JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲稿(英文)

JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲稿(英文)（精选3篇）

JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲稿(英文) 篇1

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places.Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral.One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are.They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages;they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally;they can refuse to know.I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do.Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters.They are often more afraid.What is more, those who choose not to empathize may enable real monsters.For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden.If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice;if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless;if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better.We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I’ve used their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships.And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:

JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲稿(英文) 篇2

说到西方修辞学,我们自然会想到古典修辞学和新修辞学,古典修辞学的鼻祖是亚里士多德,他认为修辞是“劝说”;而新修辞学的代表人物则是美国的肯尼斯·伯克,他认为修辞是“同一”,这是对亚里士多德修辞学的继承与发展。

本文拟从伯克的同一理论出发,分析英国最畅销小说作家JK罗琳2008年在哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲,旨在揭示其背后的修辞动机。

二、伯克的同一理论

伯克认为修辞是“人使用词语形成态度或导致他人采取行动”,其本质是“同一”。受众与修辞者能否“同一”是修辞成功的关键。他说:“只有当我们能够讲另一个人的话,在言辞、姿势、语调、语序、形象、态度和思想等方面做到和他一致,我们才说得动他”。伯克提出了三种同一手段:同情同一、对立同一和不准确同一。同情同一是修辞者强调与受众享有共同的情感而达到同一的一种手段。比如政客为了赢得选票,亲吻投票人的小孩。对立同一是一种“通过分裂而达成凝聚的最迫切的形式”,修辞者与受众由于共同反对某种东西而组成联合。抗日期间国共两党合作共同对抗日本侵略就是个对立同一的例子。不准确同一是一种无意识的认同,这种同一把我们带到了修辞情景的根源。比如我们在电视上看见做洗发水广告的美女的头发很柔顺,似乎自己也拥有这样一头柔顺的头发,自然就会产生购买这款洗发水的意愿。

三、从伯克同一理论分析JK罗琳2008年哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲

JK罗琳凭借《哈利·波特》系列小说一举成名,成为英国有史以来最畅销作家。但鲜为人知的是,她曾经历过一段艰辛岁月——30岁时,她差点流落街头。在2008年的哈佛大学毕业典礼的演讲中,JK罗琳分享了这些经历,告诉毕业生们失败也有好处。同时,她还强调了保持想象力的重要性。演讲意境深邃,丝丝入扣。伯克的同一理论也可以很好地阐释这次演讲。

1、同情同一的运用

首先,JK罗琳在开篇表达了对哈佛大学邀请的感谢。她的致谢与台下的听众达成情感同一,听众更容易接受她下面的演说。

接着,罗琳讲述了成名前的困惑与失败,得出人生感悟:失败会带来好处,它使你看清人生的本质是什么;设身处地为他人着想,体察他人的苦乐。哈佛毕业生们,作为人中骄子,其学业辉煌,但同样要面对未知的将来,此时,他们很需要像罗琳一样的成功人士的指引和鼓励。这些话体现了她对哈佛毕业生价值观的认同,情感上的同一。

2、对立同一的运用

对立同一的对立面可以是人,可以是物,也可以是人的生存环境。对于自己那段最悲惨的日子,罗琳也很坦然的讲了出来:“An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded,and I was jobless,a lone parent,and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain,without being homeless.”当听众听到这些悲惨的事情的时候,肯定也为罗琳曾经历的日子感到悲痛。但演讲者的目的不是悲天悯人,而是如何调整心态,这对于即将毕业的大学生们来说更为重要。罗琳试图通过这些逆境唤起毕业生们对对立面的思考,于是对立同一建立,听众改变态度,接受罗琳的观点。

失败作为演讲者和听众共同的对立面,罗琳也提出了经历失败所带来的好处:“gave me an inner security”、“taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way”、“I discovered that I had a strong will,and more disciplined than I had suspected;I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.”为了应对失败,听众与演讲者暂时联合起来,认识到失败也会带来优势,这也是对立同一的有效运用。

