悬疑设置技巧-《厄舍屋的倒塌》与《给艾米丽的一封信》对比分析_英语论文

Techniques in the Setting of Suspense: Comparative Analysis between The Fall of the House of Usher and A Rose for Emily 

摘要

短篇小说《厄舍屋的倒塌》和《给艾米丽的一朵玫瑰》分别是美国南方文学代表埃德加·爱伦·坡和威廉·福克纳的代表作，这两位作家在美国文学史上颇具影响力，并且两则作品均包含哥特恐怖意向。它们分别采用顺序与分叙、直接讽刺与间接讽刺、直接恐怖描写与间接显示恐怖等等的方法设置悬疑。本文着重研究对比两者悬疑设置技巧，从而解决如何在小说中设置悬疑并将读者情绪带至高潮的写作技巧的问题。

关键词： 哥特小说；悬疑；设置技巧；心理

Abstract 

The two stories, The Fall of the House of Usher and A Rose for Emily, are respectively magnum opus of Edgar Allan Poe and William Faulkner. These two writers have profound influence in American literature and their works contain Gothic horror. The two fictions separately adopt sequence and reverse order, direct and indirect irony, explicit and implicit description of horror etc. to set suspense. This thesis mainly researches at the skills of settings of suspense in order to solve the problems that how to set suspense in novels and bring readers’ emotion to climax.

Keyword: Gothic; suspense; setting techniques; psychology

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Brief Introduction of Edgar Allan Poe and William Faulkner 1

1.1.1 Life Background 1

1.1.2 Writing Characteristics 1

1.2 Brief Introduction of “Setting of Suspense” 1

1.3 Literature of the American South 2

2. Literature Review 3

2.1 Researches of Setting of Suspense of The Fall of the House of Usher 3

2.2 Researches of Setting of Suspense of A Rose for Emily 4

2.3 Previous Studies of Setting Skills of Suspense 5

3. Symbolism Function in Comparison 6

3.1 Material Symbols 6

3.1.1 Character Images 6

3.1.2 Item or Environmental Images 7

3.2 Psychological Symbols 7

4. Comparison of Combining Skills of Clues 9

4.1 Literary and Narratological Approaches 9

4.1.1 Narratological Frame as a Whole 9

4.1.2 Four General Types of Producing Suspense Methods 9

4.2 Psycholinguistic and Psychological Approaches 11

4.2.1 Exaggeration of the Characters 11

4.2.2 Time-dependent Psychological Description with Depth 12

5. Psychological Effect Caused by Suspense 13

5.1 The Enjoyment of Outcome Uncertainty 13

5.2 Suspense and Surprise as emotional response in literature 14

5.2.1 Distinction of Suspense and Surprise 14

5.2.2 Emotional Response in the Two Novels 14

6. Conclusion 15

Reference 16