摘 要

爱德华-埃斯特林-卡明斯（Edward Estlin Cummings），又名E.E.Cummings，是美国著名诗人。卡明斯的写作风格属于现代主义自由派，他作品绝大部分都是形体诗。因为他的作品中大量使用了不符合规范的句法，导致其难以被形象地翻译再现，所以他在中国的知名度并不高。《正是春天》是收录在卡明斯《天真之歌》中的诗作之一，该书出版于1923年，本文运用弗洛伊德的精神分析理论，对卡明斯的生活经历及其对诗歌创作的影响进行了深入研究。众所周知，一战对卡明斯有深刻的影响，这一点在分析卡明斯的诗歌主题，以及他奇特的、不拘一格的诗歌结构时，是不可缺少的一点。根据卡明斯对战争的态度以及他对人类的态度，结合他在诗歌中所使用的人物形象，我们不难看出，《正是春天》不可能只是为了简单地赞美童年和春天而写，而是在描述一种冲突和对立，在生机勃勃的春天和孩童天真的笑脸下却潜藏着邪恶的暗涌。天真与世故、美好与邪恶在这首诗中交融，营造出一种奇异的氛围，正是这种冲突和不明确使得这首诗歌拥有别样的魅力。

关键词：E.E.卡明斯；《正是春天》；弗洛伊德精神分析理论；现代主义；形体诗

Abstract

Edward Estlin Cummings, or best known as E.E.Cummings, was a famous American poet. His writing style is often associated with modernist free-form, and the shaped poems constitute a large part of his works. Filling with idiosyncratic syntax makes Cummings’ poems obscure to translate. There’s little acquaintance about him in China, for his works are filled with,.In Just- was one of the poems included in Chansons Innocents, which was published in 1923. This paper uses Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis to dig into the life of E.E.Cummings. It’s known that the poet once experienced the World War I which is an indispensable point when analyze his writing theme of poem. According to Cummings’ altitude towards human and war, and also considering the images he had used in In Just-, it’s obvious that In Just- can’t simply praise childhood and spring. Indeed, the poet depicted a contrast, that is, the evil hided under the rigorous spring and innocent childhood which builds a wired but attractive atmosphere.

Key Words: E.E.Cummings, In Just-, Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, modernism, shaped poem

Contents

1 Introduction 4

2 Literature Review 5

2.1 Freud’s Theory of Psychoanalysis 5

2.2 Study on In Just- at Home andAabroad 5

3 Cummings’ complex spiritual world 7

3.1 External Factors in Cummings’ Writing 7

3.1.1 The influence of other writers on Cummings 7

3.1.2 Collision between music and literature 7

3.2 The Lingering Life Experience in Cummings’ Spiritual World 8

3.2.1 The nostalgia of World War I 8

3.2.2 Two women theme in Cummings’ dream 8

4 The Symbolic Meaning of Images in In Just- 10

4.1 Idiosyncratic Format 10

4.1.1 Spacing and syntax 10

4.1.2 The capitalized “M” 11

4.1.3 The slang and compound word 12

4.2 The Paradoxical Identity of “Balloonman” 12

4.2.1 Cummings’ obsessed classical world of Pan 12

4.2.2 The gods in In Just- 16

5 Conclusions 17

References 18

Acknowledgements 20

Psychoanalysis on E.E.Cummings’ poetry In Just-

1 Introduction

E.E.Cummings, born in Cambridge October 14, 1894, was a famous American poet, painter, novel writer, playwright and essayist. He is often considered to be the most important American port of the 20^th century. His writing style is associated with modernism, free-form poem, and is famous for the unconventional use of syntax, grammar and the lower case of spelling. In his life, he wrote about 2,900 poems four plays, two autobiographical novels and also some essays. Except for Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound, his work was also influenced by Dada and surrealism, the theme was usually connected with love and nature, meantime also filled with metaphor, simile and allusion, witch made satire an indispensable part in his poem.

