梅·萨藤《 70岁日记》中的死亡恐惧(2)

菜单

3.1 The Death of her Friends and Parents 8

3.2 The Aging of Body 9

3.2 The Bleak Atmosphere in Daily Life 9

4. The Manners of Coping with the Fear of Dying 11

4.1 Writing 11

4.2 Travelling and Visiting Friends 12

4.3 Gardening 13

5. Sarton's Mentality toward Dying 14

5.1 Changes of Sarton's Attitude towards Dying 14

6. Conclusion 15

References 17

Chapter 1 Introduction

May Sarton, born in Wondelgem, Belgium in 1912, was a famous memoiris, novelist and poet in America. Her father called George Sarton, was a scientific historian and her mother, Mabel Eleanor Sarton was English artist. The Sartons fled to England in 1914 and next year they moved to Boston. Then they settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts where May obtained her early education. After her parents’ death, May sold the house and moved to Nelson. And in Nelson, she wrote a large number of works. In 1990, because of a serious stroke May Sarton reduced her work. On July 16th, 1995, May Sarton died of breast cancer and was buried in Nelson. She has created more than 50 works all her life, including twenties novels, twenty-five collections of poetry, twelve journals and many memoirs. Especially about the journals and memoirs, the works of journals and memoirs are still very popular in America and even all over the world. Sarton makes many self-reflections in the journal, such as on the aspects of solitude, depression, immorality and love. At Seventy is one of her journeys that can be seen as a great progress in her later works in which she posts the new opinion about aging and dying.

1.1 Reviewing the Researches on May Sarton

In western countries, “the situation of studying the literary gerontology is gradually beginning to change, but the professional awakening has been slow.” (Wyatt-Brown, 1990:299). With this kind of situation, there is a limited number of research books on the literary criticism of May Sarton, even though her works are warmly welcomed by a lot of readers in America and many other countries. But fortunately, we can still find some important works on May Sarton. In 1972, the book May Sarton written by Agnes Sibley, was the first work to study Sarton’s novels, poetry and other works as a whole and gave an overall assessment of the achievements of Sarton. Brake William edited The First Wave: Women and Poets in America, 1915-1945 in 1987. In the last chapter of the book, he introduced the life and great creations of May Sarton and considered her as the pioneer of poets in the new generation. Then about the work called That Great Sanity: Critical Essays on May Sarton written by Susan Swatzlander and Marilyn R. Mumford. It was the most significant work published in 1995. The twelve essays in That Great Sanity worked together to provide theoretical and critical contexts that made a more exhaustive and judicious assessment of Sarton’s achievements than previous ones. In the “Seeing with Fresh Eyes: A Study of May Sarton’s Journals by Jeanne Braham, the author thought “Sarton engages in a process of collaboration with the reader.” (Braham, 1995:156). So in Sarton’s journeys, process was step by step. And Sarton regarded writing as a vent to give her feeling out, such as fears of aging and dying. “The ritual of writing in the journey is a tool for recovery, providing, as it does, the discipline necessary for renewed concentration and perspective.” (Braham, 1995:163) So writing journeys gave Sarton great chances to share her emotions with readers and then patched the terrible emotions out to reduces her spiritual pressure. Also the author thought “Home is a metaphor in all of Sarton;s writing”. (Braham, 1995:159) Sarton’s relationship to her “home” was at the vital center. Because it was the palace where Sarton could withdraw from trouble and demands.