睡谷传奇的艺术魅力

浪漫的表现手法

《睡谷传奇》是在英国小说家司各特的启迪下创作的，深受浪漫主义的熏陶。在作品中，欧文把情感倾注于对英格兰怀旧式描述中，他赞扬乡村和自然，对自然与文学的天然关系表示出由衷的敬佩。欧文写故事时，就像一位热心而博学的导游，耐心引领读者，告诉游客关于当地的地理、历史、传说、风俗，其中夹杂着他本人幽默睿智的评论。《睡谷传奇》中宛如仙境的自然描写，给小说罩上了一层浓浓的神秘色彩。这些梦幻般的自然场景，不仅是故事发生的背景，更是故事情节的一个重要部分，在烘托气氛、推动情节发展、反映人物心情等方面都发挥着重要作用。在故事的开头，有一段对沉睡谷的描写，作者还通过克莱恩的眼睛描述了夕阳下的哈德逊河的壮观场景。欧文使用绘油画的手法，把夕阳下的美景展现在读者面前。这里随着视线的由远及近的变换，可以看到大自然魔术般变幻的色彩。大自然的勃勃生机表现为宁静壮阔的美，使读者身临其境、留连忘返。作者在字里行间流露出对大自然深深的眷恋，同时为故事的发展铺垫了轻松的气氛。同时，景色描写还有效推动情节发展。为了制造恐怖的气氛，作者把夜晚塑造得异常阴森。在故事开头，宁静的睡谷里有各种巫术仪式、离奇的传说和奇幻的景象；教堂下山谷下汹涌幽暗的河流、被大树浓荫遮蔽的路和桥、以及发生在这里的无头骑士的传说，都为故事发展作出了充分的铺垫。故事中的景色还随着主人公克莱恩心情的变换而发生神奇的变化。“一切景语皆情语”，景色不再客观无情，而是染上了浓烈的主观色彩，承载着克莱恩深刻的感情。

幽默风趣的语言

作者在《睡谷传奇》幽默风趣的语言，无处不在的揶揄搞笑也使得读者常常忍俊不禁。文中幽默风趣的语言首先表现在奇特的比喻上。作者还使用夸张手法，增加幽默效果。不容他人阻碍他的爱情的布鲁姆，性子比暴烈的阿喀琉斯更甚。阿喀琉斯是《伊利亚特》中的英雄，由于统帅阿加门农把已经许给他的战利品——他所深爱的一个美丽女孩送走了。这种夸张手法增加了布鲁姆在克莱恩心目中的威摄力。此外，作者还对个性突出的人和动物，在取名上都花了不少功夫。主人公克莱恩(Crane)与他的外表恰如其分地吻合；布鲁姆是一个体格强壮的年轻人，作者给他取了个绰号“骨头布鲁姆”(Brom Bones);克莱恩借来的老马性情暴烈，被称为“火药”等（Gunpowder）;布鲁姆的马匹象他本人一样，又淘气又大胆，因此得名“鬼大胆”（Dare devil）。这些绰号的使用把一个个有趣的形象展现在读者面前，为故事增加了许多幽默风趣的气氛。

摘自《睡谷传奇的艺术魅力》肖成龙（上海金融学院）南方论刊20xx年第11期

My perspectives:

Firstly, I would like to admit that Washington Irving, the first American writer enjoying the international reputation and also a representative of American Romanticists in early American literary history, won the great title of “Father of American Literature.” His works range from the fantastic tales to the serious historical biographies. The readers across the Atlantic were most fascinated by his English

literary manner and the beautiful American setting in his imaginative fictions, and by the artistic and elegant qualities in Irving’s works, as well as its satire which appears genial or ungentle. These qualities have raised American literature to a place in the world's literature. Irving helps to discover “real America” and he caricatures the ridiculous aspects of American life: materialism, complacency and smugness with his remarkable satirical essays. He is a detached observer and commentator of the rather panoramic life of his time; he is a satirist, critic and judge of that age with his unique feature. Through transplanting the European folklore to American land, Irving created American legends, but this method is often regarded as a severe imitation of European literature. But it still has a great impact on America, including the latter writers’ writing style and the way of southwestern humor etc. Each coin has two sides, and in terms of it, we should take the essence and discard the dregs.