He was born in Cambridge, he started drawing and writing in an early age, and accompanied by some philosophers like William James and Josiah Royce.He completed BA and MA in Harvard University, where he gradually grew the interest of modern poetry. His study also led him to contact with some avant-garde writers like Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound, who gave him huge influences in the way he wrote.

Later in 1917 when he was 23, he joined the World War I as a member of the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps. But he and his friend were arrested on suspicion of espionage. They stayed in a large room for three and a half months, after the deliverance, he wrote The Enormous Room on the basis of this experience. In 1923, his poem Tulips and Chimneys was published, and three years after, his parents went through a car crash, which took his father’s life and made his mother severely injured. Since then, he entered a brand new stage in his artistic life. He became more focused on life. Before his death, he was already recognized to be the second most read poet in America.

In Just- is not a typical one of his shaped poems, but is famous for its paradoxical use of images. So the most common way of interpreting the poem is to analyze images in each line or stanza. According to theory of psychoanalysis, this paper aims to crosscheck Cummings’ metaphorical network from all his works, and also analyze his experiences at different life stages. Moreover, A person’s literary work is decided by his life, so by digging into Cummings’ life, it’s easy to find out many clues that can help to solve the problems appeared, and prove the existence of hidden world under the innocent veil.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Freud’s Theory of Psychoanalysis

The theory of psychoanalysis was first found in early 1890s by Sigmund Freud. At first psychoanalysis was used as a kind of psychiatry to analyze mental patients’ ideas, but it’s nowadays wildly used in analysis of film, novel and other kinds of literary work.

The idea of psychoanalysis is complicated. It contains sexology, interpretation of dreams and many other details. At first, Freud developed its core idea in the interpretation of the Oedipus and Shakespeare’s Hamlet.(Freud, 1899) This kind of psychoanalysis often treats the text as if it’s a dream, seeks to undermine the superficial context and re-express the latent meaning, so it usually deals with symbols and metaphors. Nevertheless, this method can't avoid the understanding and analysis of the author’s life, and is too specific to lose the ambiguity of the work. However, the theory was later amended and perfected by some of Freud’s students. In 1963, Charles Mauron created psychoanalysis with clear principles. He considered that the creative process is like dreaming awake, the representation of an innate desire is best expressed and revealed by metaphors and symbolically. He also emphasized that the comparison between one author’s different work is vital, thus we can dig into the metaphorical networks that can reveal the author’s real thoughts. And also, the link between the author’s life experience and his creations is indispensable when psychoanalyzing one literature work. Thus, based on psychoanalysis, the paper analyzes the metaphors, symbols, syntax in In Just- and Cummings’ personal life.

2.2 Study on In Just- at Home and Abroad

There are several academic points of views agreed in western scholars’ analysis: First, In Just- was written from a child’s view; Second, the image “balloonman” is a metaphorical symbol; Third, all the weird syntax and format are deliberately used, considering Cummings’ identity as painter.

There are three people who are well-known in analyzing Cummings’ work, but their ideas differ from each other, and mainly focus on the “balloonman”. Kidder (1979) affirms this poem is representing “law and order”, and believe the “balloonman” is “simply a sign of returning spring and a focus for childhood’s delights in fragile and evanescent toys”, and the connection to Pied Piper is “drawing children out of their separate boyish and girlish concerns” (kidder, 1979:90), Richard Kennedy (1994) thinks “balloonman” is “the toy-bringer” and is the representation of “ Pan or some other mythic satyr” (Kennedy, 1994:230) Gary Lane advocates “the balloonman epitomize fertility. Bringing the sexuality separate children together” (Lane, 1976:127).

The question mainly focuses on whether the “balloonman” is just a person who sells balloons, or if there are any hidden meanings. What domestic scholars don’t realize is the image of god Pan is never one-sided. He has other traits too. Except for spring, wild, nature and fertility, Pan is associated with sex. He is luscious and depraved, consistently pursuing nymphs, and he is even no less interested in boys. In English, the word “queer” itself has the idea of homosexuality, which can be a kind of proof and indication of the sinister figure the god Pan plays in the work.