111 年 國立成功大學外文研究所甲組《美國文學》
第 1 題
Below are the first two paragraphs of Chapter 2 of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854). Read the passage and analyze some aspect or aspects of how it says what it says. You don't have to try to discuss all of the following questions, or any of those listed, as long as you provide specific interpretation and analysis of the text.
- Why does Thoreau employ the images he does, and how do they function in this passage?
- Discuss some puns and other forms of wordplay that the passage contains and how they affect it. (For example, words punned on here include "deed," "premises," "cultivate," and "improve.") Why is Thoreau so fond of wordplay? How is that important to the work he wants his book to do?
- "How has he "retained the landscape" if he "never got [his] fingers burned by actual possession"? What does this have to do with themes of the book, if you have read it?
- What details of the farms does he notice, and how might they be significant?
- How do ideas and attitudes found in this passage compare with those seen in other well-known American texts? Among the possibilities you might consider are references to the significance of the natural world, to the attractions of living alone, to the value of labor, or to the dangers of property.
You don't have to summarize American history in order to write your essay, and please don't do so even if you can. (100 points)
- Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
AT A CERTAIN season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house. I have thus surveyed the country on every side within a dozen miles of where I live. In imagination I have bought all the farms in succession, for all were to be bought, and I knew their price. I walked over each farmer's premises, tasted his wild apples, discoursed on husbandry with him, took his farm at his price, at any price, mortgaging it to him in my mind; even put a higher price on it- took everything but a deed of it-took his word for his deed, for I dearly love to talk- cultivated it, and him too to some extent, I trust, and withdrew when I had enjoyed it long enough, leaving him to carry it on. This experience entitled me to be regarded as a sort of real-estate broker by my friends. Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly. What is a house but a sedes, a seat?--better if a country seat. I discovered many a site for a house not likely to be soon improved, which some might have thought too far from the village, but to my eyes the village was too far from it. Well, there I might live, I said; and there I did live, for an hour, a summer and a winter life; saw how I could let the years run off, buffet the winter through, and see the spring come in. The future inhabitants of this region, wherever they may place their houses, may be sure that they have been anticipated. An afternoon sufficed to lay out the land into orchard, wood-lot, and pasture, and to decide what fine oaks or pines should be left to stand before the door, and whence each blasted tree could be seen to the best advantage; and then I let it lie, fallow, perchance, for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.
My imagination carried me so far that I even had the refusal of several farms- the refusal was all I wanted- but I never got my fingers burned by actual possession. The nearest that I came to actual possession was when I bought the Hollowell place, and had begun to sort my seeds, and collected materials with which to make a wheelbarrow to carry it on or off with; but before the owner gave me a deed of it, his wife- every man has such a wife- changed her mind and wished to keep it, and he offered me ten dollars to release him. Now, to speak the truth, I had but ten cents in the world, and it surpassed my arithmetic to tell, if I was that man who had ten cents, or who had a farm, or ten dollars, or all together. However, I let him keep the ten dollars and the farm too, for I had carried it far enough; or rather, to be generous, I sold him the farm for just what I gave for it, and, as he was not a rich man, made him a present of ten dollars, and still had my ten cents, and seeds, and materials for a wheelbarrow left. I found thus that I had been a rich man without any damage to my poverty. But I retained the landscape, and I have since annually carried off what it yielded without a wheelbarrow. With respect to landscapes,
"I am monarch of all I survey/My right there is none to dispute."
I have frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer supposed that he had got a few wild apples only. Why, the owner does not know it for many years when a poet has put his farm in rhyme, the most admirable kind of invisible fence, has fairly impounded it, milked it, skimmed it, and got all the cream, and left the farmer only the skimmed milk.
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本題要求考生就 Henry David Thoreau《Walden》書中第二章〈Where I Lived, and What I Lived For〉的開頭段落，進行深入的文本詮釋與分析。試題列出了五個引導性的問題，但強調考生不必逐一回答，而應聚焦於提供具體的文本詮釋和分析。這五個問題涵蓋了：
- 意象的使用與功能： 探討 Thoreau 如何運用特定意象，以及這些意象在段落中扮演的角色。
- 雙關語與文字遊戲： 分析段落中的雙關語與文字遊戲，探討其對文本的影響，以及 Thoreau 偏愛文字遊戲的原因及其在書中扮演的角色。
- 「保留景觀」與「實際擁有」的關係： 探討 Thoreau 如何「保留景觀」卻「未曾實際擁有」，並連結至書本的主題。
- 農場細節的象徵意義： 觀察 Thoreau 對農場細節的描寫，並分析其潛在的象徵意義。
- 跨文本比較： 將此段落的思想與態度，與其他美國文學文本進行比較，特別是關於自然世界、獨居、勞動價值或財產風險等主題。
考生需要展現對文本的細讀能力，並能提出有說服力的論點，結合文本證據來支持其分析。這是一道需要高度文本分析和批判性思考能力的題目，考察考生對美國文學經典文本的理解深度。
解題方向：
考生應選擇一或多個引導性問題作為切入點，深入分析 Thoreau 在這段文字中展現的思想與寫作技巧。以下針對幾個問題提供可能的分析角度：
- 關於意象與文字遊戲： Thoreau 在此段落中運用了大量與「擁有」、「交易」、「耕耘」相關的意象，例如「買賣」、「農場」、「耕種」、「地契」、「房產經紀人」等。他將想像中的購地、體驗農場生活、甚至與農夫的互動，都描述為一種「交易」或「擁有」的過程。然而，他強調自己「從未被實際擁有燒傷手指」（never got [his] fingers burned by actual possession），並且最終「保留了景觀」（retained the landscape）卻無需實際擁有。這形成了一種對傳統財產觀念的挑戰。
- 文字遊戲（Puns and Wordplay）： Thoreau 巧妙運用了「deed」（地契；行為）、「premises」（房產；前提）、「cultivate」（耕種；培養）、「improve」（改良；改善）等詞語的多重意義。例如，他「took his word for his deed」（以他的話為準，即便沒有地契），這裡「deed」既指土地的擁有權證明，也指實際的行為。他「cultivated it, and him too」（耕種了土地，也培養了農夫），將對土地的經營與人際互動結合。