The Writing Style of Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift：An Intertextuality Perception

【ABSTRACT】：This study attempts to compare the two men of their works and their different writing style based on some literary works and try to analyze something about themselves. Beginning with the introduction， a glimpse of Mark Twain’s and Jonathan Swift’s personal life ，and this will help us know more about them and their writing style. Then， I will compare them by using their works.Towards the end of the study， I will introduce more about them，not only their works，but also their life，the most important is the influence they bring to us.

【Key Words】： Sarcasm， Colloquial， Vernacular

Introduction

Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift are both literature masters in American and England.The most obvious writing feature in their works is the use of sarcasm. Mark Twain was the first important writer to consistently use the American speech rather than England’s English. His honor， whether it was aimed at pure entertainment or at social satire， was irresistible. Jonathan Swift is almost unsurpassed in the writing of simple， direct， precise prose. He defined a good style as “proper words in proper places” clear， simple， concrete， diction， uncomplicated sentence structure and economy and concise use of language mark all his writing-essay， poems and novels.

Body

The best work that Mark Twain ever produced is， The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It tells a story about the United States before the Civil War， around 1850， when the great Mississippi Valley was still being settled. Here lies an America， with its great national faults， full of violence and even cruelty， yet still retaining the virtues of “some simplicity， some innocence， and some peace.” At the heart of Twain’s achievement is his creation of Huck Finn， who embodies that mythic America， midway between the wilderness and the modern super state.

As for the style of the book， the form is based on the simplest of all novel-forms， the so-called picaresque novel， or novel of the road， which strings its incidents on the line of the hero’s travels. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shows us the major achievements of his art： the masterful use of dialects； humor and pathos， innocence and evil. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn displays the major achievements of his art，the carefully controlled point of view， the felicitous balancing of nostalgic humorist and realism， humor and pathos， innocence and evil， all united for a journey down the Mississippi that serves as the mythic center of the novel. This novel demonstrates his ability to capture the enduring， archetypal， mythic images of America and to create the most memorable characters in all of American fiction. Mark Twain wrote in his unpretentious， colloquial， and poetic style. He used vernacular language， dialect with spelling representing pronunciation. Part of this comes from his interest in humor. The directness of the language is a very influential point in Twain’s style.

Different from Mark Twain， Jonathan Swift has his own experience in English writing. Gulliver's Travels， a large portion of which Swift wrote at Woodbrook House in County Laois， was published in 1726. It is regarded as his masterpiece. As with his other writings， the Travels was published under a pseudonym， the fictional Lemuel Gulliver， a ship’s surgeon and later a sea captain. Gulliver’s Travels is an anatomy of human nature， a sardonic looking-glass， often criticized for its apparent misanthropy. It asks its readers to refute it， to deny that it has adequately characterized human nature and society. Each of the four books， recounting four voyages to mostly fictional exotic lands has a different theme， but all are attempts to deflate human pride. Critics hail the work as a satiric reflection on the shortcomings of Enlightenment thought.

In 1729， Swift published A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country， and for Making them Beneficial to the Public， a satire in which the narrator， with intentionally grotesque arguments， recommends that Ireland's poor escape their poverty by selling their children as food to the rich： “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London， that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food”. Following the satirical form， he introduces the reforms he is actually suggesting by deriding them.

Conclusion

Although they live in different ages，they are from different countries， they have different life experiences， they suffer from the different backgrounds of their own country， to some degree， they are same.They have the same writing style in their works， they describe the same ideas about the life， they use the same way to express themselves. They have their own opinions towards the society. They can not change the real society， but they use their pen， their smart to fight with the unfair， so that they can obtain what they want to have.

References

Bullitt， John M. Jonathan Swift and the Anatomy of Satire： A Study of Satiric Technique， 1953， Cambridge， Harvard.

Nida， Eugene A. The Theory and Practice of Translation（M）. Leiden： E.J. Brill，1982.

William Makepeace Thackeray’s influential vitriolic biography： JaffeBros. From his English Humourists of The Eighteenth Century.

常耀信，美國文學教程，南開大學出版社，2005.

胡壯麟. 語言學教程（M）.北京：北京大學出版社，1988.

馬克·吐溫：《哈克貝利·費恩歷險記》，成時譯，人民文學出版社，1989.

吳偉仁，美國文學史及選讀學習指南（M）中央民族大學出版社，2002.

王長榮.現代美國小說史（M）上海：上海外語教育出版社，1996：22-31.

作者簡介：付宗英（1993. 2～），女，籍貫：陜西西安，學校：陜西師范大學外國語學院2015級碩士，研究方向：跨文化交際及教學。