Unit 7: Short Fiction III
AP English Literature and Composition Topic 7 9:01 English narration · English + 中文 subtitles burned in
Chapters
Transcript
Unit 7 is the last short-fiction unit, and it sharpens two things: how change happens in a character, and pacing as a deliberate manipulation of time.
第七单元是最后一个短篇小说单元， 它把两件事磨得更锋利： 人物的变化如何发生， 以及作为对时间的有意操控的节奏。
Take change first, and take it as two independent questions — where the change comes from, and how fast it arrives.
先讲变化， 而且把它当作两个各自独立的问题： 变化从哪里来， 以及它来得有多快。
Those two axes are independent, which is exactly what makes them useful.
这两条轴是相互独立的， 而这恰恰使它们有用。
A change caused by a conflict of values can arrive gradually or in an instant.
一个由价值冲突引起的变化， 可以是渐进到来的， 也可以是一瞬间到来的。
Characters who change or remain unchanged, first.
先说会改变和不会改变的人物。
Often the change in a character emerges directly from a conflict of values represented in the narrative — that is the first source.
人物的变化 常常直接源于叙事中呈现的价值冲突， 这是第一个来源。
And changes in a character's circumstances may lead to changes in that character — that is the second.
而人物处境的变化 可能导致这个人物本身的变化， 这是第二个。
Then the speed.
然后是速度。
Characters can change gradually, but they can also change suddenly, and an epiphany may affect the plot by causing a character to act on a sudden realisation.
人物可以逐渐改变， 但也可以骤然改变， 而顿悟可以通过 促使一个人物依据突然的领悟去行动 来影响情节。
Note the verb.
注意那个动词。
An epiphany is only examinable when the character acts on it.
顿悟只有在人物依据它行动时 才是可考的。
A realisation that changes nothing has not affected the plot, and a change with no source is assertion while a change with no consequence in the plot is decoration.
一个什么都没改变的领悟 没有影响情节， 而一个没有来源的变化是断言， 一个在情节中没有后果的变化是装饰。
You need both ends.
两端你都需要。
That covers the nuances in characters' relationships too.
这也涵盖了人物关系中的细微之处。
A group or force can function as a character.
一个群体或一股力量 可以充当人物。
Readers should examine how a character interacts with other characters, and the relationship between a character and a group — including their inclusion in or exclusion from it — is significant.
读者应当考察 一个人物如何与其他人物互动， 而一个人物与一个群体之间的关系， 包括他被纳入其中 或被排除在外， 都是有意义的。
Take the group-as-character idea literally.
要按字面来理解 "群体作为人物"这一观念。
A town, a family, an institution can hold values, exert pressure and oppose a protagonist exactly as an individual antagonist would.
一个小镇、一个家庭、一所机构， 可以持有价值、施加压力、 并像一个个体的对立者那样 与主人公对抗。
Reading it that way often unlocks a story with no obvious opponent, which is a common shape in short fiction and a common place for students to get stuck.
这样去读， 常常能解开一个没有明显对手的故事， 而这在短篇小说中是常见的形态， 也是学生常常卡住的地方。
When a setting changes, it may suggest other movements, changes or shifts in the narrative — so a journey is rarely only a journey.
当背景发生变化时， 它可能暗示叙事中 其他的移动、变化或转折， 所以一次旅程 很少只是一次旅程。
And settings may be contrasted to establish a conflict of values or ideas associated with them.
而背景之间可以形成对照， 以确立与它们相关联的 价值或观念上的冲突。
Two settings placed against each other are rarely just two places; they usually carry the competing value systems the plot is testing.
两个彼此对置的背景 很少只是两个地方； 它们通常承载着 情节正在检验的 相互竞争的价值体系。
Then two more precise claims.
接着是两个更精确的说法。
The way characters interact with their surroundings provides insights about them.
人物与其环境互动的方式 提供了关于他们的洞见。
And the way characters behave in, or describe, their surroundings reveals an attitude toward those surroundings — which is character evidence obtained without speculating about anyone's psychology.
而人物在其环境中的举止， 或对其环境的描述， 揭示了对这一环境的态度， 这是不必臆测任何人心理 就能得到的人物证据。
Pacing is the manipulation of time in a text, and several factors contribute to it — the length given to an event, the compression of long periods, the interruption of chronology.
节奏是文本中对时间的操控， 而有几个因素参与其中： 给一个事件的篇幅、 对漫长时段的压缩、 对时间顺序的打断。
And narrative pacing may evoke an emotional reaction in readers by the order in which information is revealed.
