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Advanced English Lvhong English Department R-516 Lhong9904@yahoo.com 82066873

Unit 10 • The Sad Young Men • by Rod W. Horton & Herbert W. Edwards

Teaching Points • I. Background knowledge • II. Introduction to the passage • III. Text Analysis • IV. Rhetorical devices • V. Questions

The Author • Rod W.Horton (1910-) • Born in White Plains N.Y. • Instructor, New York University,(1937-45) • Assistant professor (1945-49) • Associate professor (1949-57) • Cultural affairs officer (1957-64) • Professor, Colorado University (1964-) • Visiting professor, University of Brazil, Coimbra

I. Background Knowledge • Publications: • Backgrounds of American Literary Thought (1952) • Backgrounds of European Literature (1954)

I. Background Knowledge • 1. Some terms: • --The Sad Young Men • --The Lost Generation • --The Beat Generation • --The Angry Young Men

I. Background Knowledge • 2. Some literary figures: • --Gertrude Stein • --E. Hemingway • --F. Scott Fitzgerald

II. Introduction to the Passage • 3. The Twenties: • -- A period in American history • -- World War I (1914-1918) • -- Economic development • -- Attitudes of the young people

Introduction to the Passage • 4. The theme: • “ The intellectuals of the twenties, the ‘sad young men,’ cursed their luck but didn’t die; escaped but voluntarily returned; flayed the Babbits but loved their country, and in so doing gave the nation the liveliest, freshest, most stimulating writing in literary experience.”

II. Introduction to the Passage • 5. Type of literature: • a piece of expositive writing

II. Introduction to the Passage The structural organization of this essay: • --- P. 1 introducing the subject • --- P. 2-9 supporting and developing the thesis • --- P. 10-11 bringing the discussion to an end

Introduction to the Passage • Supports: • The rejection of Victorian gentility was (3) • The rebellion started with World War I (5) • Greenwich Village set the pattern (7) • Meanwhile the true intellectuals were far (9)

III. Text Anaylsis • 1. Identifying and understanding Americanisms in this essay: • --speakeasy • --sheik • --flask-toting • --drugstore cowboy • --flapper • --Babbittry

Americanisms in this essay • --Soap opera • --fast • --boobery

Words and expressions • Speakeasy --- a place where alcoholic drinks are sold illegally during Prohibition.

Words and expressions • Sheik --- a masterful man to whom women are supposed to be irresistably attracted

Words and expressions • Flask-toting --- adj. Always carrying a small flask filled with whisky or other strong liquor.

Words and expressions • Drugstore cowboy --- A western movie extra who loafs in front of drugstores between pitures

Words and expressions • Flapper --- (colloq) a young woman considered bold and unconventional in actions and dress.

Words and expressions • Soap opera --- a daytime radio r television serial drama of a highly melodramatic, sentimental nature. It has been so call since many original sponsors were soap companies.

Words and expressions • Fast --- adj. Living in a reckless, wild, dissipated way

Words and expressions • Babbittry --- (after George Babbit, title character of a satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis) • a smugly conventional person interested chiefly in business and social success and indifferent to cultural values.

Words and expressions • Boobery --- same as Babbittry, smug, self-satisfied, conformist in cultural matters

words and expressions • --Prohibition • --Greenwich Village • --keep up with the Joneses • --Victorian • --Puritan morality • --Bohemian

words and expressions • Prohibition --- the forbidding by law of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic liquors for beverage purposes (the period of 1920-1933), the prohibition by Federal law.

words and expressions • Greenwich Village --- section of New York City, on the lower west side of Manhattan; noted as a center for artists, writers, etc.

words and expressions • Keep up with the Joneses --- strive to get all the material things one’s neighbors or associates have.

words and expressions • Victorian --- Showing the middle-class respectability, prudery, bigotry, etc. generally attributed to Victorian England • Queen Victoria ruled (1837-1901) • Very respectable and religious in a formal way that sometimes only pretends to be good and pure.

words and expressions • Puritan morality --- extreme or excessive strictness in matters of morals. • Strict Puritans even regarded drinking, gambling and participation in theatrical performances as punishable offences.

words and expressions • Bohemian --- a person, especially an artist, poet, etc. who lives in an unconventional, nonconforming way

Words and expressions • Romanticize vt.使浪漫化, 使传奇化 • romantic movement • Romantically adv.浪漫地 • Romanticism n.浪漫精神, 浪漫主义 • Romanticist n.浪漫主义者 • Romanza n.浪漫曲, 叙事短诗, 抒情短诗

Words and expressions • jingoism • n.主战论, 武力外交政策,沙文主义,侵略主义 • jingoist • n.沙文主义者, 侵略主义者 • jingo • n.沙文主义者

Words and expressions • Babbittry • n. 市侩作风 • Philistine [5filistain] • n.(中东古国)腓力斯人, 仇敌, 俗气的人 • adj. 俗气的, 无教养的

Words and expressions • boobery • n. 愚人之统称, 愚笨 • booby • n. 呆子, 傻瓜

Effective Writing Skills • 1. Effective use of topic sentences • 2. Developing a new but related aspect of the thought stated in the thesis in each paragraph or paragraph unit.

IV. Rhetorical Devices • 1. metaphor • 2. personification • 3. metonymy • 4. transferred epithet

Special Difficulties • 3. Prefixes “-un” and “-in” (-im, -il, -ir) bearing a negative meaning • 4. Paraphrasing some sentences • 5. Identifying figures of speech

V. Questions • 1. How did World War I affect the younger generation? • 2. Why did young intellectuals of this period emigrate to Europe? • 3. Why were these writers called the “lost generation”? Were they really lost?

V. Questions • 4. How does the writer develop his central thought? Does he support his opinions with convincing facts and details? • 5. Do you agree with the conclusion of the writer? Give your reasons.

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