Then, as for the ideas of the writer, Xiaochenglong, I do agree with him and the following I will have a detailed illustration of these features mentioned above in my own point of view.

The first feature of romantic technique of expression is prominent through the fiction. The classics written in graphic format can give young adults a new perspective of great literature. This collection has an excellent graphic format with detailed illustrations from beginning to the ending. All of the essential and relevant elements of the story are included to give the reader an accurate adaptation of the original work. Young adult readers will enjoy the full horror of the story under the graphic description of surroundings. This is an excellent addition to the graphic novel collection that will allow struggling readers the ability to understand some of the classics in a simpler format, while the graphic illustrations will appeal to reluctant readers. Under the influence of European literature, he is also excellent in quotation with rhetoric devices to achieve the delicate and humorous description, involving the using of alliteration、metaphor、simile and so on. That is a magic way of making characters in the legend of sleepy hollow lively and vivid.

The second character of humorous and witty language also impressed readers. The recipe lies in that Irving made these the plain dramatic people more theatrical with his talent for humor and the readers found the familiar characters that are quite similar to their imagined Ichabod and Brom or even more vivid and lively. In his novels he seldom discusses but shows the living circumstances and the characters’ personality by developing the plots step by step. In addition, his tone of wit and humor makes the story told in the leisurely and pleasing way. A great many illusions and fantasies can be found in his fiction, which serve only as the method to render the story more fascinating and absorbing, not as the terminal aim. We can perceive the humor through the all article, from the exaggeration of the schoolmaster’s appearance and actions and the sharp contrast of characters of the two rivals in love to the contrast comparison between human and animal of their funny nicknames. Throughout the detailed illustrations of things, for instance, the party in Katrina’s house, Ichabod was even treated and regarded as a tool to promote the affections between Bones and Katrina. What’s more, Ichabod’s encounter with the Headless Horseman is the dramatic climax of the story. The absurd ending makes readers laugh with scorn and

unconsciously think what a stupid person he is.

Actually, in the novel, Ichabod Crane is “a precocious effete New Englander, shrewd, commercial, a city-slicker, who is rather an interloper, a somewhat destructive force, in village life, and who comes along to swindle the villagers.” Ichabod Crane is the target of satire in the story as a destroyer not in harmony with the self-satisfied region. Due to his narrow-mindedness, avarice, snobbery and credulity, so he couldn’t succeed in wooing Katrina and is finally driven out of the region of the Dutch through a humor way.

All in all, this novel has demonstrated the real background in America at that time. In characterization of Ichabod and Brom Bones, Irving successfully targeted an archetype half built in the public imagination, and skillfully localized the figures in foreign stories into American legendary characters. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow portrays the contradictory culture long reflected in the American literature. We appreciate his contributions to the advance of writing in American history, now what we can learn from him is the practical attitude and passion for writing.

 

第二篇：关于睡谷传奇的评论1

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

欧文从书本中寻找和发现传说,再用自己的经历改写这种幽默的传说,本能地将其融合到自己创作的素材中。他刻画了一个极其滑稽的伊克保德,使人们难以忘怀。虽然美国人都喜欢赢家,可欧文描写的布鲁姆·波尼更接近现实生活,却不易记住。当然,伊克保德并不是一个彻底的失败者。他所失去的只是一个农场姑娘的爱和自尊心。何况这位姑娘并不爱他。伊克保德这名字出自圣经,象征着没落了的宗教信仰和衰败了的世界秩序的遗憾,也是表示追惜往日的光荣。他的名字也暗示了一种衰老。“她给孩子起名叫伊克保德并说:光荣从以色列离开了。”(Isam iv 21)当然,伊克保德不是古以色列犹太人。虽然是一位受人尊敬的与时代不相符合的人物,却是一位美国英雄。因此,他永垂不朽。他离开睡谷后,在城市里成功了。

