Unit 8: Poetry III
AP English Literature and Composition Topic 8 8:40 English narration · English + 中文 subtitles burned in
Chapters
Transcript
Unit 8 is the last poetry unit and it handles the hardest material in the course: the family of devices built on contradiction.
第八单元是最后一个诗歌单元， 它处理整门课程中最难的材料： 建立在矛盾之上的那一族手法。
But it opens with the most efficient reading tool available anywhere in the course.
但它的开篇 是本课程任何地方 都最有效率的阅读工具。
When structural patterns are created, any interruption in the pattern creates a point of emphasis.
当结构上的模式被建立起来时， 对这一模式的任何中断 都制造出一个强调点。
Establish what the poem has been doing, then find the moment it stops doing it.
先确立这首诗一直在做什么， 然后找出它停止这样做的那一刻。
That moment is where the poem points.
那一刻就是这首诗所指的地方。
Start with the function of structure in a text.
先看结构在文本中的功能。
Ideas and images in a poem may extend beyond a single line or stanza, and punctuation is often crucial to understanding a text.
一首诗中的观念与意象 可能跨过单独一行或一节， 而标点常常 对理解文本至关重要。
Punctuation deserves that emphasis.
标点配得上这样的强调。
In a poem, a semicolon and a full stop are different claims about how tightly two statements are joined — the semicolon insists they belong together, the full stop lets them stand apart.
在一首诗里， 分号与句号 是关于两个陈述结合得有多紧 的两种不同主张， 分号坚持它们属于一起， 句号则让它们各自独立。
And a poem without punctuation has made a decision about how you must read it: it has handed you the joins and made you responsible for them.
而一首没有标点的诗 已经就"你必须如何读它" 作出了决定： 它把这些接合处交给了你， 让你为它们负责。
These are the function of contrasts within a text.
这些讲的是对照在文本中的功能。
Now the three devices students routinely collapse into one.
现在是学生常常混作一谈的三种手法。
Juxtaposition may create or demonstrate an antithesis.
并置可以造成或体现对立。
Situational or verbal irony is created when events or statements are inconsistent with what is expected.
当事件或陈述 与预期不一致时， 就产生了情境反讽或言语反讽。
And paradox occurs when seemingly contradictory elements are juxtaposed, but the contradiction — which may be at odds with ordinary logic — reveals a deeper truth.
而当看似矛盾的元素被并置， 但这一矛盾， 虽然可能与常理不合， 却揭示出更深的真理时， 就出现了悖论。
Keep them apart.
要把它们分开。
An antithesis places two opposed things together, and both remain true in their own terms.
对立把两个相反的东西放在一起， 而两者在各自的意义上都仍然成立。
An irony is a gap between the expected and the actual — and someone, the writer or the reader, is aware of the gap.
反讽是预期与实际之间的落差， 并且有人， 作者或读者， 意识到这个落差。
A paradox looks like a contradiction and survives inspection: the contradiction is the point, not an error.
悖论看起来像矛盾， 却经得起推敲： 那个矛盾是要点，不是错误。
Three different claims, and conflating them costs marks.
三种不同的主张， 把它们混为一谈会失分。
Now the function of specific words and phrases.
现在说具体词语与短语的功能。
Ambiguity allows for different readings and understandings of a text by different readers.
含混使不同的读者 对同一个文本 有不同的读法与理解。
In this course, ambiguity is a resource, not a difficulty to be tidied away.
在这门课程里， 含混是一种资源， 不是需要被收拾干净的困难。
An essay that identifies a genuinely ambiguous element, explores both readings, and then argues for one is doing exactly what the sophistication point rewards — far more than an essay that pretends the text is simpler than it is.
一篇指认出真正含混之处、 探讨两种读法、 然后为其中一种辩护的文章， 正是在做精深度那一分所奖励的事， 远胜过一篇 假装文本比实际更简单的文章。
Note the order, though.
不过要注意顺序。
Explore both, then argue for one.
先探讨两种，再为其中一种辩护。
An essay that explores both and commits to neither has described a difficulty rather than resolved it.
一篇探讨了两种 却对哪一种都不作承诺的文章， 只是描述了一个困难， 并没有解决它。
Next, the function of a symbol.
接下来是象征的功能。
Symbols in a text, and the way they are used, may imply that a narrator, character or speaker has a particular perspective.
文本中的象征 以及它们被使用的方式， 可能表明某个叙述者、人物或说话者 持有某种特定的视角。
A symbol is not free-floating.
