舍伍德·安德森(1876—1941)四十岁后才成为短篇和长篇小说作家。他象在他之前的西奥多·德莱塞一样,也与美国文学的典雅传统决裂而转向自然主义。他是第一个运用弗洛伊德的心理学理论探讨他小说中人物的动机和挫折的作家,因而一直被称为美国“心理作家”的鼻祖。安德森对两次世界大战之间的许多作家影响极大,特别是海明威和福克纳。舍伍德·安德森出生于美国中西部俄亥俄州的一个乡村。他弟兄七人,父亲是一个穷苦的工人。后来他父亲抛弃了自己的家庭。当安德森还是个孩子时,他父亲把家搬到一个阴沉的工业小镇。在那里,年轻的安德森觉得无论在感情上还是文化上都是与世隔绝的;这种感受为他后来对人类在工业文明中的“机械化”持严厉的批评态度奠定了基础。 Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) became a short story and novelist after 40 years of age. Like Theodore Dreiser, just as before, he also turned to naturalism, breaking with the elegant tradition of American literature. He was the first writer to use Freudian psychology to explore the motives and setbacks of characters in his novels, and has long been described as the originator of the “psychological writer” in the United States. Anderson had a great influence on many writers between the two world wars, especially Hemingway and Faulkner. Sherwood Anderson was born in a village in Ohio in the Midwestern United States. His brother is seven, and his father is a poor worker. Later, his father abandoned his family. When Anderson was still a child, his father moved to a gloomy industrial town. There, young Anderson felt isolated, both emotionally and culturally; this feeling laid the groundwork for his subsequent harsh criticism of “mechanization” in the industrial civilization.