized theso-called “American way of life”. the First World War influenced him a greatdeal. He saw the horrors and tragedy suffered by both soldiers and civilians. In the preface[29]to a collection of war stories “Men at War” (1942) he wrote about the FirstWorld War that it had been “the mostcolossal, murderous, mismanaged[30]butchery that has ever taken place on Earth”. He was convinced that after theFirst World War the world was on the way to revolution: “In those days we whobelieved in it, looked for it at any time, expected it, hoped for it, ―for it was the logical thing.” A series of stories on this subject make up thebook “In Our Time” (1924). Hemingway said: “The only way to combat the murderthat is war, is to show the dirty combinations that make it and the criminalsand swine that hope for it and the idiotic way they run it when they get it sothat an honest man will distrust it as he would a racket and refuse to beenslaved into it.” His participation[31]in the First World War, the Civil War in Spain, the Second World War taught himto see the real nature of war. In the preface to the novel “A Farewell toArms”, published after the Second World War, he wrote: “I believe that all thepeople who stand to profit[32]by a war and who help provoke it should be shot on the first day it starts byaccredited representatives of the loyal citizens of their country who willfight it. The author of this book would be very glad to take charge[33]of this shooting if legally delegated by those who will fight…”
He was one of the first to warnagainst the fatal danger of fascism. Hemingway`s first feature-articles onfascism were written at the beginning of the twenties. Having traced thedevelopment of fascism in Italy, he wrote in his article called “Italy`sFascists” that first it was an organization of counter-attackers against thecommunist demonstrations, then it became a political party, and now it is apolitical and military party that is enlisting[34]the workers of Italy and invading the field of the labour organizations. In hisarticle “Genoa Conference” he noted that the fascists “were under the tacit[35]protection of the government, if not its active support”, that “they had ataste of unpenalized[36]lawlessness, unpunished murder, and the right to riot[37]when and where they pleased”. He said that Mussolini was the biggest bluff[38]in Europe. For Hemingway fascism meant warfirst of all. “There has been war in Spain, now for two years,” he wrotein an article “Programme of US Realism”. “There has been war in Chinafor a year. War is due in Europe by nextsummer at the latest.” His prediction was right. He was also fully aware[39]of the danger that fascism meant for literature: “There is only one form ofgovernment that cannot produce good writers, and that system is fascism. Forfascism is a lie told by bullies[40].A writer who will not lie cannot live or work under fascism.”
HEMINGWAY`S IDEASREGARDING LITERATURE AND WRITERS
Hemingway didn`t consider himself atheoretician but he made some important contributions[41]to theory. He was of the opinion that art and literature play an important rolein the world: “A work of art endures[42]forever.” Hemingway stressed the role of the writer: “Trying to write somethingof permanent value is a full-time job even though only a few hours a day are spenton the actual writing. A writer can be compared to a well[43].There are as many kinds of wells as there are writers. The important thing isto have good water in the well and it is better to take a regular amount outthan to pump[44] thewell dry and wait for it to refill.” He paid much attention to a writer`squalifications: “First there must be talent, much talent. Talent such asKipling had. Then there must be discipline, the discipline of Flaubert.[45]Then there must be…an absolute conscience[46]as unchanging as the standard meter in Paris,to prevent faking…” He said that a writer should be a man of knowledge andexperience: “There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time,which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring[47].There are the very simplest things and because it takes a man`s life to knowthem the little new that each man gets from life is costly and the only her hasto leave.” Rich experience enabled[48]him to make the following conclusion: “The hardest thing in the world to do isto write straight honest prose on human beings. First you have to know thesubject: then you have to know how to write…Books should be about the peopleyou know, that you love and hate, not about the people you study up about. Ifyou write them truly they will have all the economic implications[49]a book can hold.”
Hemingway stressed the importance oftruth in fiction[50]: “Awriter`s job is to tell the truth. His standard of fidelity[51]to the truth should be so high that his experience, should produce a trueraccount than anything factual can be.”
Hemingway made a careful study ofboth American and European literary and cultural traditions. He thoroughlystudied the works of many writers, among them Flaubert, Stendhal[52],Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Maupassant, Dante, Virgil and manyothers. Hemingway considered among his “teachers” many painters and composersas well. The writer said he learned asmuch from painters about how to write as from writers, and that “what onelearns from composers and from the study of harmony and counterpoint[53]”should be obvious[54].He repeatedly stressed the importance which Russian literature had had for him.