3、不准确同一的运用

JK罗琳的演讲中也不乏不准确同一的例子。她在演讲中大量使用第一人称“I”,听众情不自禁地进入演讲者的角色,发生在演讲者身上的故事就像发生在自己身上一样。例如在讲到一个非洲酷刑的受害者,罗琳使用第一人称“I”做了叙述。而作为受众的哈佛毕业生们仿佛自己就是那个罗琳,面对那个还没有我大的年轻男子,因在故乡的经历而精神错乱。我护送他到地铁站,他小心翼翼地握着我的手,祝我未来生活幸福。似乎自己就在体验这次经历,听众无意识地与罗琳达成了共识,接受了演讲者的观点。

另外一个不准确同一的运用就是第一人称复数“we”,罗琳的演讲中也有这样的例子:“We do not need magic to change the world,we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already:we have the power to imagine better.”听众会不自觉地认为“we”也包括自己,不准确同一达成。

四、结语

本文利用伯克的同一理论对JK罗琳2008年在哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲进行了分析,揭示演讲者是如何通过同情同一、对立同一和不准确同一这三种方式达到与听众取得同一,并实现自己的修辞动机。

参考文献

[1]Burke,K.A Rhetoric of Motives[M].New York:Prentice-Hall,1950

[2]张晶.修辞的核心:不是说服而是认同[J].修辞学习,2009

JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲稿(英文) 篇3

上的演讲

对于我这样一个已经42岁的人来说，回头看自己21岁大学毕业时的情景，并不是一件舒服的事情。那时，我一直在自己内心的追求与亲人对我的要求之间，进行抗争。

我曾确信自己唯一想做的事情是写小说，但我的父母都来自贫穷的家庭，他们希望我去读一个能学到专业技能的学位，而我想去攻读英国文学。最后，达成了一个双方都不甚满意的妥协：我改学外语。可是等父母一离开，我立刻报名学习古典文学。

我忘了自己是怎么把学古典文学的事情告诉父母的了，他们也可能是在我毕业那天才第一次发现。在这个星球上的所有科目中，他们很难再发现一门比希腊文学更没用的课程了。

我想说明，我并没有因为父母的这些观点而抱怨他们。他们希望我能摆脱贫穷，因为贫穷会引起恐惧、压力，有时候甚至是沮丧。这意味着心胸狭窄、卑微低下和很多艰难困苦。通过自己的努力摆脱贫穷，确实是件很值得自豪的事，只有傻瓜才对贫穷本身夸夸其谈。

可以说，仅仅在我毕业７年后，我经历了一次巨大的失败。我突然间结束了一段短暂的婚姻，失去了工作。作为单身妈妈，而且在这个现代化的英国，除了不是无家可归，你可以说我要多穷就有多穷。父母对我的担心以及我对自己的担心，都成了现实，从任何一个通常的标准来看，这都是我的最大失败。

我不是站在这里和你们说“失败”很好玩。那么我为什么还要谈论失败的收益呢？那是因为失败后我找到了自我，我开始把所有的精力都放在我关心的工作上。如果我在其他方面成功过，我可能就不会下决心在自己喜欢的领域获得成功。我变得从容，因为我已经历过最大的恐惧。而且我还活着，我有一个值得自豪的女儿，一个陈旧的打字机和很不错的写作灵感。我在失败堆积而成的硬石般的基础上，开始重筑我的人生（此后，j.k.罗琳写就了风靡全球的《哈利•波特》系列——编者注）。

失败给了我内心的安宁，这种安宁是不会从一帆风顺的经历中得到的。失败让我认识自己，这些无法从其他地方学到。我发现自己有坚强的意志，而且，自我控制能力比自己想象的还要强，我也发现自己拥有比红宝石更珍贵的朋友。

除非遭受磨难，你不会真正认识自己，也无法知道你和朋友之间的关系有多铁。这些才是失败馈赠给你的真正的礼物。