A Study Of The Post/Impressionist Influence On Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg,Ohio

Sherwood Anderson,praised as “the father of modern America literature”,is remembered today not only for such classics as Winesburg,Ohio,The Triumph Of The Egg,and Death in The Woods,but more because of the innovative and unique impressionistic style he has adopted and exercised throughout his literary career.Equally memorable is the irreplaceable transitional role he has played in the development of modern American literature,especially in terms of literary impressionism—the priceless legacy he has left for American literature.As a professional writer and an amateur painter at the same time,Anderson has managed to connect and balance the two kinds of art perfectly through his intense appreciation,keen absorption,and skillful application of the art of post/impressionism in his literary works.Self-identified as an impressionist,his language style,story structures,and writing techniques with distinctive post/impressionistic characteristics break the conventional way of writing and “make the American short story never look the same again”.However,despite the value of studying the post/impressionist influence on Anderson has,the existing literature relevant to the topic is far from adequate in terms of either quality or quantity.To enrich current inter-disciplinary researches,this paper,as part of the National Social Science Foundation program An Interdisciplinary Study between Post/Impressionism and the Development of Modern American Fiction(17BWW016),intends to make a tentative exploration into this specific topic by conducting a detailed case study on Anderson’s very first and finest work Winesburg,Ohio,the publication of which in1919 marked the true beginning of his great literary journey.Based on the highlighted impressionistic characteristics in the novel,the discussion will be conducted from three aspects,including Anderson’s post/impressionistic rendition of landscape description,characterization and narrative techniques.Given the interdisciplinary nature of the study,the essential artistic theories and commonly employed techniques of post/impressionism will be pinpointed for analysis in contrast with Anderson’s application in the target text.Regarding landscape description,Anderson’s direct rendition of the ordinary scenes and daily objects and his skillful employment of color and light in accordance with post/impressionistic landscape paintings are highlighted,making the natural scenes merge naturally into the stories and help set the general moody,isolated,and deserted emotional pace for the whole novel.Regarding post/impressionistic influence on characterization,it is discovered that Anderson sticks to the pioneering post-impressionist Cézanne’s principle of simplicity and manages to create his characters with little space and few details through his highly feature-oriented characterization and proficient employment of such typical symbols as “hands,”“twisted apples,” and“grotesques,” which ensures the characters to be impressive and pushes the dramatic tone in the stories to the maximum.In the discussion of narrative techniques,given the importance of “the narrator” in Anderson’s works,the discussion will center around the post/impressionistic characteristics of the narrator from the following four subdivided aspects: the narrator’s employment of vague,ambiguous and subjective word choice,confusing chronology,plotless arrangement,and multiple narrative perspectives.These post/impressionistic features in the story embody Anderson’s assimilation and application of the painterly art by highlighting the fragmented,broken,and floating impressions of lives by concealing the real story plots and inviting audience participation by leading them to build up plotlines and characters by themselves.Therefore,different interpretations of the stories are created and the impulse of providing a “subjective reality”is fulfilled,which becomes one critical and helpful point of departure for critics and readers to understand modern American literature.As a tentative study,this paper tries to probe into the novelist’s impressionistic literary world through the detailed case study.Hopefully,this analysis could make its due contribution to the study of the post/impressionist influence on Anderson,help readers and critics appreciate the uniqueness of his literary world at depth,and pass on the baton of “Americanness” and “humanly love” to future generations.