4。 Conclusion 14

Reference 15

1。 Introduction 

1。1Brief introduction about May Sarton and Encore

May Sarton (May 3, 1912-July 16, 1995), an American poet, novelist, and memoirist, creates more than 50 works through her life, most of which are poetry and novels。 However, it is Sarton’s journal that wins her a worldwide reputation and a large readership。 Sarton describes her own life and records her ideological formation and development through her journals。 As a solitary writer, Sarton thinks deeply about the theme of living alone, women identity, homosexuality, love of nature, friendship and aging。 Sarton keeps on recording her life from the age of 58 to 82, which “is different from the inpidual who writes in his journal or diary those thoughts destined only for the writer’s eyes”。 (Evans, 1989: 26) And the motivation to keep journals for such a long time is partly because “self-examination, hoping that the process would help effect a behavioral change。” (Evans, 1989: 26) It is just because Sarton creates her journals in the elderly age that her descriptions about the status in old age are really profound。 Her representative works of journals are Journal of a Solitude (1973), The House by the Sea (1977), Recovering (1980), At Seventy (1984) and After the Stroke (1988)。 Besides, Encore (1993) is also a fascinating portrayal of the journals in the elderly age。

Encore is a record of Sarton's life from shortly beyond her seventy-ninth birthday to the Westbrook Conference in her honor in June, 1992。 It is not so different from Sarton’s other journals, which “invite familiarity from readers who experience the day-by-day routines of the author’s life---making beds and meals, filling birdfeeders and shoveling snow, receiving wanted and unwanted guests, exulting in love and despairing in love lost。” (Evans, 1989: 27) Because of her health problem, Sarton was forced to resort to dictation in order to write the book Encore。 Even in such a poor health condition, Sarton provides us with her old life in the journal。 Through Encore, we will encounter Sarton’s joys of gardening and the comings-and-goings of Sarton’s cat; we will experience Sarton’s special friendship past and present; we will witness “a time of extraordinary serendipity” (Sarton, 1993:100); we will find Sarton thinking deeply about the meaning of old age and of physical well-being。 As Sarton has written, Encore marks her “last days of journal-keeping” (Sarton, 1993:309)。 As a last journal, Encore brings us “through a thicket of ill health into an extraordinary time of happiness and fulfillment” (Sarton, 1993:324)。 For Sarton, “it is hard to say goodbye to journals” (Sarton, 1993:324), while for us readers, it is hard to say goodbye to Encore, for we have obtained so much from this journal。论文网

1。2 Literature review on Sarton’s works

“Literary scholars are beginning to recognize the importance of aging in the creative process and to make significant contributions to gerontological theory。”(Wyatt-Brown, 1990:299) And this catalyzes the birth of literary gerontology。 Even though the professional literary gerontology develops slowly, these literary scholars really fulfill their functions to forward the innovation of literary gerontology。 May Sarton, one of the outstanding pioneer writers in aging process, can never be ignored while talking about literary gerontology。

Although Sarton’s works are warmly welcomed by readers all over the world, the number of the books on the literary criticism of May Sarton is limited。 Fortunately, there are still some important studies on May Sarton can be attached。 In May Sarton (1972), Agnes Sibley offers a tiny biography and a clear chronological study of Sarton’s poetry and novels through 1972。 Susan Sherman, a close friend of Sarton, selects some of Sarton’s unpublished poems, letters, journals, and photographs and arranges these in a thematically but not strictly chronologically way。 Then the beautifully designed work May Sarton: Among the Usual Days comes into being。 And in each theme, Sherman would write a sentence or two about the selections。 Taken Sarton’s own words to describe the work, “It is like a great feast of friends and the many lives I have lived I am eager to go up and start on the second part。”(Sarton, 1993: 76) This work creates a vivid human vision of Sarton as woman and writer。 After reading this work, I fully agree with Sarton that “Susan has a very good eye for what is important---and for what is important in different ways, because it gives an idea of what I’m thinking, it puts the reader right down where I am。”(Sarton, 1993: 75)