HEMINGWAY`S STYLE OFWRITING
Hemingway`s aim to write absolutetruth induced him to create a new style. He avoided conventional narration [55]inhis stories. He tried to make readers understand his ideas about nature,labour, and war by sketching in vivid scenes his own experience in war, andtell his readers about the peasants and fishermen by presenting real scenes ofhard toil[56].Leaving out many unnecessary details Hemingway mastered a new short-story form.Some of these short stories he used for his novels. That`s the way all mynovels got started,” he said.
The language of Hemingway`s works isof bare[57]simplicity; it is in keeping with the characters he wanted to portray[58].It is surprising how he reveals[59]the inner[60]world of his personages in short dialogues and colloquial phrases. Plain wordsin simple declarative[61]sentences bring out the sensations of the central characters and at the sametime make the reader participate in the events of the story. “I use the oldestwords in the English language.” Hemingway said.
Hemingway was the inventor of theso-called “theory of an iceberg”: he wrote that“…if a writer of prose knowsenough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows, andthe reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of thosethings, as strongly as though the writer has stated them. The dignity[62]of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.”
Theconclusion
Leo Lania, Hemingway`s biographer,wrote: “Many serious and important authors have learnt from him; from his incorruptible objectivity, hisexceptional gift of observation; from his language, as clear as the mountainstream which reveals each single pebble[63]on the bottom. He has done more than anybody else to strip American literatureof sentimentality and free Americanprose from bombast[64]and artificial pathos. He has shown a complete generation of authors how towrite natural and unliterary dialoguewith a rhythm and authenticity[65]which few other, contemporary novelists have equaled.”
The used material:
1) “English andAmerican Literature”. A course of lectures. Л.Н. Утевская. 2004
2) «ЭрнестХемингуэй. Биографияитворчество». АртуроПаскаль. 2006
3) The internet: www.lostgeneration.com
[1]perpetual―бесконечный
[2]profound―глубокий
[3] akeenobserver―острыйнаблюдатель (критик)
[4] unsurpassed—бесподобно
[5] captivated―очарованный
[6] confounded―проклятый
[7] widowed―овдовевший
[8] asuburb―пригород
[9] “widelawnsandnarrowminds”―«широкие лужайки и узкие умы»
[10] aseediness―захудалость
[11] adhered―придерживаемый
[12] afondness―любовь, нежность
[13]cub reporter ― a young and inexperiencedjournalist, a beginner
[14]to absorb―поглощать
[15]lucid―ясный
[16]belly empty―пустойживот
[17]“ hollow hungry”― «голоднаяпустота»
[18]prominent―видный
[19]eager―нетерпеливый
[20]a treachery―предательство
[21]a selfishness―эгоизм
[22]a chauffeur―шофёр
[23]to chase―преследовать
[24] atribute―дань
[25] anarrowescape―спасение посчастливой случайности
[26]to deteriorate―ухудшаться
[27]a cottonwood―тополь
[28]a trout―форель
[29]a preface―предисловие
[30]mismanaged―неумелопроведенная
[31]a participation―участие
[32]a profit―прибыль
[33]a charge―обвинение
[34]to enlist―вербовать
[35]tacit―молчаливый
[36]unpenalized―неоштрафованный
[37]a riot―бунт
[38]a bluff―блеф
[39]to aware―знать
[40]a bully―хулиган
[41]a contribution―вклад
[42] toendure―выдерживать испытаниевремени
[43] awell―колодец, родник
[44]a pump―насос
[45]Flaubert Gustave (1821-1880) ― French realistwriter, author of the novel “Madame Bovary”.
[46]a conscience―совесть
[47]an acquiring―приобретение
[48]to enable―позволить
[49]an implication―значение
[50]a fiction―беллетристика
[51]a fidelity ―верность
[52]Stendhal ― pen-name of Henri Beyle (1783-1842),French novelist..
[53]a counterpoint―контрапункт
[54]obvious―очевидный
[55]a conventional narration―обычноеповествование
[56] atoil―тяжелый труд
[57] bare―голый
[58]to portray―изображать
[59]to reveal―показать