而叙事节奏 可以通过信息被揭示的顺序 在读者身上唤起情感反应。
Here is why this is one of the most usable tools in the course: pacing is measurable.
这就是为什么 它是本课程中最好用的工具之一： 节奏是可以测量的。
Count the pages a text gives to an afternoon and to the following decade, and the disproportion is a claim about what mattered.
数一数文本给一个下午多少页， 又给接下来的十年多少页， 这种不成比例 就是一个关于什么才重要的主张。
You do not need to interpret anything to find it — you need to count — and then the interpretation is about why that distribution was chosen.
你不需要阐释任何东西才能发现它， 你需要的是去数， 而阐释在于 为什么选择了这样的分配。
Two more pieces.
还有两块。
A setting may become symbolic when it is associated with abstractions — emotions, ideas, times of life — and over time some settings have developed associations so strong that they almost universally symbolise something, which is the same warning Unit 6 gave about conventional symbols.
当一个背景与抽象事物相关联时， 情感、观念、人生的某个阶段， 它可能变成象征性的， 而随着时间推移， 有些背景形成了极强的联想， 几乎普遍地象征着某样东西， 这与第六单元 关于约定俗成象征的警告是同一个。
And a motif is a unified pattern of recurring objects or images used to emphasise a significant idea.
而母题是一组统一的、 反复出现的对象或意象的模式， 用来强调某个重要观念。
A motif differs from a symbol in that it need not stand for one thing.
母题与象征的不同之处在于， 它不必代表某一样东西。
It accumulates: each recurrence adds to what the pattern means.
它是累积的： 每一次复现 都为这个模式的意义添上一笔。
Which is why noting the first and last appearance is usually more productive than listing them all — the distance between those two is the motif's development, and development is what you can write about.
这正是为什么 记下第一次与最后一次出现 通常比把它们全部列出来更有成效， 这两次之间的距离 就是母题的发展， 而发展才是你可以写的东西。
Three CED points now, and they share one move.
现在讲考纲里的三点，它们共用同一个动作。
First, how a narrator's reliability affects a narrative.
第一，叙述者的可靠性如何影响叙事。
Some narrators or speakers may provide details and information that others do not or cannot provide — so when a text offers you two narrators, the sharpest evidence available is the comparison: what one can say and the other cannot.
有些叙述者或说话人能提供别人不提供、或提供不了的细节与信息—— 所以当一个文本给了你两个叙述者时， 最有力的证据就是比较：一个能说什么，另一个说不了什么。
Second, the simile.
第二，明喻。
The function of a simile relies on the selection of the objects being compared as well as the traits transferred.
明喻的功能既取决于所比较的对象，也取决于被转移的特征。
Both halves are choices.
两半都是选择。
Name the ground, because a vehicle carries many possible likenesses and only one of them was meant.
把"相似点"说出来，因为一个喻体能承载许多种可能的相似， 而作者只想要其中一种。
Third, personification runs in reverse here too: assigning the qualities of a nonhuman object, entity, or idea to a person or character.
第三，拟人在这里也有反向的用法： 把非人的物体、实体或观念的性质，赋予一个人或一个人物。
Watch for it, because it is almost always a judgement.
要留意它，因为它几乎总是一个判断。
A character described in the vocabulary of machinery has been characterised, and by someone.
一个用机器的词汇来描写的人物，已经被刻画过了，而且是被某个人刻画的。
Now the writing, which Unit 7 states as one combined skill: developing a literary thesis, commentary, and evidence.
现在讲写作，第七单元把它作为一项合并的技能来陈述： 写出文学论点句、阐释与证据。
A thesis statement expresses an interpretation of a literary text and requires defence through textual evidence.
论点句表达的是对一部文学作品的一种解读， 并且需要用文本证据来辩护。
It may preview the development or line of reasoning of that interpretation, but it is not required to list the reasons — so do not spend words building a roadmap the rubric never asked for.
它可以预告这一解读的展开方式或论证脉络， 但并不要求把理由一一列出—— 所以不要花笔墨去搭一个评分标准从没要求的路线图。
The word doing the work is interpretation.
关键的词是"解读"。
A thesis that states what happens in the text is not a thesis; it is a summary, and a summary cannot be defended because nobody would disagree with it.
只说明文本里发生了什么的句子不是论点句，那是复述； 而复述无法辩护，因为没有人会不同意它。
Compare two.