象征不是悬空的。
Someone in the text is treating that object as meaningful — and asking who attaches this meaning is often more productive than asking what the meaning is.
文本中有某个人 正在把那个对象当作有意义的东西， 而问"是谁赋予了这个意义" 往往比问"这个意义是什么" 更有成效。
If only one character treats the locked room as significant, the room is telling you about that character, and the symbol has become evidence about a person rather than a puzzle about an object.
如果只有一个人物 把那间上锁的房间当回事， 那么这个房间 正在告诉你关于这个人物的事， 而这个象征 也就从关于一个对象的谜题， 变成了关于一个人的证据。
And the function of a metaphor, taken to its limit — plus the function of an allusion, which a conceit often leans on.
再说隐喻的功能，推到极致—— 还有典故的功能，奇喻常常要靠它。
A conceit is a form of extended metaphor, common in poetry, developing complex comparisons — often between the natural world and an individual — and multiple comparisons, representations or associations may combine to affect one another in complex ways.
奇喻是延伸隐喻的一种形式， 在诗歌中常见， 发展出复杂的比较， 常常在自然世界与个人之间， 而多重的比较、表现或联想 可能以复杂的方式 彼此结合、相互影响。
A conceit is an extended metaphor that has been pushed further than seems reasonable, and the strain is deliberate.
奇喻是一个被推得 比看上去合理更远的延伸隐喻， 而这种拉扯是有意为之。
When analysing one, follow how far the poet takes the comparison and where it starts to resist.
分析它的时候， 要跟着看诗人把这个比较推到多远， 以及它从哪里开始抵抗。
The resistance is usually the poem's real subject.
那处抵抗 通常就是这首诗真正的主题。
And one last device: because of shared knowledge about a reference, allusions create emotional or intellectual associations in readers who recognise them.
还有最后一个手法： 由于对某个指涉的共享知识， 典故在认得出它的读者身上 唤起情感或智识上的联想。
Note the condition — shared knowledge.
注意那个条件：共享知识。
An allusion is a bet on the reader's memory, and a poem that alludes heavily has chosen its audience.
典故是对读者记忆的一场押注， 而一首大量用典的诗 已经选择了它的受众。
Now the writing: developing a literary thesis, commentary, and evidence.
现在讲写作：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 poem is ambiguous, which makes it interesting" — that is a summary.
"这首诗是含混的，所以很有意思"——这是复述。
Now the stronger one.
再看更强的一句。
"The ambiguity is placed on the one word the whole poem turns on."
"含混恰恰落在整首诗赖以转折的那一个词上。
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。
The claims are the argument; the quotations are only what the argument stands on.
分论点才是论证本身；引文只是论证赖以站立的东西。
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 strategic: 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。
Finally, control over the elements of composition.
最后是对写作要素的掌控。
Coherence occurs at different levels and it is worth checking all three separately.
连贯发生在不同的层级上，三个层级都值得分开检查。
Within a sentence, the clauses have to point the same way.
在一个句子内部，各个分句必须指向同一个方向。
Between sentences, each one has to follow from the one before it.
在句子之间，每一句都必须承接上一句。
And across the whole essay, the claims have to build in an order that goes somewhere.
而在整篇文章的范围内，各个分论点必须按一个走向明确的顺序推进。
And one rule of scholarship applies even here: writers must acknowledge the words, ideas, images, texts, and intellectual property of others through attribution and citation.
还有一条学术规矩在这里同样适用： 作者必须通过标注出处与引用，承认他人的文字、观念、图像、文本与知识产权。
And remember that the ORDER is a choice you are making, not the order in which the ideas happened to arrive.
还要记住：这个顺序本身就是你做出的选择， 而不是这些想法碰巧到来的先后。
Five things to carry out.
带走五件事。
First, establish the pattern, then find the interruption — that is where the poem points.
第一，先确立模式，再找中断， 那就是这首诗所指的地方。
Second, punctuation is a claim about how tightly statements are joined, and a poem without it has made a decision too.
第二，标点是关于 两个陈述结合得有多紧的主张， 而一首没有标点的诗 同样作出了决定。
Third, antithesis, irony and paradox are not synonyms.
第三，对立、反讽与悖论 不是同义词。
Fourth, ambiguity is a resource: explore both readings, then argue for one.
第四，含混是一种资源： 探讨两种读法，然后为其中一种辩护。
Fifth, ask who attaches the meaning to a symbol, and follow a conceit to where it resists.
第五，问是谁赋予象征以意义， 并跟随奇喻 走到它开始抵抗的地方。