Abstract

Dead Poets Society is an American film distributed by Touchstone Pictures in 1989. In the same year, it was played in 13 countries and, without exception, was critically acclaimed in each area. The film was nominated for many awards: it won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the BAFTA Award for Best Film. Dead Poets Society tells a story about freedom and obedience, tradition and innovation, individual and authority, it ignites all sorts of interpretations from diverse perspectives by critics. However, this thesis will search into the illuminating way of poetry teaching by the film’s protagonist- the literature teacher Mr. Keating, and analyze how he successfully use his profound knowledge and unique teaching methods to arose students’ passion for poetry and lead them to comprehend the beauty of poetry. This thesis will analyze the poetry teaching scenes by Mr. Keating, and on this basis it will conclude how to achieve resonance between individual and poems in order to effectively appreciate and teach poetry. This research will be conducted from the perspective of psychology of art and build its foundation on Gestalt psychology, which is a main school of psychology of art. The Gestalt principles: totality, closure, similarity will be applied to poetry appreciation for the purpose of understanding readers’ mental mechanism, facilitating the enjoyment and teaching of poetry, thus providing new angles for the marginalized poetry teaching.


Key words: Dead Poets Society, psychology of art, Gestalt psychology

摘        要

《死亡诗社》是1989年由美国试金石影片公司出品的电影，同年在13个国家上映，一经推出便广受好评，获得奥斯卡最佳原创剧本奖，英国电影学院奖最佳影片奖。影片讲述的自由与遵守，传统与创新，个人与权威的故事引发了评论界多方位的解析。本文将要探讨的是电影中文学老师基廷发散式的诗歌教学方法，分析他是如何成功用自己深厚的造诣和独特的教学法激发学生对诗歌的强烈热爱，带领学生领悟诗歌的独特魅力。
本文将逐一分析电影中基廷老师诗歌教学的三幕场景，总结归纳应该怎样达成个人与诗歌情思的共振，从而有效地进行诗歌鉴赏和教学。全文将从文艺心理学的角度进行诗歌鉴赏研究，用文艺心理学中主要的派别之一—格式塔心理学作为理论支撑，把格式塔心理学派提出的整体性，闭合性，同构性等理论主张运用到诗歌鉴赏中，以求通过了解读者的心理机制，促进对诗歌的赏析和传授，并在此基础上为日益边缘化的诗歌教学提供新视角。


关键词：死亡诗社，诗歌鉴赏，格式塔心理学