布鲁姆·波尼却留在村庄了,并且还得到了心爱的姑娘。他比伊克保德更应该得到这位姑娘的爱,因为在与伊克保德的竞争中,布鲁姆·波尼经受了嫉妒和强烈的爱这两种感情的折磨。伊克保德只有恐惧感和野心,却没有爱情。他不是一个失败者,他生活充实和富裕,完全体验了这两种感情带给他的生存的意义。那就是在睡谷的恐惧和在纽约的野心,也是同样的野心促使他向凯璀娜求婚,后来又促使他坐上了编辑和法官的位子。这种勃勃的野心只有在大城市里才能实现。在民间传说中的睡谷里不可能实现。因为这里的村民像空气一样纯洁。伊克保德不是一个完美的人。这个知识分子满脑子都是些不合时代的想法。他的心思都在追求 物质上。这种人只能在腐败的文明中才能产生。

----选自人物的原创与作品的原创---读华盛顿·欧文的《睡谷的传说》高庆选

(青海师范大学外语系青海西宁810008)

The story of Washington Irving?s the legend of sleepy hollow was brought from the ancient folk legends of Germany. Though the story was not originally created by him, by change the setting of he wrote a tale of the culture of American.

Throughout Washington Irving?s life, he had traveled to Europe for three times during which he learned the history and culture as well as literature and arts of European countries. His experiences in Europe have tremendous shaped his works. The legend of sleepy hollow was a combination of ancient folk legends and his unique thoughts mainly came from his experiences.

An important character in the legend of sleepy hollow is Ichabod Crane, who was act as an instructor for the children of the tranquil sleepy hollow. “The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew”. He did that job neither out of enjoying getting together with students nor out of liking the quiet place. He was not an original of the

hollow, in another words, he is a later comer. Thus, in many aspects, he was different from other people in the place. He was not welcomed among most men, while welcomed by many women, especially by those married women whose husbands are not very gentle. Ichabod Crane was special in the place; his behaviors were not the same as others. Usually, he had to do something to gain favorable Impression to get meals and accommodation in his students? homes to survive him. In his heart, he desperately long for a rich life, when there occurred an opportunity to married Katrina Van Tassel, the only daughter of a substantial Dutch farmer, he grasp it firmly for that could make a great change of his situation. What frustrated him was his competitor Brom Van Brunt, the hero of the country round defeated him at the end, then married to Katrina Van Tassel. However, Ichabod Crane was forced to leave the sleep hollow by the tricks played by his rival. Failure as he was in the country, he became a successor in the city of New York.

In the story, it is true that Brom Van Brunt was a successor in pursuing Katrina Van Tassel?s love, but just as the comment above, he was not a hero in readers mind and was not remembered by readers. He may love his girl deeper than Ichabod Crane for his move was deeply related to the girl?s attitude toward him, and he spared no efforts to demean his rival. He deserved to win his girl?s love though the methods he used were a little unfair. Moreover, a man like him is more suitable to live in the country. As to Ichabod Crane, he was so abhorrent in that place. His love to Katrina Van Tassel was deep on her father?s fortune, rather than love come from sincere. What?s more, his behaviors and thoughts have a sharp difference with others. Thus he was doomed to not integrate into the country. It was suggested that the outside world was better for him from his latter successful experiences in New York City. In the outside world, his ability was applied to the situation where it is needed, his behaviors were accepted by others, and his ambitions were satisfied by his efforts.

There was an old saying that when there is a will, there is a way. However, without appropriate environment, a strong will could make nothing different. The example of Ichabod Crane is a strong proof. If he did not leave that sleep hollow that full of residents without any ambitions, he would never live up to his expectation. Once he set himself in a right place, he could gain what he wanted if there was opportunity and endeavors.

During the developing period of capitalism, it is inevitable that the value of people under the capitalism rule is sometimes twisty, especially when the value of the capitalism itself has some problems. The value of Ichabod Crane in the story was a product of times. Mostly, it seemed to be unavoidable, it tended to be destined. Many people at that time held the same values as Ichabod Crane, it is also an fact that now a majority have the same faith with Ichabod Crane.