摘 要

回顾漫漫历史长卷，不同民族不同国家都诞生过伟大的先行者，引领他们的文学从依附走向独立，从幼稚走向成熟，从萌芽走向繁荣。拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生的《美国学者》是美国文化的独立宣言。在《美国学者》的著名演讲中，爱默生宣告美国文学应脱离英国文学的依附，并告诫美国学者摒弃对传统文学的纯粹的摹仿之路，呼吁创造独立的美国文学。在演讲中，他用他高屋建瓴的思想及端正严谨的态度，从自然，书籍以及行动三个方面分析了学者如何保持文学创造的独立，并谈及学者如何承担社会赋予的责任。在演讲过程中，爱默生通过借鉴其他国家的独立文学向学生们讲述了美国文学独立的重要性。现如今，学者们对于《美国学者》的解读和赏析多集中于其历史文献价值及文学情怀层面，部分学者分析了《美国学者》修辞手法艺术效果，极少部分学者以文学手法为切入点，深入剖析其主题思想。本文将从对比、类比及引用这三种修辞手法出发，通过生动形象的典型实例分析《美国学者》的主题思想，深刻探讨修辞手法对强调美国文化独立这一主题思想的独特效果。

关键词：《美国学者》 ；对比修辞；类比修辞；引用修辞

Abstract

Looking back upon the long scroll of history, readers can find that great forerunners have been born in different nationalities and countries, leading their literature from attachment to independence, from “childish” to “mature”, from sprout to prosperity. “The American Scholar” which is a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson at the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College is the Declaration of Independence of American Culture. In this high-profile speech, Emerson declared that American literature should separate from the attachment of British literature. Besides, Emerson also admonished American scholars to abandon the pure imitation of traditional literature and to appeal for the creation of independent American literature. In his speech, with his lofty thoughts, extraordinary talents and rigorous attitude, he analyzed how scholars should keep spiritual independence and perfectness from three aspects: nature，books and action，and explored how scholars should bear the social responsibility. In the course of his speech, Emerson recounted the importance of American literary independence by drawing on independent literature from other countries. Nowadays, scholars’ interpretations and appreciation of “The American Scholar” mostly focus on the value of historical documents and literary sentiment. Some scholars have analyzed the artistic effect of its rhetorical devices. However very few scholars use literary techniques as an entry to analyze its theme in depth. This paper will proceed from three rhetorical devices of contrast, analogy and citation, to analyze the theme of “The American Scholar” through representative and typical examples, and to probe into the unique effect of rhetorical devices on emphasizing the independence of American literature.

Key Words: “The American Scholar”; Contrasts; Analogies; Citations

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1Ralph Waldo Emerson and His Works 1

1.2 Literature Review 1

1.3 Significance and Layout of This Paper 2

2 Contrasts in “The American Scholar” 4

2.1 Mere Thinker vs Man Thinking 4

2.2 Bookworm vs Man Thinking 5

3 Analogies in “The American Scholar” 7

3.1 Washington Irving vs Geoffrey Chaucer 7

3.2 Washington Irving vs Walt Whitman 8

4 Citations in “The American Scholar” 10

4.1 Citation of William Shakespeare 10

4.2 Citation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 11

5 Conclusion 12

5.1 Summary 12

5.2 Limitations and Further Study 13

References 14

Acknowledgements 15

Figures of Speech in “The American Scholar”

Introduction

1.1Ralph Waldo Emerson and His Works

As one of the founder of the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century, a pioneer in the movement for American Literary Independence, Ralph Waldo Emerson is the leading figure of intellectual culture in the United States and he is nicknamed the Sage of Concord. Being the key figure in developing independent American literature, Emerson is one of the most accomplished and influential Americans in the literary field. He is not only a lecturer and orator, but also an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet.

As an essayist and poet, Emerson writes most of his important essays as his lectures and he publishes two collections of essays, Essays: First Series (1841) and Essays: Second Series (1844) which state the core part of his thoughts. In prose, “Nature”, “The American Scholar” and “The Divinity School Address”, are called the three milestones in his literary career. And “The American Scholar”, the Declaration of Independence of American Culture, is the most influential and far-reaching essay in the United States in the 19th century. By "scholar" Emerson did not mean "academic" but, as Robert D. Richardson Jr. has put it, "something of what we mean by student, something of intellectual, and most, perhaps, of what we mean by writer" (Fadiman, 1998:4). Jaime Russell Lowell (Li,2006) once said that puritan resistance made American independent in the church; the American War of Independence made American independent in the politics and Emerson made the United States independent from the containment of the British trend of thought in literature. Emerson describes speech that encourages people to follow their own beliefs (Hansen, 2008:417-437). In general, Emerson explains the relationship between American scholars and nature by introducing transcendentalist and romantic views. “The American Scholar” can be divided into two parts. Part One narrates the influence on scholars from three aspects: nature exerts the most important influence on the mind; the past is manifested in books and actions and its relation to experience. The last is the responsibility of “The American Scholar” who has become the “Man Thinking”. Part Two recounts a new desire for cultural independence and literary identity in its nations and times.

