In terms of his meticulous, poetic and pictorial description of nature scenery in the Walden, as a result, Thoreau himself has won great appreciation from critics all over the world and he eventually has been eulogized as the son of the nature without fail。 This treatise, on the flip side, will make a research on Walden based on three aspects: the canonization of Walden in American history of literature, the evolution of literature criticism as well as two bandwagons in modern China。 As a result, this will be a new research which differs from the former ones。
3。 The Canonization of Walden in the History of American Literature
In the American literature, people, as time goes by, are increasingly avid for investigation of canonization, which is related to their social tentacles, economic prosperity, as well as literature affluence。 In consequence of this, re-cognizance of canonization embraces mammoth affinity among people who are disposed to take a new look on canonization and express their deprecation against existing principles, values, coupled with standards。
3。1 The re-cognizance of canonization文献综述
Walden has been canonized for various reasons, in particular related to historical and cultural in the 19th century in American history and likewise relevant to the experiences of Thoreau himself。
First of all, Walden is the central writing of transcendentalist and it is an epitome of transcendentalist。 In the second place, Walden becomes the milestone and landmark of natural writing in American history of literature to a large degree and without doubt it contains all-important, far-reaching and profound influence on ecology。 Further, pivotal attention has been put on the natural writing and a new upsurge in Thoreau’s Walden spontaneously is in the making。 The new nature writing makes ironic use of the language of traditional nature writing in order to deflate the tradition's romantic and transcendental bent。 Thirdly, Walden has embraced Utopia successfully and it becomes a typical book that describes movement of Utopia, which propagates a unique lifestyle, catering to American people Eden dream。 Last but not least, it is the abolition movement that makes Walden be a masterpiece and Thoreau’s role of hero as well as his cultural background has made a great difference to Walden canonization。 We can see the tactic clearly in Robert Sullivan's Rats, which liberally borrows chapter titles and language from Thoreau's Walden, appropriating them in the service of celebrating not some pastoral ideal like Walden Pond but a rat-filled alley in New York City。 Even as the tone shifts from spiritual reverence to comic irony, the tactic shifts our (Marshall 284)。 After examining the Indian and the Chinese references in Walden, it states that there was something essentially Confucian in Thoreau’s temperament。 It proves that Thoreau must have been impressed by the ideas of Confucian propriety, cultivation of mind, high value of justice above material gains and perfection within the earthly realm。 Besides, Thoreau’s emphasis on intuition and illumination is quite similar to the epistemology of Zen Buddhism (Christy 642)。 There is no denying that canonization examination is an ongoing and forward-moving process brimming with progressive acquaintance, intelligence, sapience and sagacity。