比较两句。
"The story uses a lot of imagery of the sea" — that is a summary.
"这个故事用了很多关于海的意象"——这是复述。
Now the stronger one.
再看更强的一句。
"The sea returns three times, and each time the speaker is further from shore."
"海出现了三次，而每一次说话人离岸边都更远一点。
A reader could disagree with that, which is exactly why it can be defended.
" 读者可能不同意这句话，而这正是它可以被辩护的原因。
A line of reasoning is the logical sequence of claims that together defend the overarching thesis, and it is communicated through commentary.
论证脉络是共同为总论点辩护的一串有逻辑顺序的分论点， 而它是通过阐释来传达的。
Picture the claims hanging from the thesis, with a quotation under each one — and commentary is the weld.
把这些分论点想成从论点句垂下来的一串，每一环下面挂着一处引文—— 阐释就是焊点。
It is the sentence explaining the logical relationship between that evidence and that claim.
它是说明"这处证据与这个分论点之间是什么逻辑关系"的那句话。
Leave it out and you have a quotation and an assertion sitting side by side, with the reader asked to do the joining.
少了它，你只是把一处引文和一个断言并排放着， 把连接的工作留给读者。
And textual evidence may require revision to an interpretation, if the evidence does not in fact support it.
而文本证据可能要求你修改解读，如果证据其实并不支持它的话。
The rubric uses four words about evidence, and each one rules something out.
评分标准用四个词来说证据，每一个都排除了某种做法。
Evidence is used strategically: to illustrate, clarify, exemplify, associate or amplify — it was chosen to do a job, not because it was the first quotable line you met.
证据要"有策略地"使用：用来举例、澄清、示范、关联或放大—— 它是为了完成某项任务被选中的， 而不是因为它是你遇到的第一句可引用的话。
It is effective when the commentary explains its logical relationship to the claim, because quoting is not explaining.
只有当阐释说明了它与分论点之间的逻辑关系时，它才"有效"， 因为引用不等于解释。
It is sufficient when its quantity and quality provide apt support, so one striking word cannot carry a paragraph and eight quotations cannot replace a reason.
当它的数量和质量都能提供恰当支持时，它才"充分"， 所以一个惊人的词撑不起一个段落，八处引文也代替不了一个理由。
And developing an interpretation is developed recursively: an interpretation can emerge, and change, as you read and write, so if your reading changes while you draft, revise the thesis to match it.
而形成解读是一个反复推敲地展开的过程： 解读可以在你阅读和写作的过程中出现，也可以改变， 所以如果你在起草时想法变了，就把论点句改成新的想法。
Notice what all four share. Every one is about the join between the quotation and the claim.
注意这四点的共同之处：每一点讲的都是引文与分论点之间的那个连接。
One point on the rubric is different from the others, and almost nobody goes for it.
评分标准里有一分和其他几分不一样，而且几乎没有人去拿它。
More sophisticated literary arguments explain the significance or relevance of an interpretation.
更成熟的文学论证会说明一种解读的意义或相关性。
Read that carefully: the rubric is not asking for a defensible reading, which is what the other five marks already reward.
仔细读这句话：评分标准要的不是一个站得住的解读， 那是另外五分本来就在奖励的东西。
It is asking why the reading is worth having at all — what the text turns out to be doing that a reader would otherwise walk past.
它问的是这个解读究竟为什么值得有—— 这个文本原来在做什么，是读者本来会走过去而没看到的。
One sentence at the end of an essay can earn it.
文章结尾的一句话就能拿到它。
It is one mark of six, and it is the one nobody attempts.
六分里的一分，而它是没有人去尝试的那一分。
Five things to carry out.
带走五件事。
First, a change needs a source and a consequence in the plot.
第一，一个变化需要来源， 也需要在情节中的后果。
Second, an epiphany is examinable when the character acts on it.
第二，顿悟在人物依据它行动时 才是可考的。
Third, a group can function as a character — try it on any story with no obvious antagonist.
第三，群体可以充当人物， 在任何没有明显对立者的故事上试一试。
Fourth, two contrasted settings usually carry the competing values the plot is testing.
第四，两个对照的背景 通常承载着情节正在检验的 竞争性价值。
Fifth, pacing is measurable, and for a motif compare the first and last appearance rather than listing every one.
第五，节奏是可以测量的， 而对于母题， 比较第一次与最后一次出现， 而不是把每一次都列出来。