1.2 Literature Review

This paper looking into the relevant researches, readers can find that critics mainly focus on Emerson’s influence, his beliefs and morality, and so on. Several articles research scholars and cultural confidence, such as “The American scholar and cultural confidence” (Yang, 2016). Some researchers focus on the process from transcendentalism to individualism and Emerson's influence on American culture (Liu, 2006:128-132), probing into the philosophical basis and basic characteristics of Emerson individualism. Several articles pay attention to the relationship between Emerson's American culture and Confucianism, such as Emerson's view of nature under the influence of Confucianism (Tang, 2018:100-104). Only one article called “The Analysis of the Rhetoric Techniques of American Scholars” (Yao, 2006:176-177) is found in the domestic journal. Moreover, this article only analyzes the rhetorical devices, such as metaphor, contrast and parallelism, their artistic effects, but its impact on the content of the essay is not mentioned.

For what has been presented above, most of studies carry out the essay’s social, religious and literary influences, rather than its rhetoric technique. This paper analyzes the use of three kinds of rhetorical devices: contrast, analogy and citation in the essay, getting to know Emerson's view of and appeal for the establishment of the American independent cultural system. “The American Scholar” plays an important role in American literature and is regarded as the milestone in Emerson’s literary career. This paper is designed to analyze the role and influence of rhetorical devices in “The American Scholar” in expressing the theme of the speech. This perspective is new and original. After the exploration, readers can learn about the importance of American cultural independence in Emerson's view from a new perspective. And the analysis can make readers more deeply understand the essay’s contents and inspire scholars to keep the independent spirit in creating their own literary works today and even in the future.

1.3 Significance and Layout of This Paper

The significance of this paper includes three aspects: the first is to pay tribute to classic literature from a new perspective; the second is to help readers deeply understand the usage and function of rhetorical devices in this research method; the last is to inspire our reflections on the problem which contemporary Chinese scholars are probably faced with．

This paper consists of five parts: introduction, contrasts, analogies, citations and conclusion. In the first part, the author intends to make a brief introduction about Ralph Waldo Emerson and his literary works. In the light of the previous academic researches, “The American Scholar” is the milestone in American literature and is a warning sign for contemporary scholars' literary creation. In the second, third and fourth parts, the author take figures of speech as an entry to research the essay’s theme. This novel approach of research leaves the reader with more room to think carefully and comprehend this classic work. Rhetoric techniques play an important role in the writing of the essay. The techniques can not only enrich the content of the essay in structure, but also emphasize the theme and strengthen the author's point of view. There are different kinds of figures of speech, such as a special repetition, omission of words, and parallel construction and so on. This paper analyzes typical rhetoric devices: contrasts, analogies and citations for better understanding the essay’s content and form.

Contrasts in “The American Scholar”

Contrast is to compare the differences, contradictions and oppositions between two or more things. By comparing the opposite meanings or things, readers can distinguish or consider the differences between those things. The contrastive technique in writing is to place the contradictory parties in things, phenomena and processes under certain conditions ，so that they can be concentrated in a complete artistic unity, forming complementary and echoing relationships. The two pairs of contrast in “The American Scholar”, Mere Thinker and Man Thinking, Bookworm and Man Thinking, highlight Emerson’s call for American cultural independence.

2.1 Mere Thinker vs Man Thinking

At the beginning of this speech, Emerson condemns the pure imitation rather than independent creation of the exotic literature in the early American literary, so as to show that American scholars cannot always be fed on the sere remain of foreign harvest (Emerson, 1841:11-27). Meanwhile, Emerson discusses three factors in which scholars maintain spiritual independence and complacency: nature, books, and action. Emerson points out that “Know self” and “Study nature” becomes at last one maxim; each age must write its own books; the preamble of thought, the transition through which it passes from the unconscious to the conscious, is action (Emerson, 1841:11-27). The Emerson points out that in the divided or social state, Man is no longer the sum of the whole social consciousness, but is divided into different individuals, engaged in part of the work of the whole society. Thus, scholars are defined as mere thinkers, or still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking. However in Emerson’s view, the right state of scholar should be Man Thinking.